The roe's room

videofresco

1997

The roe's room

videofresco

1997

Within their apartment, a father, mother and son bear the dulling yoke of an ordinary urban life. His mind and heart borne aloft by the cycle of the seasons and the images and music within him, the son transforms his cloistered existence into a richly poetic emotional utopia. As autumn arrives, cracking flakes of plaster become falling leaves. With spring, a cold hard floor comes alive with meadow grass and love beckons in the form of a beautiful girl’s outstretched hand… A fantastical family chronicle set in a house where nature fuses with and eventually consumes  the lives of a family.

Accompanied by the Polish National Symphony Orchestra and the Silesian Opera Chorus, Majewski gilds the The Roe’s Room with “remarkable images” (Time Out) of “strange, entrancing beauty” (Variety) and creates a soaring theatrical Eden in which life goes on, love blooms and dies, and nature has the final say. Presented in many art galleries and museums as an installation, this videofresco entered New York’s The Museum of Modern Art collection.

Staging and libretto Lech Majewski based on his poems from the book HOME music Lech Majewski, Józef Skrzek orchestration Andrzej Marko cinematography Adam Sikora production design Lech Majewski, Katarzyna Sobańska costumes Małgorzata Zacharska editor Eliot Ems producers Lech Majewski, Elżbieta Piętak TVP

with Rafał Olbrychski, Elżbieta Mazur, Mieczysław Czepulonis, Agnieszka Wróblewska voices Artur Stefanowicz, Elżbieta Towarnicka, Mieczyslaw Czepulonis, Izabella Kłosińska, Polish Radio National Symphony Orchestra conductor Zdzisław Szostak, Silesian Opera Chorus chorus master Krystyna Świder

REVIEWS:

“Ravaging intensity! In The Roe’s Room Majewski has a vision of a kind of paradise or blessedness, though it is fleeting and melancholy, as the natural world invades a comfortable apartment. Grass and trees grow, blood flows from the walls, time passes in a smooth reverie of beautiful music and imagery. The surreal, when it works, defies description. In The Roe’s Room it works, with a sense of poetic decency underneath it and none of the coldness or superficial irony of so much video art.”
Philip Kennicott, The Washington Post

“A fantastical, haunting tale set in a house where nature fuses with – and eventually consumes – the lives of a family.”
Laurence Kardish, Senior Curator, Museum of Modern Art New York

“In this ‘autobiographical film opera’, multi-talented composer, writer, director and artist Lech Majewski presents a stunning, intimate, and ultimately magical work of unbridled creativity. A ravishing ode to the imagination, The Roe’s Room is a place where the energy of youth and the eternal power of the natural world triumph over the banalities and deprivations of the commonplace.”
Kino International

“A visionary and musical poem. A profound, subtle and very original movie.”
Claude Chamberlan, Montreal International Film Festival

“There is a strange, entrancing beauty to the images and music in The Roe’s Room. Majewski creates striking visual tableaux that possess a memorable, haunting quality.”
Brendan Kelly, Variety

“Disturbing and visionary. The Roe’s Room is a masterpiece.”
Carlo Montanaro, La Nuova di Venezia

“A modern visual arts masterpiece!”
Ruben Guzman, Curator, Buenos Aires Museum of Fine Arts

“Majewski’s normal multi-tasking takes on even greater dimensions in his absolutely singular ‘autobiographical film opera’. Writing (libretto and music), directing and designing this often limpidly beautiful ‘cycle of life’ parable, he conjures some remarkable images out of an extremely contained spatial and thematic environment. Limpidly beautiful ‘cycle of life’ parable…One of a kind.”
Gareth Evans, Time Out London

“Fascinating film. Extraordinary imagination.”
Pierre-Henri Deleau, Biarritz International Festival of Audiovisual Media

“Henri Langlois Association presents two equally unique film masterpieces at Cinema Accatone in Paris: the somber ‘Film’ by Samuel Beckett, and hypnotic ‘Roe’s Room’ by Lech Majewski.”
Allan Riou, Le nouvelle Observateur

Opera THE ROE’S ROOM  / Music THE ROE’S ROOM / Books MIESZKANIE / Screenplays