Polish movies with English subtitles

I have been looking for ever to get a source for polish movies with english subtitles.
I would appreciate any info
thanks
ranjit

Welcome to the forum, but be sure to check other threads, lest you find your post merged with one of the other threads already in existence.

Linky

Hi ranjit,a good one,though not in the stricktest sense a Polish movie(despite most of it being in Warsaw and the cast and crew being 99.9% Polish) is Three colours White,available in HMV etc with subtitles(and the added bonus of Julie Delphy ;) )

Also Criterion issues a box set of three films by Wadja- "Generation," "Kanal," and "Ashes and Diamonds." A&D in my opinion is the greatest Polish film of all time and Kanal is just a few steps behind, although I wish they offered Man of Iron instead of Generation but what can you do. All three have English subtitles as well as great bonus features. They're expensive (around 50 to 70 USD) and you can't buy them separately (at least not through Criterion which does the best job of DVD transfer in the business) but I think they're worth it. If you're into expensive Polish films, the ten part "Decologue" is also breathtaking and it can be ordered through amazon with subtitles, but it will set you back upwards of 100 bucks.

Fantastic recomendations there Mr President :)

I'm a big fan of the 3 Colors Trilogy myself so hats off to you, isthatu, or in your case, Polish Airborne plk caps off to you.

I havent actually seen the other 2 yet,over here Polish films can be stoopidly expensive..Europa Europa cost me £25 on DVD (about $900 ;) )
But Wajdas Trilogy pops up now and again on one of our Digital Free channels,Film4. Decalouge was shown in full on the BBC a year or so ago too( the hanging scene reaffirmed my abomination of the death penalty,gruesome.)
I was also surprised to find on my last trip to Poland that Kanal wasnt available on DVD so for a couple of years I had to make do with picking out some of the dialouge on a non subtitled video cassete and make the rest of the story up from my knowladge of the uprising :)

Hey ranjit,

I order my movies from polishmoviesonline.com and they are quick. The site is in English and they are based in Florida, in the U.S. You pay the same as any other DVD, like 15 dollars or so. Also, they clearly say if it is English sublitited, but almost all I looked at say they were.

Hope this helps you or anyone else.

If he's in Europe the US DVDs may be the wrong region...

ranjit, I really don't know your taste, so I just tell you what you can/could buy in Poland (I'm guessing you're living here like your profile says).
From my collection, films that have Eng subs listed on their cover (I haven't checked each of them, but let's hope the are no mistakes):

- Sami Swoi, S.Chęciński, 1967 / (my vote 9.5 out of 10)/ hilarious comedy, set in the post war Poland, portraying conflicts of the "old" (peasant traditions) with the "new" (communist state), great performances by leading actors, a cult movie in Poland (also PL subtitles).

- Wszystko co najważniejsze, R. Gliński, 1992 / 7 out of 10 / drama, based on a biographical book, Polish family (husband communist, - mother of Jewish origin + son), separated and deported by Russians (WWII) to Kazachstan (mother and son), their struggles with everyday life, humiliations by both Russians guards and Polish co-prisoners (because they're atheist/communist, and also Jewish).

- Dekalog, K. Kieślowski, indeed 100 bucks (also here), but it's 10 episodes (each one is ~55 minutes and it's not a TV series, though made for TV) it's basically 10 (maybe 8, depending on taste) good or very good movies for the price of 10 bucks each. (the series is rather famous, so I won't go into details, the Polish release DVD cover mentions also PL and French subtitles).

- Pornografia, J.J. Kolski, 2003, based on a book by famous (yet not much translated into English) Polish writer, Witold Gombrowicz, can't say if it's good or not, because I don't fancy Kolski so I just bought the DVD a while ago (because of Gombrowicz), but haven't seen the movie yet :(

- Pół serio, 2000, Ciało, 2003, both by T. Konecki (the second one co-directed by his scriptwriter A. Saramonowicz), Pół serio gets 6 out of 10 from me, Ciało 6.5. Pół serio is para-biographical - about a 2 young film makers that want to make their first movie, so they show their script to a producer who, depending on his mood, is forcing them to re-write the script to make it a bloody action movie, or a Star Wars wannabe, or Bergmanesque, or modern Romeo and Juliett (with product placement going way overboard), it's actually a series of loose episodes (because all those attempts at different cinematographic styles are shown in a form of 5-10 minutes pieces), not very coherent, on purpose. Ciało is close to absurd, misadventures of a dead body transported by nuns from abroad, for the funeral in Poland, the deceased was their fellow nun who died in Hungary or Czech Rep., but because of robbery the body ends up in a wrong place and subsequently changes hands several times, because there's another body in a movie etc.

