Boro, L'Île d'Amour: The Films of Walerian Borowczyk

by Kamila Kuc (Editor), Kuba Mikurda (Editor), Michal Oleszczyk (Editor)

Overview

There has been a recent revival of interest in the work of Polish film director Walerian Borowczyk, a label—defying auteur and “escape artist” if there ever was one. This collection serves as an introduction and a guide to Borowczyk’s complex and ambiguous body of work, including panoramic views of the director’s output, focused studies of particular movies, and more personal, impressionistic pieces. Taken together, these contributions comprise a wide—ranging survey that is markedly experimental in character, allowing scholars to gain insight into previously unnoticed aspects of Borowczyk’s oeuvre.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781789208184
Publisher:	Berghahn Books
Publication date:	01/14/2020
Pages:	210
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Kamila Kuc is a multimedia artist, curator and writer. Her films have screened in venues and at film festivals nationally and internationally: Whitechapel Gallery, British Film Institute, Institute of Contemporary Arts London, Anthology Film Archives New York, Ann Arbor Film Festival. She is the author and editor of numerous books and articles on experimental media, including Visions of Avant—Garde Film (Indiana UniversityPress) and the co—founder, with Sam Jury, of Disasters of Peace — a creative initiative that encompasses research, writing, making and curating.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction: A Private Universe
Kamila Kuc, Kuba Mikurda, Michał Oleszczyk

Chapter 1. Boro: Escape Artist
Kuba Mikurda

Chapter 2. Borowczyk’s Kunstkamera
Marcin Giżycki

Chapter 3. Animated Bodies: A Conversation Between Kuba Mikurda and Jakub Woynarowski

Chapter 4. Cruel Imagination: Borowczyk’s Post—Traumatic Surrealism
Iwona Kurz

Chapter 5. The Postcard Never Sent: Guy de Maupassant and Rosalie Prudent’s Cinematic Confession
Kamila Kuc

Chapter 6. Boro: The Guide for the Perplexed
Fernando F. Croce

Chapter 7. Borowczyk’s Serial Labyrinth: From Goto, Isle of Love (1968) to Behind Convent Walls (1977)
James Snazell

Chapter 8. Immoral Toys: On Borowczyk’s A Private Collection (1974)
Edwin Carels

Chapter 9. The Beast with Two Backs: On Borowczyk’s The Beast (1975)
Philip Warnell

Chapter 10. Laughter in the Doll House: On Victorian Surrealism in Walerian Borowczyk’s Films
Kamila Wielebska

Chapter 11. Enjoying Excess: A Bataillean Interpretation of Story of Sin (1975) by Walerian Borowczyk and Stefan Żeromski
Marta Rabikowska

Chapter 12. The Beach, the Bubble and the Boudoir: The Meeting—Spaces of Walerian Borowczyk and André Pieyre de Mandiargues
Jonathan Owen

Chapter 13. Sex & the Sacred: The Obstacles to Desire Becoming its Objects
Jakub Majmurek

Chapter 14. Reflecting on The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Miss Osbourne (1981)
Budd Wilkins

Chapter 15. The Perils of Emmanuelle: A Conversation between Simon Abrams, Odie Henderson, and Michał Oleszczyk

Chapter 16. Revisiting Love Rites (1988)
Kevin Lee

Contributors Biographies
Filmography

Editorial Reviews

“The contributors to this collection use new archival sources to provide a comprehensive map of Boro’s career and to reestablish his place in the history of Polish and European avant-garde and art cinema.  All the essays are well informed and clearly written; collectively, they provide valuable insights into Boro's often puzzling, sometimes scandalous motivations and productions.” • Choice

“Boro, L'Île d'Amour will prove an essential companion for both those readers who wish to dive deeper into specific topics, and those looking to cherry-pick individual films …one of the qualities that Borowczyk valued most in film was its ability to capture perpetual motion. [This volume] does just that: it honors the artist in flux, finding fresh points of connection, without trying to pin him down.” • Cineaste

“…a thought-provoking collection of different essays commenting on the life and films of a renowned Polish film director, Walerian Borowczyk… One of the strengths of this book is that the authors of the essays link Borowczyk’s artistic output with the social and artistic environment of Poland in which he grew up, and of France, where he spent most of his adult life.” • Slavic Review

From the Publisher