No jokes about fish and visitors please — Agnieszka Smoczyńska’s horror fantasy musical is indeed about delectable creatures from the deep, but these particular mythical misses have their own agenda, and woe to the man who trifles with their affections. What’s today’s catch? A Polish phantasmagoria seemingly teleported from the glitzy 1980s.
The Lure
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 896
2015 / Color / 2:39 widescreen / 92 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date October 10, 2017 / 39.95
Starring: Kinga Preis, Michalina Olszańska, Marta Mazurek, Jakub Gierszał, Andrzej Konopka, Zygmunt Malanowicz, Marcin Kowalczyk.
Cinematography: Kuba Kijowski
Film Editor: Jarosław Kamiński
Production Design: Joanna Macha
Costume: Katarzyna Lewińska
Special Effects makeup: Tomasz Matraszek
Choreography: Kaya Kołodziejczyk and Jarosław Staniek
Original Music and Lyrics: Barbara Wrońska and Zuzanna Wrońska
Written by Robert Bolesto
Produced by Włodzimierz Niderhaus
Directed by Agnieszka Smoczyńska
I’m normally an easy mark for bizarre genre-bending horror fare. I also like musicals of all sorts,...
The Lure
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 896
2015 / Color / 2:39 widescreen / 92 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date October 10, 2017 / 39.95
Starring: Kinga Preis, Michalina Olszańska, Marta Mazurek, Jakub Gierszał, Andrzej Konopka, Zygmunt Malanowicz, Marcin Kowalczyk.
Cinematography: Kuba Kijowski
Film Editor: Jarosław Kamiński
Production Design: Joanna Macha
Costume: Katarzyna Lewińska
Special Effects makeup: Tomasz Matraszek
Choreography: Kaya Kołodziejczyk and Jarosław Staniek
Original Music and Lyrics: Barbara Wrońska and Zuzanna Wrońska
Written by Robert Bolesto
Produced by Włodzimierz Niderhaus
Directed by Agnieszka Smoczyńska
I’m normally an easy mark for bizarre genre-bending horror fare. I also like musicals of all sorts,...
- 10/7/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
No, it’s not just a random assortment of words. The Polish cannibal horror mermaid musical you’ve been waiting for will be arriving next month. Following a Sundance premiere last year, Agnieszka Smoczynska‘s The Lure was picked up by Janus Films and now the first wild trailer, featuring a quote from our review, has arrived.
We said in our review, “Where but at a film festival do you get the chance to see a Polish musical romance about two man-eating, mermaid sisters (Marta Mazurka and Michelin Olszanska)? As directed by Agnieszka Smoczynska, our finned and fanged leads, Silver (Mazurka) and Golden (Olszanska) are roped into a club-singing act at the start, taken in by a money-hungry show-runner called The Boss (Zygmunt Malanowicz) and a family of performers, before love and bloodlust get in the way.”
Check out the trailer below.
In this bold, genre-defying horror-musical mashup – the playful...
We said in our review, “Where but at a film festival do you get the chance to see a Polish musical romance about two man-eating, mermaid sisters (Marta Mazurka and Michelin Olszanska)? As directed by Agnieszka Smoczynska, our finned and fanged leads, Silver (Mazurka) and Golden (Olszanska) are roped into a club-singing act at the start, taken in by a money-hungry show-runner called The Boss (Zygmunt Malanowicz) and a family of performers, before love and bloodlust get in the way.”
Check out the trailer below.
In this bold, genre-defying horror-musical mashup – the playful...
- 1/6/2017
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
"All you need to do is have fun. The rest is easy." Janus Films has debuted an official Us trailer (red band for mermaid nudity) for a film titled The Lure, a wacky Polish indie about two mermaid girls who join a human band in Warsaw. Part comedy, part cabaret, part horror, part romance, you won't find anything else like this film out there, though it may be a little too wacky for some. The cast includes Marta Mazurek, Michalina Olszanska, Kinga Preis, Andrzej Konopka, Jakub Gierszal, Zygmunt Malanowicz, Katarzyna Herman and Marcin Kowalczyk. I've been hearing about this film for a while, ever since it premiered at Sundance last year, and it's destined to become a cult classic - catch it in theaters this winter. Here's the first red band trailer (+ poster) for Agnieszka Smoczynska's The Lure, originally from EW.com: One dark night, at water's edge, a...
