Agnieszka Holland's A WOMAN ALONE co-presented with the Polish Cultural Institute New York

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A Woman Alone (a.k.a. A Lonely Woman)

directed by Agnieszka Holland

1981, Poland, 92m, DCP

doors: 7:30

film: 8:00

Guest curated by programmer David Schwartz. Co-presented with the Polish Cultural Institute New York.

Although it was made during the optimistic period of the Polish Solidarity movement, Agnieszka Holland’s A Woman Alone is an astonishingly dark film that fully rejects patriotic mythology and the cliches of romantic drama. Completely scorned by society, family, and co-workers, the single mother Irena, unforgettably portrayed by Maria Chwalibóg, asks “Who am I?,” quickly providing the answer “nobody.” Meanwhile, her miserable soon-to-be lover Jacek, who dreams of fleeing to the West, asks “What is so special about Poland? There is nothing to be found here.” The two then embark on what may be the grimmest sex scene ever committed to film.

A film that makes Wanda look like a screwball comedy, A Woman Alone is exhilarating for its razor-sharp social critique, its intense psychological realism, an underlying worldview laced with honesty and black humor, and a series of shocking plot turns that spirals towards tragedy. The film was prescient; shortly after it was made, martial law was imposed in Poland, and the movie, which was made for television, was banned. It was not released until 1987, by which time Holland was in exile, making films in Germany and France. Ahead of its time, A Woman Alone stands as one of Holland’s most uncompromising achievements, and is a perfect companion to her new film, Green Border, which raises many difficult questions about her home country. -David Schwartz

"As a meditation on feverish utopia, [A Lonely Woman] remains a sobering record of its time." -Ela Bittencourt, The House Next Door

"So ferocious it makes her other films seem operettas by comparison, A Lonely Woman is set on the eve of martial law—a stunning evocation of ignorance, superstition, poverty and disorder that attacks virtually every institution in communist Poland while suggesting a stratum of society impervious to reform." - J. Hoberman

"It is not a happy experience, but I would not know all that movies can and should do without it." -Amy Taubin, Screen Slate

David Schwartz is an independent film programmer and writer. He is Curator-at-large at Museum of the Moving Image, where he worked for many years as Chief Curator. He hosts the Emelin Theatre Film Club in Mamaroneck, NY, and programs for other venues, including the Cinema Arts Centre in Huntington, New York and Barrymore Film Center in Fort Lee, New Jersey. He also programmed and managed the Paris Theater in Manhattan. David writes about film regularly for publications including Reverse Shot, Screen Slate, and Film Comment, and edited the book David Cronenberg: Interviews. He has taught film history at Purchase College and New York University. In 2019, he received a Career Achievement Award from the New York Film Critics for his tenure at Museum of the Moving Image. He is on the board of directors at the Film-maker’s Cooperative. For more about his work, visit david-schwartz.net

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