If youâre a fan of vodka made from rectified ingredients (where distillers use industrially-made neutral spirits like ethanol as their base ingredient), then stop reading. If you also subscribe to the belief that all vodka is odorless, tasteless, and devoid of character, then itâs time for a better drink.Â
Chopin Vodka is distilled from natural ingredients grown locally in Podlasie, Poland northeast of Warsaw.  Most people have never heard of Podlasie. Which is why Podlasie is an unspoiled farm region, known for wheat, rye, and potatoes â the single ingredients which make up Chopin.  Tad Dorda, a craft distiller and spirits entrepreneur, established his family distillery in 2003, taking over a distillery that had been in operation since 1896.Â
Every part of the Chopin process is done by hand â from picking, cooking and mashing, to fermentation, distilling and bottling.  Water is also harvested locally from a 300-foot Artesian well on the Chopin property.  The result: Chopin Rye, Wheat and Potato Vodkas taste like⊠rye, wheat and potato.  If youâd like to taste for yourself we can arrange for samples of Chopin Wheat, Rye, and Potato vodkas today.  All are nationally priced at $29.99 per 750-ml bottle.Â
The Arts Club of Chicago opens its doors for its inaugural public event, Arts Club et al. on Thursday 29 May 2014 from 7:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m. Join us for a festive evening in The Arts Club Gallery where an eclectic mix of Chicago-based performance companies will perform short pop-up segments throughout the night. The line up includes Lucky Plush Productions, Ensemble Dal Niente, and The Hypocrites. Guests are welcome to file in and out of the event throughout the evening while enjoying the cabaret-like atmosphere. Tickets cost $20 and include 2 drink tickets and light hors dâoeuvres. Additional drinks will be available for purchase at a cash bar. There will be limited space available for this event. Please bring a photo ID to this event.Â
Three lucky Polish Social subscribers will win a pair of tickets to see IDA at the Music Box Theater. Please email [email protected] with subject IDA by May 23rd.
Winner of 4 Polish Film Awards and hailed by the New Republic as âa new Polish masterpiece,â IDA tells the story of a young nun in the â60s who suddenly discovers sheâs Jewish.  Opening May 23rd at the Music Box in Chicago, Renaissance Place in Highland Park, and Century in Evanston. Â
Check out the trailer here:Â https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_vrlpWB4Vo
Polish Museum of America honors Saint John Paul II
PMA honors Saint John Paul II
 The Polish Museum of America proudly announces the completion of the renovation of our permanent Saint John Paul II Display in The Polish Museum of Americaâs Sabina P. Logisz Great Hall. Due to the canonization of our beloved Pope, during this coming weekend, there will be an ongoing special viewing of the documentary, âBig Poland, Little Poland. Visit of John Paul II to Chicagoâ produced by the late, renowned TV host and journalist Robert Lewandowski, during Museum hours 11 AM â 4 PM. A temporary art exhibit âPope John Paul II Journeys â Embracing the World and The World of Vatican II: An Artistâs Reportâ, paintings and drawings created live and on site by renowned artist reporter Franklin McMahon. Curator for the Artist: Kathleen Van Ella. Temporary exhibit dates: April 25 â June 2, 2014.
PMA is open Fri-Tue 11-4, Wed 11-7, Thursday: Closed.
The pontiff from a faraway land was instantly adored: life of Pope John Paul II
The Pope who reigned for 26 years was the first Polish Pope and the first non-Italian Pope in 455 years. John Paul II, beloved by many, was known for breaking down barriers and campaigning for human rights. Along with Pope John XXIII, he will be elevated to sainthood at the Vatican on Sunday.
Three lucky Polish Social subscribers will win a pair of tickets to see Masterpieces of Polish Cinema. Please email [email protected] with subject Masterpieces of Polish Cinema by May 10th.
