The Painted Bird is theatre of cruelty at its most literal. Brutally faithful to Polish author Jerzy Kosinski’s controversial 1965 novel of the same name (once considered unfilmable), its hellish ...

Adapted from Jerzy Kosiński’s novel, “The Painted Bird” comes to life through Vàclav Marhoul’s lens. Shot in black and white, the film tells the story of The Boy as he wanders around Eastern European ...

I never made it all the way through Jerzy Kosinski’s bleak and brooding 1965 novel “The Painted Bird.” By the time I tried, it had won the National Book Award, and was being recommended to me by ...

Petr Kotlár in a scene from "The Painted Bird." (Courtesy of IFC Films) Václav Marhoul's "The Painted Bird" begins with utter bleakness, but over the course of its 169 minutes, it keeps finding lower ...

A boy of about 9 is separated from his family, moving from one adult to another, from one isolated dwelling or village to another, in a desperate two-year effort to survive. Stripped of name and ...

The German-born actor has carved a niche playing lowlifes, and his demented turn in Czech Republic's Oscar contender "The Painted Bird" is no exception. In “The Painted Bird,” the German actor with ...

Václav Marhoul's adaptation of the Jerzy Kosinski novel is bound to stir up controversy this spring. If there was one movie that made the most headlines among international cinephiles at last year’s ...

Some words and sentences linger for months after being read. For Jerzy Kosiński’s “The Painted Bird,” there are entire chapters that continue to haunt me years later. I first read this book in high ...

Why are we asking for donations? Why are we asking for donations? This site is free thanks to our community of supporters. Voluntary donations from readers like you keep our news accessible for ...