That Most Important Thing: Love

Following the screening on April 9, a discussion will be held at the Luna cinema.

That Most Important Thing: Love – it seems hard to find a more declarative romantic title. In Andrzej Żuławski’s film love is something that allows people to keep their humanity by sanctifying their daily vile existence. The plot of this peculiar melodrama plays out among fallen artists, pornographers and abnegates, people who have not yet fallen to the very bottom, but operate in its very close vicinity. The main character is a photographer who falls in love with a b-movie actress and decides to help advance her career. His mission is essentially quixotic, an irrational and beautiful act. The potentially sentimental story is dressed in a predatory and ecstatic form, which is a distinguishing feature of Żuławski’s cinema. The shots explode with red hues, the camera is animated and ubiquitous, and the actors repeatedly charge, uninhibited by fear or shame.

Piotr Mirski

Catalog MFF Nowe Horyzonty 19. edition

Andrzej Żuławski was born in 1940 and passed away in 2016. He was one of the most original and controversial artists in the history of Polish cinema. Żuławski studied Directing at IDHEC in Paris and gained professional experience as assistant to Andrzej Wajda. He debuted with The Third Part of the Night followed by a turbulent career in which he struggled with communist censorship, alternating between moving away and returning to Poland. Ultimately, most of his films were produced abroad and the best-known works include That Most Important Thing: Love, Possession and On the Silver Globe.

Catalog MFF Nowe Horyzonty 19. edition