âA bracing and disturbing film.â
âJanet Maslin, The New York Times
June 1st at 5:00PM
June 2nd at 6:00PM
Mention Polish Social at the box office for $7 discounted tickets
Winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes, this uncompromising critique of idealism centers on Witold (Bradecki), a young electrician who yearns for the purity of mathematics and the remote Himalayan peaks where his father, a noted mountain-climber, died under mysterious circumstances. Instead, he finds himself coming unstuck in a world filled with petty corruption, confusion, disease, and injustice. Witold is a believable and original character, exasperating yet oddly noble in his obstinate refusal to play along. In Polish with English subtitles. DCP digital. (MR)
âThere was a time in the late 1970s when
Krzysztof Zanussi was the toughest-minded
filmmaker in the world, and CAMOUFLAGE is
among his finest achievements.â
âMike Walsh, Senses of Cinema
June 1st at 3:00PM
June 4th at 6:00PM
Mention Polish Social at the box office for $7 discounted tickets
With a background in physics, Krzysztof Zanussi brought a unique sensibility to Polish cinema--observant and analytical, humane yet utterly unsentimental in its probing of the charactersâ weaknesses and self-deceptions. CAMOUFLAGE has been called âthe archetypal Zanussi filmâ (Alan Pavelin, Talking Pictures). Like several other Zanussi films, it is set in the world of academia--in this case, a summer linguistics seminar that functions as a microcosm of the power games played in business, politics, or any other arena based on hierarchy and advancement. The two main characters are Jarek, an idealistic junior faculty member, and Jakub, a Machiavellian professor who attaches himself to the younger man--perhaps to teach him the ways of the world, perhaps to destroy him. In Polish with English subtitles. DCP digital. (MR)
âA classic slice of subversive Polish cinema.â
âJohn Bleasdale, CineVue
May 25th at 5:45 PM
May 28th at 8:00PM
Mention Polish Social at the box office for $7 discounted tickets
Subtitled âA Heroic Symphony in Two Parts,â EROICA is in fact an antiheroic capriccio by the director who was Polish cinemaâs foremost satirist until his death in 1961 at age 40. The filmâs two contrasting episodes are united by their irreverent attitude toward the fabled Warsaw Uprising of 1944. The first, wide-ranging and farcical, follows a cynical hedonist who opts out of military duty only to find himself taking foolish risks for the Polish resistance. The second episode, claustrophobic and bitterly ironic, is set in a prison camp where demoralized Polish POWs are sustained by a legend of heroism that shouldnât be examined too closely. In Polish with English subtitles. DCP digital. (MR)
âOne of the classics of Polish cinema...
If this film got the restoration it deserved in
its full length, in the original Polish and subtitled,
it would be placed with the greatest epics.â
âAllan Fish, Wonders in the Dark
May 25th at 3:00PM
May 29th at 6:00PM
Mention Polish Social at box office for $7 discounted tickets
Long available only in dubbed, truncated, censored, and color-faded versions, PHARAOH has been restored to its full glory. Filmed over a period of three years with location work in Uzbekistan and Egypt, featuring stunning sets and widescreen cinematography, this sophisticated epic doesnât do away with sex, spectacle, and swordplay,
but deepens them with layers of political and philosophical resonance. The story centers on Rameses, the headstrong heir to the current pharaoh, whose efforts to break the priesthoodâs stranglehold upon the kingdom are undermined by Phoenician bankers, a seductive priestess, palace intrigue, his own weaknesses, and, at a crucial moment, a solar eclipse. In Polish with English subtitles. DCP digital. (MR)
âA powerful political fable...Kieslowski
displays a deeply erotic, sensual
sensibility and a warm humanism that
inflects every facet of this complex film.â
âEd Howard, Only the Cinema
May 18th at 4:45PM
May 22nd at 6:00 PM
Mention Polish Social at box office for $7 discounted tickets
The arbitrary nature of fate, one of Kieslowskiâs favorite themes, drives the three separate stories of a manâs life that make up BLIND CHANCE. Medical student Witek (Boguslaw Linda, Polandâs top male star) is mysteriously energized by his fatherâs cryptic dying words. Each episode begins with Witek subsequently running for a train to Warsaw, which he either 1) catches; 2) misses because heâs stopped by a security guard; or 3) misses but meets a girl, as different possible destinies play out. In Polish with English subtitles. DCP digital. (BS)
