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Before
Dietrich and Garbo, there was Pola Negri.
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Life
is a Dream in Cinema:
Pola Negri
Directed
by Mariusz Kotowski
Featuring
interviews with Hayley Mills, Eli Wallach, A.C. Lyles, Alfred Allan Lewis, Jeanine
Basinger, Anthony Slide, Emily Leider, David Gasten, Scott
Eyman
Narrated
by Cyndi Williams
Produced
by Heidi Hutter / Bright
Shining City Productions
Running time: 89 minutes
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The legendary film star Pola Negri makes her triumphant return to screen in Life is a
Dream in Cinema: Pola Negri, a feature-length
documentary examining the life and work of the celebrated actress.
Pola
Negri's place in cinema history cannot be underestimated, as she was the
beginning of many firsts in the movies, including popularizing European films in the United States, opening the way for international
film artists in
Hollywood, popularizing fashions that are with us to this day, and
broadening the expression of sex on the screen. Yet, few people today
are aware of this magnificent actress or the dramatic
events of her life, including her engagements to Charlie Chaplin and
Rudolph Valentino.
Life is a Dream in Cinema: Pola Negri brings
the story of this great actress back to life with clips of her films,
photographs of the star from throughout her life, recollections of the
people who knew her, and interviews with people who have made a study of
her life and times.
Actors Hayley Mills and
Eli Wallach, both well-known film stars in their own right, performed with
Pola in The Moon-spinners (1963), her final film, and appear
in the documentary. Many other experts in their fields shared a wealth of knowledge and insights about Pola, including:
Professor Jeanine Basinger, author of Silent Stars; A.C. Lyles, producer for
Paramount Pictures; Alfred Allan Lewis, ghostwriter of Memoirs of a
Star, Pola's autobiography; Emily Leider, author of Rudolph Valentino
biography Dark Lover; Anthony Slide, film historian; David
Gasten,
webmaster of The Pola Negri Appreciation Site; and Scott Eyman, author
of Beyond Laughter: Ernst Lubitsch.
Life is a Dream in
Cinema: Pola Negri is currently playing in
festival screenings across America and will soon be following with
screenings internationally.
About
the Director:
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MARIUSZ KOTOWSKI - Director and
Choreographer, Bright Shining City Productions
Mariusz Kotowski is a full-time film
director and dance choreographer based in Austin, Texas. The Polish-born
director studied film directing at
New York University, and began work on Life is a Dream in
Cinema: Pola Negri soon thereafter, eventually
investing three years of work and a
considerable personal fortune into bringing this documentary to the
screen. He is
currently in production for his
first feature film, and has two
additional feature films planned for 2006 and 2007. His production
company, Bright Shining City Productions, can be reached at www.brightshiningcity.com. |
List of Previous
Screenings:
| April
29, 2006 |
Los
Angeles, CA |
Laemmle's
Sunset 5 Theatre, Polish Film Festival of LA (World Premiere) |
| ??? |
Houston,
TX |
??? |
| Sept.
18, 2006 |
New
York, NY |
Museum
of Modern Art, "Pola Negri: Life is a Dream" Film
Festival, introduced by the director and actor Eli Wallach (East
Coast premiere) |
| Sept.
24, 2006 |
New
York, NY |
Museum
of Modern Art, "Pola Negri: Life is a Dream" Film
Festival |
| Oct.
15, 2006 |
Atlanta,
GA |
Dixie
Film Fest |
| Dec.
5, 2006 |
Poland |
TVP
1 broadcast, 10:50 pm (actually a 35 minute report about the
documentary and the September 2006 MoMA screenings entitled Pola
Negri - życie jest marzeniem; this report included clips
from the documentary itself) |
| Oct.
12, 2007 |
Katowicach,
Poland |
Pola
Negri Film Festival (Tydzień
Pola Negri w Katowicach), Oct. 12-17, 2007 |
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