Features: DVD, English, Subtitled
"Suffused with Kieslowski's dry wit and intelligence," (Jonathan Rosenbaum, The Chicago Reader), Camera Buff is Krzysztof Kieslowski's (The Double Life of Veronique) tragi-comic meditation on filmmaking. Self-reflexive by nature, this fictional film about a documentary filmmaker is commonly referred to as a watershed in Kieslowski's transition from documentary to fiction filmmaking. "I'm frightened of real tears," Kieslowski once said. "In fact, I don't even know if I have the right to photograph them."This ethical question becomes the epicenter of the life of Filip Mosz (Jerzy Stuhr--Kieslowski's Three Colors: White), the main character in Camera Buff. Happily married and economically stable, the film's humble hero buys an 8mm film camera with the intention of filming his newborn child--and capturing the moment of attainment of a lifelong dream. But when a powerhouse director of the town's local factory recruits him to film an important board meeting, Filip's fascination with the medium grows into passionate dedication. At the command of a larger film unit and networking to enrich his career, Filip eventually reaches an irreconcilable deadlock with his wife, friends and the director who previously supported his cinematic ambitions. Camera Buff mirrors Kieslowski's complex relationship with "reality" and its possible representations. Through Filip's often comic need to capture "life as it is," Kieslowski denounces the myth of objectivity at the base of cinema verite. More than implying that there is no engagement with reality that can leave it untouched, Kieslowski suggests that the very act of seeing is in itself a moment of creation.
"Outstanding! Both hilarious and down to earth." Variety
Editor's Note
Krzysztof Kieslowski presents this initially comic yet ultimately moving drama about finding one's calling in life. Filip Mosz (Jerzy Stuhr), a Polish factory worker, purchases an eight-millimeter movie camera to record his baby daughter's first few years of life. Looking for other things to do with his new toy, Filip makes a rather shoddy documentary about his workplace and then submits the film to a local festival. Surprisingly, his amateur movie garners an award, and this small taste of success sends Filip into a moviemaking frenzy. Committing himself to a new life as a documentary filmmaker, he shoots footage of nearly everything he encounters, but his zeal to record all that he sees soon runs him afoul of government officials who guard secrets they don't want revealed, in addition to his wife, who becomes fed up with his need to live life from behind the camera. In traditional Kieslowski fashion, his film works on many different levels, including the sociopolitical one that takes place in the factory. It is the personal commentary on filmmaking passion that provides the film with its core emotion, however. Stuhr's Filip is a remarkable creation--a man who is at once inspiring, loving, and pathetic.
Plot Summary
When a new father buys a camera to film his baby, his awkward work wins a prize at a local film festival. Convinced of his calling, he begins shooting everything in sight, including some activities the government would rather not have on film. CAMERA BUFF is a clever, comic, self-reflexive examination of a filmmaker's zealous commitment to his art, from Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski (THE DECALOGUE).
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