- 1/6/2017
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Spending a good part of last year hitting nearly every corner of the festival circuit, those who delight in the off-beat and weird have been singing the praises of “The Lure.” Agnieszka Smoczynska‘s film is a cannibal mermaid musical, and if that three-word description doesn’t at least make you curious, I’m not sure what to tell you.
Read More: The 20 Best Movies Of 2017 That We’ve Already Seen
Marta Mazurek, Michalina Olszanska, Jakub Gierszal, Kinga Preis, Andrzej Konopka, and Zygmunt Malanowicz are the ensemble that bring this ’80s-set story to life, one that sees the bond between mermaid sisters tested when a man enters the mix.
Continue reading New Trailer For Cannibal Mermaid Musical ‘The Lure’ Brings The Weirdness at The Playlist.
Read More: The 20 Best Movies Of 2017 That We’ve Already Seen
Marta Mazurek, Michalina Olszanska, Jakub Gierszal, Kinga Preis, Andrzej Konopka, and Zygmunt Malanowicz are the ensemble that bring this ’80s-set story to life, one that sees the bond between mermaid sisters tested when a man enters the mix.
Continue reading New Trailer For Cannibal Mermaid Musical ‘The Lure’ Brings The Weirdness at The Playlist.
- 1/5/2017
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
This is the most amazing, mouth dropping film I saw at Sundance this year.
Firstly, hats off to the programmers and the organization for finding and presenting this one. Sundance's docs and international features are usually superb but this one takes the cake.
We describe it - hold onto your hats now - as a lesbian vampire mermaid horror musical comedy. No kidding.
And it has a female director and 2 amazing female mermaid leads. More powerful woman filmmaking.
What's it about?? I dunno. Maybe don't ever mess with (or fall in love with) a mermaid even if she's a cute, nude and impossibly young. Your life is no longer yours then.
Takes place in a (very) shabby music hall type bar where the (um) 'girls' are put on display. Pour water on them and they grow 12 foot fish tails. Dry them off and they become 'normal' girls except for no normal female genitals, just smooth skin down there.
The musical numbers work very well.
I couldn't stop watching or laughing, amazed at how this rollicking weird story just keeps going.
In Polish made in Poland.
Wow!!
"The Lure" won the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Unique Vision and Design
From the catalog -
One dark night, at water’s edge, a family of musicians encounter aquatic sirens Silver and Golden. After assuring the family that they won’t eat them up, the winsome mermaids are recruited to join the Figs and Dates band at a neon-lit Warsaw dance club. When Silver becomes romantically entangled with beautiful blonde bassist Mietek, the more cunning Golden, who cannot escape her bloodthirsty nature and assimilate, worries that her sister’s relationship will doom their shared dream of swimming to a new life in America.
This weird, wild, 1980s-set musical horror film wittily plays with the lust and repulsion the bewitching sisters create with their combination of Barbie doll–smooth bodies and impressively long glittering mermaid tails. With a knack for both burlesque and the grotesque, first-time feature director Agnieszka Smoczyńska creates a world saturated in color and Europop slickness that twists with absurdity and drips with blood.
"The Lure" Director: Agnieszka Smoczyńska Screenwriter: Robert Bolesto Cast: Zygmunt Malanowicz, Andrzej Konopka, Kinga Preis, Jakub Gierszal, Michalina Olszanska, Marta Mazurek Poland / 92 Min
Director bio -
Agnieszka Smoczyńska is a graduate of the University of Silesia’s Krzysztof Kieślowski Faculty of Radio and Television (in directing), the Wajda School, and the University of Wroclaw (in culture studies). She received the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage Scholarship and won the My Talent for Poland program and Golden Pen award, granted by the president of Poland. Her short films Kapelusz, 3 Love, and Aria Diva have won awards at film festivals around the world.
Firstly, hats off to the programmers and the organization for finding and presenting this one. Sundance's docs and international features are usually superb but this one takes the cake.
We describe it - hold onto your hats now - as a lesbian vampire mermaid horror musical comedy. No kidding.
And it has a female director and 2 amazing female mermaid leads. More powerful woman filmmaking.
What's it about?? I dunno. Maybe don't ever mess with (or fall in love with) a mermaid even if she's a cute, nude and impossibly young. Your life is no longer yours then.
