Glass Lips

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Glass Lips
Directed by	Lech Majewski
Written by	Lech Majewski
Country	Poland USA
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Glass Lips is a feature film with almost no words, directed by Lech Majewski.

The film began life as an installation of interrelated short films, entitled Blood of a Poet (alluding to Jean Cocteau’s surreal film The Blood of a Poet). The installation had its world premiere at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City on May 3, 2006,^[1] ^[2] curated by Laurence Kardish. Its Polish debut was at the Atlas Sztuki Gallery in Łódź from 2006-05-19 to 2006-06-18 (Polish-language name “Krew poety” or “Krwi Poety”).^[3],^[4],^[5],^[6] The installation also was exhibited at the Opera Wrocławska (Wrocław Opera House) from 2006-07-20 to 2006-07-30 during the Era New Horizons Film Festival. It was described there as:

a video art. “Pseudoplot” screened on eight walls, the remaining works will be shown in loops on 24 screens. Entering this labyrinth, every viewer walks from one stage to another and builds his or her private story out of ready elements.^[7]

Blood of a Poet was further exhibited as a video installation from 2007-02-08 to 2007-02-18 in Berlin, by the Polish Film Institute in cooperation with Silesia Film and ŻAK Gallery. There it was described as “a circuit of 33 short films and a series of interrelated photographic works”.^[8]

The short films of the video installation Blood of a Poet were assembled into a single feature film entitled Glass Lips, premiering in that form in February 2007 in Vancouver.^[9],^[10],^[11]

In Poland the film in its feature-length format is known as Szklane usta and premieres on 2007-03-23.^[12],^[13],^[14]

Glass Lips is also set to play in Boulder, Colorado at the University of Colorado International Film Series in March/April 2007, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. in July 2007.^[15],^[16]

The film stars Patryk Czajka as Sebastian, Joanna Litwin as Sebastian’s mother, and Grzegorz Przybył as Sebastian’s father. As the film begins, Sebastian is in a mental asylum; he recalls events from his life beginning with his birth. Many of the sequences of the film are surrealistic. None of the actors speak any words, but the electronic voice of an answering machine gives the date at one point, and there is a voice-over song that gets repeated.

The film includes some shocking images, such as a woman who gives birth to a large bloody rock, and a man eating dog food.

In addition to directing, Majewski is credited as the writer, producer, and cinematographer.^[17]