kiler.txt

http://bayimg.com/dAAkPaADl

Kiler (1997) 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0127626/

Kiler (The Hitman) is a highly successful 1997 Polish comedy by Juliusz Machulski, starring Cezary Pazura, Jerzy Stuhr, Janusz Rewinski and Malgorzata Kozuchowska. The movie is a story of a taxi driver named Jerzy (short: Jurek) Kiler who is mistaken for a notorious mercenary killer by the police as well as the mafia.

  Cezary Pazura  ...  Jurek Kiler  
  Malgorzata Kozuchowska  ...  Ewa Szanska  
  Jerzy Stuhr  ...  Ryba  
  Janusz Rewinski  ...  Siara  
  Katarzyna Figura  ...  Rysia  
  Jan Englert  ...  Lipski  
  Krzysztof Kiersznowski  ...  Waski  
  Marek Kondrat  ...  Klonisz  
  Jan Machulski  ...  Police Inspector  
  Alex Murphy  ...  Hector Sosa  
  Slawomir Sulej  ...  Kudlaty  
  Piotr Wawrzynczak  ...  Iks  
  Slawomir Orzechowski  ...  Stranger  
  Szymon Majewski  ...  Mioduch  
  Pawel Delag  ...  Camera Operator  


Seeing the movie's tremendous success in Poland, Hollywood quickly purchased the rights to the movie, with the intention to adapt it for the American market, with Machulski (the original director) as the executive producer. However, nothing of the sort has happened since.

Films produced in Poland in the nineties try to establish their identity as a part of European and world culture not only in terms of economics. Despite the growing number of co-productions with Western partners, the majority of Polish film production is still fully financed from domestic sources. Yet those films are more and more for export. 

Kiler managed to gather popular cinema enthusiasts and art house audiences: it was both popular and rated very highly by most film critics. Yet it clearly defines itself as a non-serious, fun production. 

At the very beginning we learn that Polish gangsters prepare a deal to sell the Palace of Culture, a famous Warsaw building presented by Soviets to our country, to some foreign investors. This abstract and impossible situation moves the story to a level that is later defined as intertextual. 

Instead of relating the story to any experiences of the viewer, the director calls for his cinema competence. Kiler builds on clich?s and admits it in many ways. 

In one of the scenes Jurek Kiler, a taxi driver mistaken for a famous hit man, builds his image from popular films. After watching The Taxi Driver by Martin Scorsese, Leon: The Professional by Luc Besson and a couple other films he poses like the protagonists of the movies that inspired him. 

He also chooses one Polish film, Psy by Wladyslaw Pasikowski, an almost perfect copy of American action movies. Parodying the character created by one of his colleagues, Boguslaw Linda, with whom Cezary Pazura (Jurek Kiler in Machulski?s movie) often stars, the protagonist assures the viewer that Polish movies (both Psy and Kiler) are part of a larger-than-Polish tradition. 

Kiler also defines a new function of cinema. Juliusz Machulski seems to admit that his movie is more a sophisticated product than an artistic event. Its goal is to entertain and do it well, to provide consumer-like satisfaction. 

Not only the protagonists are defined as members of consumer society, but the movie itself encourages its audience to consume. Kiler is one of the first Polish movies to use intensive tie-in product placement techniques. 

The producers signed contracts with some companies to show their products in a positive context in the movie. Thus, nearly all protagonists drive Nissans (from Micra to a sports coupe), they watch Nasza Television (owned by the distributor), read Viva weekly and use Era GSM mobile phones. 

The strategy is used in many foreign movies, but in Machulski?s film some products (especially the cars) are ever-present. Their presentation is not simply in keeping with the terms of the agreement with the sponsors, but denotes a certain shift in Polish cinema, which starts to operate in the market to fulfil certain consumer needs of the audience.