Takes place in a (very) shabby music hall type bar where the (um) 'girls' are put on display. Pour water on them and they grow 12 foot fish tails. Dry them off and they become 'normal' girls except for no normal female genitals, just smooth skin down there.
The musical numbers work very well.
I couldn't stop watching or laughing, amazed at how this rollicking weird story just keeps going.
In Polish made in Poland.
Wow!!
"The Lure" won the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Unique Vision and Design
From the catalog -
One dark night, at water’s edge, a family of musicians encounter aquatic sirens Silver and Golden. After assuring the family that they won’t eat them up, the winsome mermaids are recruited to join the Figs and Dates band at a neon-lit Warsaw dance club. When Silver becomes romantically entangled with beautiful blonde bassist Mietek, the more cunning Golden, who cannot escape her bloodthirsty nature and assimilate, worries that her sister’s relationship will doom their shared dream of swimming to a new life in America.
This weird, wild, 1980s-set musical horror film wittily plays with the lust and repulsion the bewitching sisters create with their combination of Barbie doll–smooth bodies and impressively long glittering mermaid tails. With a knack for both burlesque and the grotesque, first-time feature director Agnieszka Smoczyńska creates a world saturated in color and Europop slickness that twists with absurdity and drips with blood.
"The Lure" Director: Agnieszka Smoczyńska Screenwriter: Robert Bolesto Cast: Zygmunt Malanowicz, Andrzej Konopka, Kinga Preis, Jakub Gierszal, Michalina Olszanska, Marta Mazurek Poland / 92 Min
Director bio -
Agnieszka Smoczyńska is a graduate of the University of Silesia’s Krzysztof Kieślowski Faculty of Radio and Television (in directing), the Wajda School, and the University of Wroclaw (in culture studies). She received the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage Scholarship and won the My Talent for Poland program and Golden Pen award, granted by the president of Poland. Her short films Kapelusz, 3 Love, and Aria Diva have won awards at film festivals around the world.
- 2/5/2016
- by Peter Belsito
- Sydney's Buzz
The Lure (2016) Film Review from the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, a movie directed by Agnieszka Smoczynska, starring Marta Mazurek, Michalina Olszanska, Jakub Gierszal, Kinga Preis, Andrzej Konopka, and Zygmunt Malanowicz. A Polish, vampire mermaid, horror-musical set in the 1980’s – how’s that for a concept? The film made a splash on Twitter prior to its Sundance premiere this past weekend, with […]...
- 1/25/2016
- by Drew Stelter
- Film-Book
Where but at a film festival do you get the chance to see a Polish musical romance about two man-eating, mermaid sisters (Marta Mazurka and Michelin Olszanska)? As directed by Agnieszka Smoczynska, our finned and fanged leads, Silver (Mazurka) and Golden (Olszanska) are roped into a club-singing act at the start, taken in by a money-hungry show-runner called The Boss (Zygmunt Malanowicz) and a family of performers, before love and bloodlust get in the way.
There is plenty here you will have never seen before, though it all comes together to move in a disappointedly familiar direction. As Silver develops feelings for Mietek (Jakub Gierszał), the blonde son of the family, Golden is compelled to act on vampiric impulse. Mazurka and Olszanska are stand-outs here, injecting an uncanny mix of innocence and sensuality to their characters.
Dubbed The Lure by The Boss, their act quickly gains a following, performing a...
There is plenty here you will have never seen before, though it all comes together to move in a disappointedly familiar direction. As Silver develops feelings for Mietek (Jakub Gierszał), the blonde son of the family, Golden is compelled to act on vampiric impulse. Mazurka and Olszanska are stand-outs here, injecting an uncanny mix of innocence and sensuality to their characters.
Dubbed The Lure by The Boss, their act quickly gains a following, performing a...
- 1/24/2016
- by Dan Mecca
- The Film Stage
Kate Plays ChristineThe lineup for the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, taking place between January 21 -31, has been announced.U.S. Dramatic COMPETITIONAs You Are (Miles Joris-Peyrafitte, USA): As You Are is the telling and retelling of a relationship between three teenagers as it traces the course of their friendship through a construction of disparate memories prompted by a police investigation. Cast: Owen Campbell, Charlie Heaton, Amandla Stenberg, John Scurti, Scott Cohen, Mary Stuart Masterson. World Premiere The Birth of a Nation (Nate Parker, USA): Set against the antebellum South, this story follows Nat Turner, a literate slave and preacher whose financially strained owner, Samuel Turner, accepts an offer to use Nat’s preaching to subdue unruly slaves. After witnessing countless atrocities against fellow slaves, Nat devises a plan to lead his people to freedom. Cast: Nate Parker, Armie Hammer, Aja Naomi King, Jackie Earle Haley, Gabrielle Union, Mark Boone Jr. World PremiereChristine (Antonio Campos,...
