Andrzej Żuławski

After Poland banned his previous film, Żuławski took his next provocation to France. Romy Schneider plays an actress stuck in cheap softcore pictures and Fabio Testi the photographer who borrows money to buy her a real role at last, in a melodrama that won’t play by the usual rules. — A photographer walks onto the set of a cheap porn film and finds the actress Nadine in tears. To give her a role worthy of her at last, he borrows a large sum from a loan shark and puts on “Richard III”. They fall in love, but Nadine is also married to the man who once got her out of trouble. — Best Actress (Romy Schneider) | César Awards | 1976

Andrzej Żuławski tells the story of the last days Frédéric Chopin and George Sand spent together, and every note you hear at the piano was played by Janusz Olejniczak, a pianist rather than an actor. Just don’t expect a conventional biopic from Żuławski: this is an expressive fever all his own. — In 1846, at George Sand’s country house in Nohant, the ailing Chopin lives among her family, her guests and constant noise. The love affair that has held them together for years is quietly dying, and neither of them says a word about it. These are the last days the two of them will ever spend under one roof.

Andrzej Żuławski wrote this one-of-a-kind horror during his own divorce, and it has earned its place in film history. Isabelle Adjani is astonishing in a role of extreme emotion that won her the acting prize at Cannes. It starts with a marriage falling apart and ends with a mind falling apart. — Mark comes home to West Berlin from a job he isn’t allowed to talk about, only for Anna to tell him it’s over because there’s another man in her life. He leaves her the flat and little Bob, then sinks into drink for a long time. When he finally comes back, he finds the boy alone and unwashed, and nobody knows where Anna is spending her nights. — Best Actress (Isabelle Adjani) | Cannes Film Festival | 1981 Best Actress (Isabelle Adjani) | César Awards | 1982

Andrzej Żuławski (“Possession”) moves Dostoevsky’s “The Idiot” into the Paris underworld, where a bank robbery sets off a dangerous love triangle. It’s his style at full throttle, with a drunken camera, emotions turned all the way up and the chaos of a music video. — Micky is heading to Paris with the money from a bank robbery, set on winning Mary back from the Venin brothers. Léon, a neurotic dreamer, sits down next to him, and Micky takes him for a fool on sight. With nowhere else to go, Léon follows him into the city. There he sees Mary, and everything starts to fall apart.