Cinematheque: Lech Majewski

The films of Lech Majewski are characterized by such striking visual compositions and so keen a grasp of artistic traditions in almost every medium that it’s no surprise to learn the filmmaker is also a composer, poet, painter, novelist, and stage director of opera and theater productions. Until May 2006, when the Museum of Modern Art organized an extensive retrospective of his film and video work, Majewski (who was trained in Poland but works internationally) was probably best known in the U.S. for producing and writing the story of Julian Schnabel’s Basquiat. This selection provides a welcome introduction to a fully developed cinematic sensibility.