The Doll (Lalka)

Introduction by producer & professor Andrzej Krakowski on March 31

Adapted from Bolesław Prus’s 19th-century novel, The Doll is Has’s follow-up to the The Saragossa Manuscript, a lavish period epic that matches that seminal film’s vast ambitions. Chronicling the decline of the Polish aristocracy as their social perch is usurped by the ascendant capitalist class, The Doll follows a new-money merchant and his many attempts to capture the heart of a down-on-her-luck contessa (Beata Tyszkiewicz). Has’s faithful adaptation of Prus’s novel is rendered particularly dreamy by his signature swooning, gliding camera movements, conjuring a sense of the present as always being a dream of the past.