Szamanka

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Audience Member Andrzej ?u?awski's 1996 movie faced a great deal of opposition from Poland and it has really only been since Mondo-Video lovingly transferred it to DVD that most people have been able to see it. Over the years, I've often read about Poland's attempt to censor and ban it due to the extremely graphic sexual side of the obsessive relationship that is explored. It is graphic. It also an exhaustive frantic and perverse experience. By the time the film comes to its final moments, I was too tired to be either shocked or repulsed. I am struggling to not give this movie a full 3 star rating, but this nasty little movie is so obtuse and grating that it makes it hard to recognize the skill that is there. Consider yourself warned. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/22/23 Full Review Audience Member Andrzej ?u?awski's work is not user-friendly. A viewer is not able to simply watch many of his films - the viewer must be willing to proactively think and allow themselves to be pulled into the film as it unfolds. This is political and cinematic art. Szamanka will be far too explicit and disturbing for most, but there is a great deal of merit to be found here. I believe this film was largely banned in Eastern Europe due to its graphic depiction of sexuality and criticism of Catholicism and traditional views on morality -- particularly how these relate to Poland and Polish culture. This is all cinematic metaphor and, while it may be offensive, it has a point of view that should not be dismissed or ignored. Andrzej Jaroszewicz's cinematography is amazing and Iwona Petry delivers a fascinating, compulsive and hysterical performance of insanity and obsession. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/29/23 Full Review Audience Member There are a few things I can say about this movie. They are: Sex, talking shaman corpse, and she eats his brain. But mostly sex. And a crazy woman. But there is just.. a lot of sex in the film. There is so much and it all just follows the same routine that eventually it gets grueling and boring. To be fair, I downloaded a subtitle track to this movie that was pretty inferior, so only half of the movie's dialogue made sense to me, which is why I'm giving it an extra half star here. I can tell that the director was trying to get at something with this movie; it really feels like he is trying. However, this movie was just not enjoyable for me, and did not sit well after I finished watching. I must say though that the soundtrack to this film is pretty amazing, though the director's use of the sound in the film gets grating and annoying - the music will start getting really loud and then just complete disappear. After about an hour of this though, it gets tiring to watch. At two hours, it is lengthy and frustratingly repetitive. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 01/26/23 Full Review Audience Member Zulawsky has done all this before, far, far better. This film seems the work of a bored director gone fishing. Rated 1/5 Stars •  Rated 1 out of 5 stars 01/18/23 Full Review Audience Member "Would you like me to make a map of your soul, to install electrodes of happiness?" Another absurd erratic Zulawski masterpiece (Szamanka means She-Shaman in Polish.) Kind of a combination of the SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES & THE PIANO TEACHER on speed lolz. An anthropology professor obsesses on a 3000 yr old shaman mummy & a nymphomaniac student with cannibalistic tendencies. Note: graphic sex. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/27/23 Full Review Audience Member Ale urwal. Pomysl nawet nieglupi, ale wykonanie - łohohoho... Rated 0.5/5 Stars •  Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 01/29/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Szamanka

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