âOne of the great films of all time.â
âAmy Taubin, Village Voice
âThe most powerful movie about the
death penalty ever made.â
âJonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
May 18th at 3:00PM
May 19th at 6:00PM
Mention Polish Social at the box office for $7 discounted tickets
A film admired by both Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese, A SHORT FILM ABOUT KILLING fastens a moral Gordian knot tight around three characters linked by murder: a shiftless teenager looking for trouble, a hard-boiled cabdriver, and a young lawyer just out of school. Originally an hour-long episode in Kieslowskiâs âDecalogueâ TV series, KILLING was expanded for theatrical release and significantly improved, with more in-depth development of the characters and the death-penalty theme. In Polish with English subtitles. DCP digital. (BS)
Mention Polish Social at box office to receive $7 discounted tickets
One of Polandâs most important novelists, Tadeusz Konwicki was also a director (THE LAST DAY OF SUMMER) and screenwriter (PHARAOH, MOTHER JOAN OF THE ANGELS) of note. JUMP is a tantalizing existential mystery that hops nimbly between allegory and black comedy. It begins with the hero (Cybulski) jumping off a moving train and making his way to a small town
where he lived during the war. Or did he? Riffing on his ASHES AND DIAMONDS persona, Cybulski delivers a dazzlingly protean performance. Is his character an imposter, a fugitive, a prophet, an avenger, a ghost, or just an ordinary schmuck? The title refers both to the heroâs initial leap and to a justly celebrated dance performed to composer Wojciech Kilarâs ultra-cool jazz theme. In Polish with English subtitles. DCP digital. (MR)
âPowerfully memorable.â
âTime Out Film Guide
May 11th at 3:00PM
May 14th at 6:00PMÂ
Mention Polish Social at Box Office for $7 discounted tickets
The film that put Polish cinema on the map, ASHES AND DIAMONDS spoke for an entire generation of Poles who were coming of age amid the moral confusion of postwar Soviet domination. On the final day of WWII, as Germany surrenders and a new regime prepares for peace, one man is pinned tragically between Polandâs wartime past and the future. Maciek (Cybulski, considered the James Dean of Poland), a cynical hipster and undercover Resistance fighter, is given one final assignment to assassinate a newly appointed Communist official. While awaiting the signal to proceed, he meets a pretty hotel bartender for a brief taste of a life he may never know. In Polish with English subtitles. DCP digital. (BS)
"Polandâs greatest cult film...a comic,
macabre extravaganza....part Alice in Wonderland,
part Arabian Nightsâ
âJ. Hoberman, Village Voice
MAY 4th at 3:00 PM
May 5th at 6:30 PM
POLISH SOCIAL DISCOUNT AT BOX OFFICE. Mention Polish Social for $7 discounted tickets.
Fans of this labyrinthine mind-boggler include Luis Buñuel, Francis Coppola, Martin Scorsese, and Jerry Garcia. Appropriately, Polandâs greatest cult film stars Polandâs greatest cult actor, Zbigniew Cybulski, here doffing his trademark leather jacket for the duds of a swashbuckling Napoleonic officer who takes refuge in a Spanish inn. There he becomes entranced by a magical
manuscript that draws him into a dizzying series of dreams-within-dreams and tales-within-within-tales, involving priests, sheiks, demons, Gypsies, beautiful Arabian princesses, and, when you least expect it, the Spanish Inquisition. Sumptuous widescreen cinematography, an eclectic music score, and bountiful cleavage add spice to this exceedingly strange brew. In Polish with English subtitles. DCP digital. Note: There will be a ten-minute intermission. (MR)
Masters of Polish Cinema at The Gene Siskel Film Center
Martin Scorsese Presents: Masters of Polish Cinema
From May 4 through July 3, the Gene Siskel Film Center hosts âMartin Scorsese Presents: Masterpieces of Polish Cinema,â a series of seventeen films from some of Polandâs most accomplished and lauded filmmakers, spanning the period from 1957- 1987. FOR POLISH SOCIAL SUBSCRIBERS the Gene Siskel Film Center is offering a discount in person at the box office for $7 a ticket when you mention POLISH SOCIAL.
