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SUMMARY:The Immoral Tales of Walerian Borowczyk at American Cinematheque
UID:https://instytutpolski.pl/newyork/2026/11/04/the-immoral-tales-of-walerian-borowczyk-at-american-cinematheque/
LOCATION:
DTSTAMP:20261024
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Warsaw:20261024
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Warsaw:20261121
DESCRIPTION:Saturday, October 24 — Saturday, November 21, 2026 Los Feliz Theatre1822
N Vermont Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90027
Series | “Venus on the Half-Shell,” THE BEAST, “Joachim’s
Dictionary,” THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MISS OSBOURNE, “A
Private Collection,” IMMORAL TALES, “Gavotte,” LULU, “The Greatest
Love of All Time,” THE MARGIN, “Rosalie,” BLANCHE and THE STORY OF
SIN
Provocative, surreal and defiantly transgressive, Walerian Borowczyk’s
cinema boldly explores the unspoken aspects of existence and sensuality. As
disturbing as it is humorous, the visionary’s oeuvre dares to transform
forbidden desires and moral musings into fantastical dreamscapes that
satirize the complexities of the human condition. From his beautifully
unsettling early animations and experimental short films to his subversive
fever dreams of features, the American Cinematheque, in partnership with
the Polish Cultural Institute New York, is proud to present a collection of
landmark 20th century European cinema by the “engineer of ecstasy.”
Venus on the Half-Shell / The Beast
Saturday, October 24 at 10:00 PM
Walerian Borowczyk / Venus on the Half-Shell / 1975 / 5min / DCP / Tamasa
Distribution / France
Featuring Bona Tibertelli De Pisis’s excellent erotic graphic works –
wife of writer André Pieyre de Mandiargues while working in her atelier,
together with fragments of her graphic works inspired by one of Remy de
Gourmont’s writings.
Restored in 4K in 2026 by Friends of Walerian Borowczyk at Fixafilm
laboratory, from a 35mm internegative and the original 35mm negative.
Funding provided by Polski Instytut Sztuki Filmowej.
Walerian Borowczyk / The Beast / 1975 / 108min / AGFA / DCP / France
Walerian Borowczyk’s most notorious film wildly re-works Beauty and the
Beast into an adult fairy tale that parodies pornographic tropes and
assaults all notions of “good taste.” Bestial dreams interrupt the
plans of a French aristocrat to marry off Mathurin, his deformed son, to
Lucy, a horny American heiress. Yet Mathurin seems more interested in his
horses than in his bride-to-be. When Lucy discovers the story of an
18th-century ancestor copulating with the titular beast, it sparks to life
one of the most outrageous dream sequences in cinema history. A huge hit in
France that was extensively censored and banned all over the world, The
Beast (aka La Bête) broke new ground in sexual explicitness and remains a
truly startling experience today.
Joachim's Dictionary / The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Miss Osbourne
Friday, October 30 at 10:00 PM
Walerian Borowczyk / Joachim’s Dictionary / 1965 / 9min / DCP / France
Based on a sparse, singular design by Laurence Demaria (Ligia Borowczyk),
Joachim defines twenty six words each beginning with a different letter
from the alphabet. As with “Grandma’s Encyclopedia,” Borowczyk offers
a succession of visual definitions which suggest a doomed attempt at
mastering the absurdities of the world. Frequently hilarious, Joachim’s
Dictionary is Borowczyk at his most anarchic.
Walerian Borowczyk / The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Miss Osbourne /
1981 / 92min / DCP / AGFA / France
IIt’s the engagement party for brilliant young Dr. Henry Jekyll (Udo
Kier, Suspiria) and his fiancée, the beautiful Fanny Osbourne (Marina
Pierro). The party is attended by various pillars of Victorian society,
including Patrick Magee (A Clockwork Orange) in one of his final roles.
When people are found assaulted and murdered on the manor grounds, it
becomes clear that a maniac is disrupting the festivities. But who is he?
And why does Jekyll keep sneaking off to his laboratory? This visually
stunning adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s famous story by
surrealist icon Walerian Borowczyk (The Beast) is crammed with imaginative
and perverse touches.
A Private Collection / Immoral Tales
Saturday, November 7 at 9:30 PM
Walerian Borowczyk / A Private Collection / 1973 / 14min / Tamasa
Distribution / France
A witty and eye-opening tour through Borowczyk’s own collection of
vintage erotica. “A Private Collection” marks the turning-point between
Borowczyk’s career as a highly-regarded animator and surrealist
filmmaker, and his subsequent career in the sexploitation field.
Restored in 4K in 2026 by Friends of Walerian Borowczyk at Fixafilm
laboratory, from a 35mm internegative and the original 35mm negative.
Funding provided by Polski Instytut Sztuki Filmowej.
