Camera Buff Torrent

[Magnhild Lachowicz]

Thefilm is set in the late 1970s in Wielice, People's Republic of Poland. Factory worker Filip Mosz (Jerzy Stuhr) is a nervous new father and a doting husband when he begins filming his daughter's first days with a newly acquired 8mm movie camera. He believes, as he tells his wife, that he now has everything he ever wanted since his youth as an orphan, but when the local Communist Party boss asks him to film a celebration event of the jubilee of his plant, his fascination with the possibilities of film begins to transform his life.

When they see his film, his superiors find his shot of a pigeon useless and his shots of several negotiators at a business meeting too probing. His boss suggests that Filip cut the shots of the entertainers being paid, the men going to the bathroom, and the business meeting. (He allows Filip to keep the pigeons as long as the shot of entertainers being paid is taken out.) He submits the film to a festival and gains third prize, effectively second prize because the festival did not award a first prize, feeling that no work was deserving. He is given an award as an incentive to keep filming. He starts to neglect his responsibilities to his family as his attention fixes on Anna Wlodarczyk, an attractive, self-described "amatorka" (amateur) who encourages Filip's filmmaking, on the activities he films, and on the world of cinephiles.

The Krakw TV station airs Filip's film about a dwarf working at the factory and another about misallocated town renovation funds. Filip's boss reprimands him: work on the new nursery school will have to stop because of his expos, and Stasio Osuch, the head of the works council and Filip's mentor, will lose his job. After that, Filip retrieves the canister for his as-yet undeveloped film about the brickyard, which he has learned is not operating due to lack of materials, with the workers being secretly employed on other town projects, opens it and tosses the film out to be exposed to the light. Alone at home, his wife having left the relationship with their daughter due to his obsession with filming rather than his family, Filip now turns his 16mm camera on himself.

Camera Buff explores censorship in Communist Poland and its repression of the individual's expression of his observations. Filip also confronts the consequences of a man who discovers new possibilities and finds his former world, which had been so fulfilling before he'd discovered filmmaking, rendered dull, old, and limited.

Krzysztof Kieślowski emphasizes the power of film through various scenes in Camera Buff. Filip's moviemaking allows his grieving friend to watch a short clip of his late mother waving from a window and of himself cheerfully driving a hearse and waving to the camera. When he films the story of a diminutive factory worker and then shows him the result, the worker is overcome with emotion by Filip's ability to give voice and an arc to an otherwise ordinary, unexceptional life. Filip finds that with its ability to create comes film's ability to destroy when he tries to air a film clip of his which aims to quietly expose Party corruption. The clip turns out to be misinformed and results in the dismissal of one of his supporters from his job, an unfortunate consequence of his uninformed reporting, the Party's secrecy, and Communist Poland's culture of censorship.

Filip buys an 8mm movie camera when his first child is born. Because it's the first camera in town, he's named official photographer by the local Party boss. His horizons widen when he is sent to regional film festivals with his first works but his focus on movie making also leads to domestic strife and philosophical dilemmas.

Jerzy Stuhr Małgorzata Ząbkowska Ewa Pokas Stefan Czyżewski Jerzy Nowak Tadeusz Bradecki Marek Litewka Bogusław Sobczuk Krzysztof Zanussi Andrzej Jurga Alicja Bienicewicz Tadeusz Repka Aleksandra Kisielewska Włodzimierz Maciudziński Roman Stankiewicz Antonina Barczewska Feliks Szajnert Jolanta Brzezińska Teresa Szmigielwna Jacek Turalik Andrzej Warchał Danuta Wiercińska Tadeusz Huk Zofia Framer Zbigniew Framer Marian Osuch Tadeusz Sobolewski Krzysztof Wierzbicki

pure cinephile fanfic. one day as you work at the factory you will be told that you are now a filmmaker, you have an eye, a talent, a volition unstoppable, you will enter your films immediately into film festivals, you will win humbly and you will get to fuck. a fever dream we've all had

I want every cinephile on this site to watch this film and ask: Did Camera Buff just symbolically expose my unhealthy obsession with Letterboxd? Did I just self-reflexively witness my life being completely taken over by cinephilia? If this film offers a mirror into the all-consuming, all-destroying power of cinematic obsession, then let us ask as Woodcock asks: Was film sent here to ruin our evening and possibly our entire lives? Wow. That sounds blasphemous to say, and yet it's so rare for me to find a film that honestly, and painfully, reveals uncomfortable emotional truths about myself in terms of the personal cost of watching (or in Mosz's case, making) movies.

