This great movie by Andrzej Wajda tells the story of a gifted Polish painter, Wladyslaw Strzeminski. This disabled professor of art history lives his life with a panache and is a happy & content intellectual who is systematically destroyed until he is devoid of all hope. I particularly liked 2 scenes: one at the beginning of the movie & one at the end. The scene at the beginning being the one where the protagonist rolls down the hill to meet a new student, & the scene at the end being the one where he dyes the white flowers (a consistent article in the film) blue to pay respect to his dead wife. After all what is a painter to do if he doesn't have the desired blue flowers? Color the white flowers that he does have at hand, of course! Besides these, one other scene deserves special mention: the one where he rejects the love of the young student who is smitten by him. It takes a brilliant director to make such a scene feel like the kindness that it was meant to be towards the young lady even though at the face it appears to be a very brutal rejection. So, even if our protagonist is far from perfect when it comes to providing for his family, he's still a decent man.
What I also loved about this movie is that even though it is supposed to be the story of a single man, it has a universal appeal because this is the story of every man who has ever tried to make a stand against any regime. It has happened in the past & it will continue to happen in the future. On some small level, almost every person has felt the desperation that accompanies when one has to take an independent stand against any collective. Makes one wonder why must the collective/regime be so insecure that it feels threatened by a single dissenter. In fact, so great is this insecurity that they feel compelled to totally annihilate the lone dissenter. Shouldn't a regime/collective that believes itself to be fair & rational be confident that a single person isn't going to be able to do any serious damage? After all, in a just society everybody has a right to live; even the dissenters!
What I also loved about this movie is that even though it is supposed to be the story of a single man, it has a universal appeal because this is the story of every man who has ever tried to make a stand against any regime. It has happened in the past & it will continue to happen in the future. On some small level, almost every person has felt the desperation that accompanies when one has to take an independent stand against any collective. Makes one wonder why must the collective/regime be so insecure that it feels threatened by a single dissenter. In fact, so great is this insecurity that they feel compelled to totally annihilate the lone dissenter. Shouldn't a regime/collective that believes itself to be fair & rational be confident that a single person isn't going to be able to do any serious damage? After all, in a just society everybody has a right to live; even the dissenters!