- Pręgi, M. Piekorz, 2004, my vote 8 or 6 (depending on the mood) out of 10. A drama, divided into 2 parts, first the main character is a child (I like this part of the movie more), in the second part he's a 25 y.o. or so man. It's about a difficult (and phisically painful) relations with his father and later him not being able to liberate himself from the childhood trauma, but also from the father's shadow (going into his footsteps too much).

- Nóż w wodzie, R. Polański, 1962, my vote 10/10. Polański's only movie made in Poland (except of course his shorts), a psychodrama for 3 (a married couple and a stranger) on a boat. The tensions between the the older, rich husband, his younger wife and the young hitchhiker. The problem is that the Polish release (by TVP / Best Film) has a VHS tape quality of the picture, so maybe check if there hasn't been a new release with restored picture. Criterion release probably lacks some crucial dialogues in the subtitles, if I'm not mistaken.

Wojna światów - następne stulecie, 1981
O-bi, O-ba - Koniec cywilizacji, 1984
Ga, Ga - Chwała bohaterom, 1985
all by P. Szulkin, a sci-fi trilogy, of course very low budget (it was made right before/after the martial law in Poland), not great, but not bad either, has its fans even abroad, the main focus is not on the technique but rather on philosophical, psychical and social aspects of an alien invasion or post nuclear life in a closed, decimated society.

- Edi P. Trzaskalski, 2002, drama, can't really say I liked it, but it's not bad for a modern Polish cinema (which suffered a huge collapse in the 90's),

- A. Wajda was already mentioned, so I just write what foreign subtitles are available on the Polish releases of his movies I got on DVD:
- Kanał, 1957 - eng / fra / ger / rus
- Popiół i diament, 1958 - eng / fra / ger / rus
- Wesele, 1972 - eng / fra / ger / rus / pol
- Ziemia obiecana, 1975 - eng / fra / ger / rus / spa / ita
- Panny z Wilka, 1979 - eng / fra / ger / rus / spa / ita

- Iluminacja, 1972 and Barwy ochronne, 1976, both by K. Zanussi, a specific director, his films are mostly all talk, but he lacks the wit of Woody Allen for example, and the dynamics of the character relations isn't satisfaying for me, still he covers some important topics (the choices we make in our lives), in the 70's he was one of the most prominent figures in the Polish "moral dilemmas cinema" (with K.Kieślowski, A.Wajda, A.Holland).
Iluminacja has the following subs - eng / esp / fra / ger / pol
Barwy ochronne - eng / esp / fra / ger


Just remember that the mentioned films are the ones I own so it doesn't exclude English subtitles in other movies, but here's a list of my DVDs without subtitles, to save you some time searching (I'm referring to recent years releases of course, mostly 2003-2007, currently you can buy Dvix movies on merlin.pl or other online shops, cheap, 10 bucks for a DVD with usually 3-4 films, it's said the quality is good, because it's some improved dvix format, but I don't have any of them, so I don't know if it's is really DVD quality and if they have subtitles):
Rozmowy kontrolowane
Miś (Polish cult classic, comedy)
(both by S. Bareja)
Przesłuchanie, R. Bugajski (great drama, 10/10 from me)
Nie ma mocnych, S.Chęciński (his sequel to Sami swoi, not so succesful, but not bad, the third part, Kochaj albo rzuć sucked)
Wodzirej, F. Falk
Pociąg
Matka Joanna od Aniołów
Faraon
Austeria
(all 4 by J. Kawalerowicz)
Życie wewnętrzne, M. Koterski
Dzień świra, M. Koterski
Dług, K. Krauze (I only have the VCD, so not sure about the DVD)
Mój Nikifor, K. Krauze
Pułkownik Kwiatkowski, K. Kutz
Kiler edit: I forgot I only have a cheap 4 złoty version, sold witha newspaper, so maybe the regular release does have subtitles
Seksmisja (another Polish cult classic, comedy, as good as Sami swoi or Miś)
(both, Kiler and Seksmisja, by J. Machulski)
Eroica. Symfonia bohaterska w dwóch częściach
Zeoowate szczęście
(both by A. Munk)
Rejs, M. Piwoski, also a cult comedy, but rather hermetic, too difficult for a foreigner, unless he knows something about Polish reality (in the seventies), but I would recommend S. Bareja's comedies first (those form the 70's and also TV series Alternatywy 4, as a kind of introduction to the absurds of the everyday life in the communist times. Unfortunatelly, I'm not sure if any Bareja's movies have subtitles.
Tato, M. Ślesicki
Matka Królów, J. Zaorski

erm,The Pianist anyone...;) filmed on location in Poland(but full of Brits)

I've always considered Polański a Polish director, but the original poster asked about "Polish movies"
it's the producers who aren't Polish (plus the language) that makes it a "foreign" movie for me :)

as much as Jerzy Skolimowski's "30 Door Key" (based on Gombrowicz's book Ferdydurke), but made in English (using the English translation of the book)

wow, thatnks for all the great info I wasnt expecting such quick and thorough replies.

ranjit