Filip, our main protagonist, lives a pretty ordinary life. At the birth of his daughter, he decides to buy an 8mm camera to document her every day moments. However, his life eventually changed for the better and for worse when he realizes the power of what his camera could possibly do more as he finds life more fascinating behind the lens. His passion and obsession when it comes to filmmaking quickly sends him into a downward spiral that ultimately leads into a personal tragedy.

Every auteur has his/her own way to express his/her love towards cinema. We've had several testaments, from 8 1/2 to Pastoral: To Die in the Country, from La Nuit Amricaine to Terror Firmer (haha). Camera Buff emanates love and passion in every frame, and tells us about the consequences such life may unleash along the way, both personally and those regarding people directly and indirectly involved with one's life.

As far as my experience has gone, I have not encountered a better Kieslowski masterpiece than this one. He must really have gotten very excited to have Krzysztof Zanussi in his film. Alternatively, Zanussi must have been intelligent enough to see promising talents in Kieslowski, just like fate stumbles upon Filip Mosz (Jerzy Stuhr) without previous warning.

there is a moment in Camera Buff that completely encapsulates the power behind cinema as both form and concept. early in the film, a character's mother is filmed in her apartment from outside. she is instructed to wave, which she does. later, the characters watch the footage in a darkened room with no sound but the clicking of the projector, and the mother is on screen for but a single moment before disappearing into the darkness. and now she - along with her memory - is eternally preserved in the reels of film. it is a haunting, beautiful, and breathtaking scene.

this film made me realize how fucking annoying i must be to non-film people. Jesus christ. every film student should be required to watch this movie so we're forced to reckon with how annoying we are.

Another astonishing work from Krzysztof Kieślowski which is an ode to the power of cinema, an astute and realistic character study on obsession and a nod to harsh climate of Communist Poland in its attempt to stifle self-expression.

Upon receiving a 8mm camera to capture the life of his newborn daughter, Filip finds himself caught up in the possibilities of expressing his creative urges, but only under the scrutiny and censorship of his employer. As his obsession to succeed becomes more and more unbalanced and his 'hobby' becomes quite lucrative, his attention to his family becomes increasingly neglectful to damaging effect.

Kieslowski's coin.

A masterpiece with two distinct sides.

Personal satisfaction through creation and it's broader, social impact. While unmistakably unique, both feed off and into each other, an endless loop, just like the outline of a coin.

Though I've only just begun my dive into Kieslowski's iconic works, his grasp over visual metaphors & the seamless blend of allegory with the reality of his worlds have completely sold me. Camera Buff or Amator (the more fitting title smh) is no exception to the aforementioned, from the very opening we're given plenitude of themes for our eyes to decipher.

That short documentary about the life of the dwarf really touched my heart, it reminds me of the one who played Tyrion Lannister i.e Peter Dinklage, I hope there will be a documentary film or a biography film about his life, it certainly will be so inspiring.

It is an article of faith that in the world of Krzysztof Kieslowski all actions must be carried out to their logical conclusions. The driver of a hearse must eventually confront death. A man who picks up a camera must eventually become a filmmaker with all the responsibilities and burdens that go along with it. Camera Buff is the film that gave Kieslowski major international attention and marks a major artistic shift in his work. He began as a documentary filmmaker, gradually moving towards socially engaged, realist fiction. His middle period, beginning with this film, still features the penetratingly observant eye of a documentarian, but takes on broader philosophical questions and is characterised by a virtuosic visual style that seamlessly combines theme and form in highly original ways. Fittingly, then, Camera Buff is a self-reflexive work on the role of the filmmaker and the nature and ethics of the medium itself.

Still, it seems that Filip must choose between family and film. He gets drunk after dropping his wife off at the hospital and we get the sense that he has been a bit of an unfocused bumbler, who has yet to take his life seriously. While we imagine that fatherhood will be the impetus for his coming of age, it is actually the camera. How to balance his personal life, a passion for film, and the preparation required to become a good director remains a nagging conundrum for Filip, as it, perhaps, was for Kieslowski too. If it does not provide a solution, this entertaining, humorous, and deeply felt film, at least, takes the question very seriously.

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