Love Express. The Strange Case of Walerian Borowczyk
How does a film director get from making art house cinema to softporn movies? From acclaimed artist to pornographer? From genius to troublemaker? Love Express is a documentary film essay, an investigation trying to solve the riddle of one of the most puzzling career twists in 20th century European cinema – high-brow critical favorite Walerian Borowczyk’s alleged plunge into pornography, exploitation and overall depravity. Borowczyk’s fall from critical grace was as spectacular as it was sudden. In the 1970’s he was hailed alongside Buñuel, Fellini and Bresson as one of the greatest visionaries of European cinema, celebrated for his wildly inventive animated shorts and meticulously staged live-action films. In the 1980s, labelled "arty-pornographer" and largely dismissed by reviewers, he ended his career as the director of late-night TV erotic series, while hopelessly trying to launch numerous new feature film projects.Set to untangle Borowczyk’s dwindling reputation, Love Express highlights major shifts in European attitudes towards sexuality, censorship and counterculture, which occurred at the turn of 1970s and 80s – and to a large extent shaped contemporary cultural milieu. It is a story about a mad filmmaker on a crash course with critics, society and emerging art house industry. About an artist, who fights and loses the battle with his critical image.