Walerian Borowczyk / Immoral Tales / 1974 / 126min / AGFA / France
The first explicitly erotic feature from the notorious director of The
Beast, Immoral Tales presents a veritable cavalcade of depravity in four
stories. Structured in reverse chronological order as if to suggest that
the same issues recur constantly throughout human civilization, whether
involving notorious historical figures like Lucrezia Borgia and Erzsébet
Báthory or present-day teenagers, Immoral Tales would transform Walerian
Borowczyk’s image from brilliant but obscure avant-garde artist to one of
Europe’s most confrontational filmmakers when it came to trampling on
sexual taboos.
Gavotte / Lulu
Thursday, November 12 at 10:00 PM
Walerian Borowczyk / Gavotte / 1967 / 12min / DCP / Friends of Walerian
Borowczyk / France
The short takes its title and dramatic cues from a baroque gavotte by
Jean-Philippe Rameau, which plays on a harpsichord off-camera. Set within a
painterly, period living room, the film unfolds like a bizarre and humorous
game of musical chairs. It follows two bored dwarves who engage in a petty,
escalating fight over a cushion and a place in an armchair. Through its
manic, stationary shots and burlesque gags, the short makes a delightful,
sadomasochistic mockery of aristocratic decorum.
Walerian Borowczyk / Lulu / 1980 / 95min / DCP / Studio TF1 / France
The story of a sexually-enticing young dancer who rises in society through
her relationships with wealthy men, but later falls into poverty and
prostitution, culminating in an encounter with Jack “the Ripper.”
The Greatest Love of All Time / The Margin
Wednesday, November 18 at 10:00 PM
Walerian Borowczyk / The Greatest Love of All Time / 1977 / 10min / DCP /
Tamasa Distribution / France
A close-up portrait of the Paris-based Serbian erotic surrealist painter
Ljuba Popović as he works in his studio. It avoids conventional interviews
or biographies, instead using fragmentary close-ups, handheld camera work,
and a frantic stream-of-consciousness montage to capture the physical
texture of wet paint and the artist's creative process.
Walerian Borowczyk / The Margin / 1976 / 88min / DCP / Janus Films / France
A businessman leaves his country home, and wife and young son for a
business trip to Paris. While there he develops a sexual and spiritual bond
with a call girl.
Rosalie / Blanche
Friday, November 20 at 4:00 PM
Walerian Borowczyk / Rosalie / 1966 / 15min / DCP / Friends of Walerian
Borowczyk / France
Of all his films, Borowczyk’s favorite was Rosalie. Based on a short
story by Guy de Maupassant, Borowczyk relates the plight of a servant girl
who killed and buried her child in the garden. Featuring a profoundly
touching performance by Ligia Borowczyk, once again Borowczyk uses animated
objects to relate (horrific) action indirectly. An over-exposed,
chiaroscuro image gives the proceedings an ethereal quality halfway between
one of Beckett’s monologues and David Lynch’s Eraserhead.
Walerian Borowczyk / Blanche / 1971 / 94min / DCP / France
Blanche is the young, pure, beautiful wife of the Master of the castle, in
a secluded land. Every man is in love with her, including the King and his
servant Bartolomeo, visiting the Master.
The Story of Sin
Saturday, November 21 at 10:00 PM
Walerian Borowczyk / The Story of Sin (Dzieje grzechu) / 1975 / 124min /
DCP / WFDiF / Poland
Based on the novel by Polish writer Stefan Żeromski. The film follows Ewa
Pobratynska, a young woman whose passionate love affair leads her into a
tragic journey of obsession, sacrifice, and moral transgression. Set
against the social conventions of turn-of-the-century Poland, Borowczyk
explores desire, religious hypocrisy, and the destructive consequences of
forbidden love.
Walerian Borowczyk (1923–2006) was a Polish filmmaker, animator, painter,
graphic artist, screenwriter, and production designer. He studied painting
and graphic arts in Kraków, graduating in 1951. In 1956, he began
collaborating with Jan Lenica, and their animated film Once Upon a Time
(1957) brought them international recognition. Borowczyk moved permanently
to Paris in 1959, where he continued making animated films, short
live-action films, and feature films. A pioneering figure in Polish
animation, Borowczyk developed a distinctive visual language combining
cut-outs, photographs, paintings, found objects, and unconventional editing
techniques. His animated works helped establish animation as an art form
capable of exploring complex philosophical and human themes. From the late
1960s, he increasingly turned to live-action filmmaking, making films
including Goto, Isle of Love (1968), Rosalie (1966), Blanche (1971),
Immoral Tales (1974), and The Story of Sin (1975). His work is
characterized by extraordinary visual imagination, surrealist grotesque,
dark humor, and an exploration of eroticism, desire, and human nature.
Borowczyk received numerous international awards, including the Max Ernst
Award in 1967 for his contribution to animated cinema.
Co-presented by the American Cinematheque and the Polish Cultural Institute
New York, with additional support from the Polish Film Institute.
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