- 12/7/2015
- by Notebook
- MUBI
The Sundance Film institute has released the line-up of film for the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. Going to Sundance is one of my favorite events of the year. I love going because you never know what kind of movies you're going to see. Sometimes they are great films that amaze and entertain, other times they completely suck ass, but that's all part of the fun of going to the festival. It's an awesome experience for any hardcore movie geek, and if you ever get a chance to go, you need to.
The event takes place in Park City, Utah next year from January 21st to the 31st. It looks like there's a great line-up of movies at next year's event. My favorite portion of the event is the Midnight section because it deals more with geeky genre type movies, but I also enjoy the various sections of other line-ups.
Some of...
The event takes place in Park City, Utah next year from January 21st to the 31st. It looks like there's a great line-up of movies at next year's event. My favorite portion of the event is the Midnight section because it deals more with geeky genre type movies, but I also enjoy the various sections of other line-ups.
Some of...
- 12/6/2015
- by Joey Paur
- GeekTyrant
In last year’s section which included Ariel Kleiman’s Partisan and Anne Sewitsky’s Homesick, it was John Maclean’s debut Slow West claimed the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize, Alanté Kavaïté’s The Summer of Sangailé landed the Directing Award: World Cinema Dramatic, Umrika was the audience’s won the Audience Award: World Cinema Dramatic. In this year’s dozen offerings we have names we normally associate with Cannes in The Misfortunates‘ Felix van Groeningen (Belgica), The Other Side of Sleep‘s Rebecca Daly (Mammal – see pic above) and A Stray Girlfriend‘s Ana Katz (Mi Amiga del Parque). Here are the selections.
Belgica / Belgium, France, Netherlands (Director: Felix van Groeningen, Screenwriters: Felix van Groeningen, Arne Sierens) — In the midst of Belgium’s nightlife scene, two brothers start a bar and get swept up in its success.Cast: Stef Aerts, Tom Vermeir, Charlotte Vandermeersch, Hélène De Vos. World Premiere.
Belgica / Belgium, France, Netherlands (Director: Felix van Groeningen, Screenwriters: Felix van Groeningen, Arne Sierens) — In the midst of Belgium’s nightlife scene, two brothers start a bar and get swept up in its success.Cast: Stef Aerts, Tom Vermeir, Charlotte Vandermeersch, Hélène De Vos. World Premiere.
- 12/2/2015
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Titles include Tallulah starring Ellen Page and Allison Janney, and Chad Hartigan’s Morris From America (pictured); Next strand also announced.Scroll down for full list
Sundance Institute has announced the 65 films selected for the Us Competition, World Competition and out-of-competition Next categories set to screen at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival (Jan 21-31) in Park City.
Us Dramatic Competition selections include Sian Heder’s Tallulah with Ellen Page and Allison Janney; Antonio Campos’ Christine; Clea DuVall’s feature directorial debut The Intervention; and Richard Tanne’s Southside With You, about Barack Obama’s first date with the First Lady.
Among the Us Documentary Competition selections are: Holy Hell by undisclosed; Jeff Feuerzeig’s Author: The Jt LeRoy Story; and Sara Jordenö’s Kiki.
The World Cinema Dramatic Competition entries include: Belgica (Belgium-France-Netherlands), Felix van Groeningen’s follow-up to The Broken Circle Breakdown; Manolo Cruz and Carlos del Castillo’s Between Sea And Land (Colombia); and Nicolette Krebitz’s Wild...
Sundance Institute has announced the 65 films selected for the Us Competition, World Competition and out-of-competition Next categories set to screen at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival (Jan 21-31) in Park City.
Us Dramatic Competition selections include Sian Heder’s Tallulah with Ellen Page and Allison Janney; Antonio Campos’ Christine; Clea DuVall’s feature directorial debut The Intervention; and Richard Tanne’s Southside With You, about Barack Obama’s first date with the First Lady.
