Word: polish
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...summer of 1942, a Polish baker's assistant named Stefan Kossinsky penned a letter to his lover Willi, an officer in the Nazi army. "I'm just true to you and will remain so for my whole life," he wrote. "Please write to me as quickly as possible so I can be reassured...
...genetic and computer/technological paranoia, which proves more effective than a flashier sci-fi approach would have been. Niccol also has a way with suspended images, and his most inspired moments, in fact, are purely visual: a pool of blood, spreading from an unseen source, blots the frigidly hygienic, monochromatic polish of Gattaca; a conventionally romantic evening at a piano recital turns suddenly surreal with the appearance of an immaculate six-fingered glove, followed by a swift, eerie close-up of a black-and-white poster of the pianist's hands. Not long afterwards there's a moment of dizzying tension...
...hard to say what went wrong. Possibly the director, Agnieszka Holland, was simply overwhelmed by these very potent performers, unable to discipline their work. Possibly the fact that English is her second language (she is Polish and the creator of the very powerful Europa Europa) rendered her impervious to, or nervous about, Jamesian nuance...
Most famous for Europa, Europa, an almost-unclassifiable German historical drama-cum-comic-childhood-memoir, Holland has also directed films ranging from Olivier, Olivier, a French psychological thriller, to Fever, a pro-revolutionary Polish drama, and even found time for the 1994 English-language children's movie The Secret Garden...
...thing that Holland feels cannot change if she is to generate good product is her insistence on maintaining agency over the way her film develops. She seeks out Polish-speaking cinematographers (some of the best in the business anyway) because she can converse most fluently not only about shots but about "the general meaning of the story, the acting and everything...