The festival machine is now in full motion!

Today’s shade of red: GIALLO!!!

Giallo is one of the great Italian phenomena of the late 1960s and 1970s – an explosive fusion of thriller, horror and eroticism, immersed in pop-art aesthetics and the political turbulence of the era. Filmmakers such as Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci, working with the creative freedom of low-budget craftsmen, created a genre that combined brutality with unrestrained imagination. It is a cinema of visual extravagance, heightened style and scores by masters such as Ennio Morricone.

This Wednesday, as part of the GIALLO!!! section, we invite you to:

Deep Red, 5:30 pm, Luna cinema – Dario Argento’s undisputed classic, widely regarded as one of the most important films in the history of the genre.

The Perfume of the Lady in Black, 10:15 pm, Muranów cinema – a dreamlike, exquisitely stylish thriller in which reality merges with nightmare.

The big three: concerts you won’t want to miss

Music at Timeless Film Festival Warsaw is far more than a backdrop. We invite you to three exceptional events:

Concert by Musicians of the Berlin Electronic and Experimental Scene Gruppo di Improvvisazione Giallo Project (24 April, 8:30 pm, Mazovian Institute of Culture) – three outstanding artists from the experimental scene pay tribute to the tradition of Italian thrillers. Using prepared piano and reel-to-reel tape recorder, they will bring the dark imagination of giallo to life.

Screening of the contemporary silent film “Silent Trilogy” with live music and sound effects (26 April, 8:00 pm, Luna cinema) – cinematic performance by Juho Kuosmanen accompanied live by Ykspihlajan Kino-orkesteri, a Finnish ensemble from the Ykspihlaja district of Kokkola. You will see with your own eyes how sound effects are created by hand to animate silent images.

Closing concert: “The Saragossa Manuscript” with live music at the Grand Theatre – Polish National Opera (27 April, 7:00 pm, Grand Theatre – Polish National Opera) – the festival finale in grand style. Wojciech Jerzy Has’s masterpiece, with music by Krzysztof Penderecki, will be performed live by the Grand Theatre – Polish National Opera Orchestra (chamber ensemble), conducted by Katarzyna Tomala-Jedynak, together with the ensemble Małe Instrumenty. Guitar parts will be performed by Michał Honisz and Szymon Witczyński, with orchestral and guitar arrangements by Tomasz Chmiel.

Hidden gems of the program: Wednesday discoveries

Today we especially recommend films that will take you on a journey across genres and to the far edges of the cinematic map:

Goodbye, Dragon Inn, 1:00 pm, Iluzjon cinema – Tsai Ming-liang’s hypnotic masterpiece, a tender love letter to the disappearing era of cinema, capturing the final screening in a monumental old movie palace in Taipei.

In a Lonely Place, 2:00 pm, Luna cinema – Nicholas Ray’s dark noir, one of the sharpest studies of toxic masculinity, with Humphrey Bogart brilliantly dismantling his own hard man myth.

Wake in Fright, 2:30 pm, Muranów cinema – Ted Kotcheff’s extreme vision, still deeply controversial today, raising questions about the limits of directorial ethics while exposing uncomfortable truths about human nature.

Gallipoli, 2:30 pm, Luna cinema – Peter Weir’s devastating anti-war statement, telling the tragic story of two young runners from rural Australia who find themselves in the midst of one of the bloodiest battles of the First World War.

Yol, 3:15 pm, Iluzjon cinema – Yılmaz Güney’s Palme d’Or-winning masterpiece, a moving portrait of five prisoners on leave confronting both an oppressive system and the social barriers of contemporary Turkey.

Merry-Go-Round, 6:30 pm, Luna cinema – Zoltán Fábri’s visually ravishing masterpiece, a moving story of forbidden love set against the turbulent transformation of the Hungarian countryside in the 1950s.

The Castle of Purity, 8:30 pm, Luna cinema – a dark and disturbing portrait of domestic tyranny, directed by Arturo Ripstein under the artistic shadow of Luis Buñuel.

Festival good to know

Last Minute queues: remember that the queue opens 30 minutes before each screening – it may still get you in even if tickets are sold out.

Merch: festival bags, T-shirts and books are waiting for you at the box offices of all festival cinemas. Wear Timeless in style.

Discount venues: with a festival pass, you can enjoy reduced prices on food and drinks at selected partner venues across Warsaw.

Festival clubs: Wednesday is practically a little Friday, isn’t it? That is why we’ll be ending the day together at Bar Studio and Pardon, To Tu – where we especially invite you to join the Timeless PubQuiz, starting at 11:30 pm. See you there.

Organizer:
Timeless Film Foundation

Co-organizers:
Documentary and Feature Film Studios, Mazovian Institute of Culture

Co-financed by:
The Capital City of Warsaw, the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, the Polish Film Institute

Main Partners:
ORLEN, National Film Archive – Audiovisual Institute, Gutek Film, New Horizons Association

Partners:
BMW, Kino Muranów, Kino Iluzjon, Kino Luna, Grand Theatre – Polish National Opera, National Centre for Culture, Young Horizons, Embassy of Australia in Poland, The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, Czech Centre Warsaw, Lithuanian Film Centre, Lithuanian Culture Institute, Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania in Poland, Cinemateca Portuguesa – Museu do Cinema, Slovak Institute in Warsaw, Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Varsavia, Il Cinema Ritrovato Festival, Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna, Goethe-Institut in Warsaw, Kino Dostępne, 35mm, Mañana, Kinooceany, Bar Studio, Pardon, To Tu, Natural Rascal, Mediaboard, Wydawnictwo w Podwórku

Media Partners:
Trójka Polskie Radio, TVP Kultura, K MAG, Gazeta Wyborcza, Wysokie Obcasy, Interia, Filmweb, Vogue, Zwierciadło, MINT Magazine, PISMO, Rzeczpospolita, SpoilerMaster

Industry Media Partners:
Pełna Sala, Immersja, JazzPress, Totalny Brak Kultury, Accademia Kina Włoskiego, Mocne Punkty, Anonimowy Grzybiarz, Klatki na oczach