Among the Us Documentary Competition selections are: Holy Hell by undisclosed; Jeff Feuerzeig’s Author: The Jt LeRoy Story; and Sara Jordenö’s Kiki.
The World Cinema Dramatic Competition entries include: Belgica (Belgium-France-Netherlands), Felix van Groeningen’s follow-up to The Broken Circle Breakdown; Manolo Cruz and Carlos del Castillo’s Between Sea And Land (Colombia); and Nicolette Krebitz’s Wild...
- 12/2/2015
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Knife in the Water
Directed by Roman Polanski
Poland, 1962
Certainly a stretch to categorize as horror, Roman Polanski’s debut feature anticipates the creeping dread and tense blocking that will characterize his later, truer films of the genre.
Husband and wife Andrzej (Leon Niemczyk) and Krystyna (Jolanta Umecka) pick up a young hitchhiker (Zygmunt Malanowicz) on their way to a sailing outing. The young man joins them on the water and tensions rise among the three as the men jockey for power.
Coming after a number of murky, eerie shorts – including 1957’s grim A Murder – Knife in Water is Lifeboat meets Dead Calm but with Polanski’s signature brooding unease rather than overt, textbook suspense or violence. Repulsion, Rosemary’s Baby, and The Tenant make up the director’s “Apartment Trilogy,” and though Knife in Water is almost exclusively on open water it may as well mark the beginning of a “Claustrophobia Quadrilogy.
Directed by Roman Polanski
Poland, 1962
Certainly a stretch to categorize as horror, Roman Polanski’s debut feature anticipates the creeping dread and tense blocking that will characterize his later, truer films of the genre.
Husband and wife Andrzej (Leon Niemczyk) and Krystyna (Jolanta Umecka) pick up a young hitchhiker (Zygmunt Malanowicz) on their way to a sailing outing. The young man joins them on the water and tensions rise among the three as the men jockey for power.
Coming after a number of murky, eerie shorts – including 1957’s grim A Murder – Knife in Water is Lifeboat meets Dead Calm but with Polanski’s signature brooding unease rather than overt, textbook suspense or violence. Repulsion, Rosemary’s Baby, and The Tenant make up the director’s “Apartment Trilogy,” and though Knife in Water is almost exclusively on open water it may as well mark the beginning of a “Claustrophobia Quadrilogy.
- 10/14/2014
- by Neal Dhand
- SoundOnSight
TorontoFilm.Net reports that the Tiff Bell Lightbox run of director Roman Polanski's "Carnage", opens Friday December 30, 2011.
Tiff will also host a retrospective looking back at specific films during Polanski's career, tracing the recurring themes that have shaped his vision.
"Roman Polanski" runs December 17 - December 25, 2011, including special screenings of the features "Knife in the Water", "Cul-de-sac", "Chinatown", "Repulsion", "The Tenant", "Rosemary's Baby", and "The Ghost Writer" :
"...In a career spanning more than fifty years, Roman Polanski has firmly established himself as one of the contemporary masters of cinema with his nerve-wrackingly suspenseful and darkly comic portraits of cruelty, violence, claustrophobia and madness.
"Often confining his characters within suffocatingly cloistered locations—a sailboat on a lonely lake, a crumbling castle, an isolated beach house and a succession of ominous apartment houses—Polanski observes with cynical, diabolical glee as the thin pretenses of civilization are quickly stripped away in the face of human vanities,...
Tiff will also host a retrospective looking back at specific films during Polanski's career, tracing the recurring themes that have shaped his vision.
"Roman Polanski" runs December 17 - December 25, 2011, including special screenings of the features "Knife in the Water", "Cul-de-sac", "Chinatown", "Repulsion", "The Tenant", "Rosemary's Baby", and "The Ghost Writer" :
"...In a career spanning more than fifty years, Roman Polanski has firmly established himself as one of the contemporary masters of cinema with his nerve-wrackingly suspenseful and darkly comic portraits of cruelty, violence, claustrophobia and madness.
"Often confining his characters within suffocatingly cloistered locations—a sailboat on a lonely lake, a crumbling castle, an isolated beach house and a succession of ominous apartment houses—Polanski observes with cynical, diabolical glee as the thin pretenses of civilization are quickly stripped away in the face of human vanities,...
- 12/6/2011
- by Michael Stevens
- SneakPeek
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