Lech Majewski is a filmmaker, painter, poet, novelist, and theater director. Majewski is based in Katowice, Poland, but works internationally. Much of his filmmaking work has been in English; some has been without dialogue.
In 2006, Majewski was the youngest filmmaker ever honored with a complete retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art. Majewski is currently on a major tour of New Zealand, organized by Dr. Ryan Michael Reynolds, the University of Canterbury, Christchurch. He is also in post-production on
The Mill and the Cross, an adaptation of the 1564 narrative painting
Way to Calvary by Pieter Bruegel. Charlotte Rampling, Rutger Hauer, and Michael York star.
Majewski's work
Glass Lips (aka
Blood of a Poet), created for the MoMA retrospective, also was featured at the Venice Biennale as a multi-site installation. As a feature film,
Glass Lips opened at the Pioneer Theater in New York City. Upon that opening, the
New York Times called the film "Haunting . . . as beautiful as it is disturbing . . . hypnotic." The
New York Post declared it "one of the most unusual, beautiful films of the year."
In 2007, Wendy Lidell of International Film Circuit circulated a major tour of Majewski's work across North America, which played the UCLA Film Archive, the Film Center at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Cleveland Institute of Arts, the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., and many other venues. Upon the National Gallery screenings, Philip Kennicott of the
Washington Post declared:
"Majewski, born in 1953, is a major discovery, a brilliant filmmaker whose haunting aesthetic is formed of much deeper stuff, processed through a lively mind and idiosyncratic imagination, chastened and tempered by history, and captured on screen with the rigor and perfectionism of an artist who might also carve castles out of toothpicks."
In Summer 2008, Majewski directed an "Opera 'Double Bill'" at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The two operas, both by Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937), are
Harnasie and
King Roger (The Shepherd).
Four movies Lech Majewski wrote and directed -
The Gospel According to Harry, The Roe's Room, The Garden of Earthly Delights, and
Glass Lips - were released on DVD in summer 2008, by Kino International in association with International Film Circuit and Cinema Purgatorio.
