WALERIAN BOROWCZYK by JEREMY MARK ROBINSONWalerian Borowczyk (known as 'Boro') is one of cinema's one-offs. Quite simply, there is no filmmaker quite like Borowczyk. Borowczyk's films have an astonishing, magical quality. They reach a place very rare in contemporary cinema, and are quite unlike the films of any other auteur. Borowczyk's films create their own space, with imagery, sounds and music of a really exceptional power.
Jeremy Robinson discusses each Borowczyk film in detail, sometimes going through scenes shot by shot.
Fully illustrated, with stills from Borowczyk's movies, and from the history of erotica, a bibliography, filmography and notes. 252pp.
The text has been updated for this new (2nd) edition. www.crmoon.comEXTRACT FROM THE INTRODUCTION
Goto: Island of Love was the first Walerian Borowczyk film that made a big impression on audiences and critics, winning a number of prizes. I first saw Goto: Island of Love in 1982, at Bournemouth Film School, when we watched 16mm prints as part of our film history programme. You could see there was an astonishing vision at work here. I remember above all the creation of a visceral, idiosyncratic and original world.
If I had to single out some films, I'd cite Blanche, Immoral Tales, Behind Convent Walls, The Beast and Goto: Island of Love, for their painterly sense, the use of props and costumes, and the incredible attention to detail. Very stylish, mysterious, poetic. Not forgetting the acute awareness of the history of religion and literature. Borowczyk produced some of the most memorable images in European cinema, the equal of Ingmar Bergman, Sergei Paradjanov or Andrei Tarkovsky.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I spent a long time researching and compiling this book. It contains a huge amount of information on the amazing filmmaker Walerian Borowczyk, much of which is very, very hard to find. You have to really dig around to discover valuable information on Boro. The book relates Borowczyk to many other filmmakers and movies, from the European art movie tradition, but also the horror genre, and animation; it analyzes each of Borowcyk's movie in depth (from the sublime - Goto and Immoral Tales - to the downright terrible - Emmanuelle 5); it assesses the critical reception of Borowczyk, and the current perception of Borowcyk as a director; it contains many illustrations (some of which are rare); it considers Borowczyk's love of erotica (with illustrations); and it contains a useful bibliography and list of sources.
Lastly, my book on Walerian Borowczyk is clearly written in an entertaining style, which I hope will encourage the reader to seek out some of Borowczyk's strange, lyrical, hallucinatory and erotic movies. And if you've already seen them, I hope my book will offer some fresh insights into Borowcyk.