Recently my favorite video store acquired a DVD copy of this Polish language movie. The writer who wrote the book on which this film is based was recommended to me by a friend from Poland who had grown up in the post-war era, there, before being forcibly moved to live in Soviet Russia for a time. He said it was a memorable story for all thinking Poles, and might make a good film He may have been right about the book ( which I have not read ), but the film is a terrible disaster.
The only analogy which seems to fit, for this commentary, is the idea that a truly fine chef has been hired to prepare a banquet for a large dinner party. For reasons unknown, despite having all the best food and all the best intentions, the result is a shambles of inedible or indigestible dishes. In other words, the result is a beautiful table laden with slop not fit for pigs.
The setting is Poland during the occupation of World War II. The characters are upper middle-class Poles, brilliant and artistic people who have managed to survive the first years of the war and are now living ... well ... despite the occupation. After a few scenes which should have established the authenticity of these characters, in their home city, the scenario moves to a country estate in a farming area.
All of the elements of a great movie are present: a genial host who owns the estate and farm, his beautiful and alcoholic wife, their daughter -- who has the face and form of a teen-aged angel -- the protagonist Frederyck and his friend Witold. To round out the story there is the sturdy and handsome farmhand, a momma's boy lawyer who is engaged to the daughter, Polish resistance fighters and a brief appearance by some German soldiers who live in the area.
At various points in the development ... if it can be called that ... of the plot, there's the suggestion made that Frederyck and Witold are homosexual companions. This goes nowhere. The handsome lawyer turns out to be an emotional cripple when his mother is stabbed to death by a local boy -- either by accident or on purpose, it isn't clear -- and the boy is then imprisoned in the bell tower of the estate, by the genial host. That plot element goes almost nowhere, too.
The wealthy family employs a cook and her daughter, a most beautiful young woman, who tries to seduce Fredericyk ( and fails ). Then in an almost comical after-thought, she ends up spending her free time in the confines of the bell tower with the murderous farm boy.
By the end of this movie, which has more to do with the peculiarities of being trapped in one's own country by a foreign army, than any thing else, the plot has degenerated into a cliché of mistaken identity. There's almost no point in going on, except to say that seldom have so many beautiful and talented actors and actresses been so utterly wasted in a confusing muddle that runs entirely too long.
Thank goodness this DVD rental was a bonus and free, because the thought of having to pay even a dollar for this tripe in Polish, galls me.
The only analogy which seems to fit, for this commentary, is the idea that a truly fine chef has been hired to prepare a banquet for a large dinner party. For reasons unknown, despite having all the best food and all the best intentions, the result is a shambles of inedible or indigestible dishes. In other words, the result is a beautiful table laden with slop not fit for pigs.
The setting is Poland during the occupation of World War II. The characters are upper middle-class Poles, brilliant and artistic people who have managed to survive the first years of the war and are now living ... well ... despite the occupation. After a few scenes which should have established the authenticity of these characters, in their home city, the scenario moves to a country estate in a farming area.
All of the elements of a great movie are present: a genial host who owns the estate and farm, his beautiful and alcoholic wife, their daughter -- who has the face and form of a teen-aged angel -- the protagonist Frederyck and his friend Witold. To round out the story there is the sturdy and handsome farmhand, a momma's boy lawyer who is engaged to the daughter, Polish resistance fighters and a brief appearance by some German soldiers who live in the area.
At various points in the development ... if it can be called that ... of the plot, there's the suggestion made that Frederyck and Witold are homosexual companions. This goes nowhere. The handsome lawyer turns out to be an emotional cripple when his mother is stabbed to death by a local boy -- either by accident or on purpose, it isn't clear -- and the boy is then imprisoned in the bell tower of the estate, by the genial host. That plot element goes almost nowhere, too.
The wealthy family employs a cook and her daughter, a most beautiful young woman, who tries to seduce Fredericyk ( and fails ). Then in an almost comical after-thought, she ends up spending her free time in the confines of the bell tower with the murderous farm boy.
By the end of this movie, which has more to do with the peculiarities of being trapped in one's own country by a foreign army, than any thing else, the plot has degenerated into a cliché of mistaken identity. There's almost no point in going on, except to say that seldom have so many beautiful and talented actors and actresses been so utterly wasted in a confusing muddle that runs entirely too long.
Thank goodness this DVD rental was a bonus and free, because the thought of having to pay even a dollar for this tripe in Polish, galls me.