Jerzy Kosiński: Last News

Václav Marhoul’s “The Painted Bird” is an impenetrable slog, a parade of agony that begins with a treasured pet being set on fire by village bullies, continues through numerous rape scenes, and fetishizes genocide and slaughter. An adaptation of the novel by Jerzy Kosiński (the subject of its own fair share of controversy, given its initial publication as an autobiographical text and later reveal as a possibly plagiarized work of fiction), “The Painted Bird” is the kind of exploitative cinema that thinks drowning its viewers in increasingly drastic scenes of torture and brutality is inherently righteous.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans EditorAdapted from Jerzy Kosiński’s novel, “The Painted Bird” comes to life through Vàclav Marhoul’s lens. Shot in black and white, the film tells the story of The Boy as he wanders around Eastern European villages during World War II struggling for survival.As he suffers through the devastating brutality and horrors of war, it’s Vladimir Smutney’s stunning cinematography and images that sear into our minds — being buried up to his neck, being kicked and punched by bullies as he watches his pet die and watching eyes being gouged out — and those are just some of the wartime horrors he witnesses.Smutney breaks down what it was like to frame his first film in black and white.

If you think the black-and-white Czech film “The Painted Bird” will fulfill your monthly boring-art quota, just wait until the scene in which a nympho gets it on with a goat!Oh, the movie is brilliant without a doubt, but it’s dotted with such shocking moments, and there isn’t a whiff of pretentiousness to be found. Only guts and incredible visuals.Based on the World War II novel by Jerzy Kosiński, director Václav Marhoul’s haunting film is an obstacle course of appalling horrors, and a young boy’s journey to the center of despair.However, the drama is way better than many movies that seek to unsparingly depict the ugliness of war, only to wind up sending its audience sprinting to the ugliness of the bathroom.