The Painted Bird: 'My film isn't depraved. It's truthful'

By Steve Rose

 

‘With children, you must say: it’s a game, it’s not real – again and again’ … nine-year-old Petr Kotlár. Photograph: Jan Dobrovský

 

It is not often a three-hour, black-and-white Czech film makes headlines in the British tabloids, but The Painted Bird earned that dubious honour last year.

 

“Sickened film-goers brawl to escape premiere of Holocaust epic Painted Bird featuring brutal scenes of incest, rape and mutilation,” screamed the Sun. It forgot to mention the bestiality, but others didn’t. The Daily Mail described the film as “a panoply of depravity”.

 

The Guardian reported viewers falling over each other as they rushed for the exits during the first public screening at the Venice film festival.

 

The scene in which a man’s eyes are gouged out with a spoon was a tipping point for many.

 

Full Story: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/mar/16/painted-bird-director-vaclav-marhoul-interview

Nero fiddled while Rome burned

They couldn't stomach the film? Imagine if they had had to live through it.

I read the book decades ago, unforgettable.  Jerzy Kosinski lived through this period as a kid, I don't think he ever fully recovered from the trauma.  He was a an actor as well as a writer, ... best know for the novel, Being there....

He died by suicide.

Edited March 16, 20206 yr by daoyai

26 minutes ago, daoyai said:

I read the book decades ago, unforgettable.  Jerzy Kosinski lived through this period as a kid, I don't think he ever fully recovered from the trauma.  He was a an actor as well as a writer, ... best know for the novel, Being there....

He died by suicide.

Thanks for info. Will have a look on line see if I can pick up a copy.

In in London now working not back to Thailand until later in the year.

A truly amazing book, could not put it down, goes along with Celine,s "Journey to the End of Night" as one of the greatest books ever written !

Read it decades ago. One

 of the best. Audiences horrified? Haven't they seen Re-animator?

Oh what a surprise! OTT baited BS headlines from the sun and daily mail

Sounds about as repulsive as Naked Attraction and of Love Island. Obviously, a box office blockbuster in the making.

 

On 3/16/2020 at 7:57 PM, daoyai said:

I read the book decades ago, unforgettable.  Jerzy Kosinski lived through this period as a kid, I don't think he ever fully recovered from the trauma.  He was a an actor as well as a writer, ... best know for the novel, Being there....

He died by suicide.

Whilst its correct to say that Kosinski lived through this period as a kid he did not spend the war wandering from village to village like the main character in the book, he actually spent the whole of the war with his parents.

 

Village Voice exposed his tale as pure fantasy back in 1982 and there are even some doubts as to whether he actually wrote the book. His subsequent fall from grace may have had more to do with his suicide than anything he experienced during the war. 

 

The book, as you say, is unforgettable and I still re-read it from time to time.