In December 2011, filmmaker Martin Scorsese traveled to Poland to accept an honorary doctoral degree from The Polish National Film, Television, and Theatre School in ĆĂłdĆș. There, Mr. Scorsese met with digital restoration expert Jedrzej SabliĆski, and the two men came up with the idea of a North American tour of a series of restored Polish cinema classics. Chosen by Mr. Scorsese from an extensive catalogue of digitally restored films, each film has been digitally re-mastered and brilliantly restored on newly subtitled DCPs. The program was created and organized by Mr. Scorseseâs non-profit organization, The Film Foundation.
A STATEMENT FROM MARTIN SCORSESE
In 2011, I had the opportunity to visit the Polish National Film School in ĆĂłdĆș, Poland, at the invitation of the great director, Andrzej Wajda.
The school nurtured in me an unshakable belief in artistic expression grounded in Italian Neorealism, the French New Wave, the surreptitious poetry of the old Hollywood masters, and Polish cinema: the great, sweeping, humanistic, intimate and profound movies that were an integral part of what, looking back, seems more and more like a golden age of international cinema.
Thatâs why it is such a great honor and thrill to be able to bring to US audiences Masterpieces of Polish Cinema, a series of films made during this creatively fertile time in Poland by directors such as Andrzej Wajda, Krzysztof Zanussi, Andrzej Munk, Jerzy Kawalerowicz, Wojciech Jerzy Has, Krzysztof Kieslowski, and others. This is a cinema of personal vision, social commitment and poetic responsibility from which weâve all learned and which sets a high standard that, as a filmmaker, I strive to achieve with every film, every time out.
Each of the films in this special series embodies what Wajda called âthe impertinent freedom of creativity in the cinema.â These are films that have great emotional and visual power--theyâre âseriousâ films that, with their depth, stand up to repeated viewings. The subtext of great conflict and cultural identity is universal, even if you donât know the history of Poland, the themes in these films will resonate, as they did profoundly for me.
When I first saw ASHES AND DIAMONDS, one of the many highlights in this series and arguably one of the greatest films ever made--Polish or otherwise, I was overwhelmed by the film: the masterful direction, the powerful story, the striking visual imagery, and the shocking performance by Zbigniew Cybulski, considered the âPolish James Deanâ with his electrifying presence. I was so struck by the film, it affected me so deeply, that I paid small homage by giving Charlie a pair of similar sunglasses in MEAN STREETS.
There are many revelations in the âMasterpieces of Polish Cinemaâ series, and, whether youâre familiar with some of these films or not, itâs an incredible opportunity to discover for yourself the great power of Polish cinema, on the big screen in brilliantly restored digital masters.
I hope you will enjoy these great films as much I do. Thanks to The Film Foundation and Milestone Films in the United States, and Propaganda Foundation, DI Factory and KinoRP in Poland for making this magnificent series possible.
Martin Scorsese Presents: Masterpieces of Polish Cinema was organized by Propaganda Foundation, DI Factory, CRF and The Film Foundation. In cooperation with: Kino RP, Milestone Films, Tor, Zebra and Kadr. With the support of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland, the Polish Film Institute and the Polish National Audiovisual Institute.
SUNDAY DOUBLE-BILL DISCOUNT!
Buy a ticket at our regular prices for the first Polish film on any Sunday in May or June, and get a ticket for the second Polish film that day at the discounted rate with proof of your original full-price purchase: General Admission $7; Students $5; Members $4. (This discount rate applies to the second film only.)
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