Ubu Krol from Alfred Jarry by Piotr Szulkin POL RUS w ENG sub 2003

Ubu Krol (2002) a film directed by Piotr Szulkin from the play Ubu Roi (King Ubu) by Alfred Jarry  (1896)



Run time  1 hr 29 mins                 Polish, or Russian language with

                                                                       English subtitles

IMDb    tt0380779/



Directed by Piotr Szulkin



Cast



King Ubu  Jan Peszek

Ubica     Katarzyna Figura



complete cast and crew in the credit roll



description from IMDb:



 "A grotesque Shakespearean tale of Ubu who comes to power in a bloody day. "When his absurd reforms fail and the treasury gets empty, Ubu and his flatterers start implementing terror across the country."



 And from the Wiki on the play by Alfred Jarry:



 "The story is a parody of Shakespeare's Macbeth and some parts of Hamlet and King Lear. Though the writing and dialogue is obscene and childish, the material began to express something deeper, an inner consciousness in a way that is similar to the Symbolists, with some critics considering Jarry a Symbolist author."

  The Wiki cites many performances and adaptations of the play as recent as 2016 in response to a United States election.



My notes



  This recode of Ubu Krol contains discreet language versions for Russian overdub, Polish and with English subtitles.  It's relevance today is indisputable as it is about foolish rulers with too much power-- as Jarry intended.  And as referenced in my recent upload of King Lear from the Globe uses the Lord of Misrule as a theme.



  Watch for the ballerinas as the play progresses.  



  This Ubu is grotesque but comedic. There are no Grande Guinol effects as the IMDb description might indicate.  The fact that Szulkin was able to capture Ubu to film at all is of importance since the play is performed on stages worldwide but not accessible in the media world.  It is not a video version of a stage play and this will become obvious quickly.  Referents could be Terry Gilliam's "Brazil" or a favorite of mine called "Black Cat, White Cat" (1998) by Emir Kusturica which is from Serbia.



  It took time for me to find good audio for this.  Other versions are Russian only which meant that the Russian was overdubbed on the Polish and hard to understand.  Here you can select Russian or Polish and with English subtitles all from your VLC or Daum Player.



 Notes written August 04,  2019  



    New notes edited April 6th, 2020