Andrzej Wajda Movies
A major figure in the world of post-World War II Eastern European cinema, Polish director Andrzej Wajda has chronicled his country's political and social evolution with sensitivity, fervor, and a refusal to make compromises in dealing with his difficult subjects. Once dubbed a symbol for his besieged country, Wajda has repeatedly drawn from Poland's history to suit his tragic sensibility, crafting an oeuvre of work that devastates even as it informs.The son of a Polish cavalry officer who was killed early in World War II, Wajda fought in the Resistance movement against the Nazis when he was still a teenager. After the war, he studied to be a painter before entering the Lodz film school. On the heels of his apprenticeship to director Aleksander Ford, Wajda was given the opportunity to direct a film on his own. With A Generation (1955), the first-time director poured out all his bitterness and disillusionment regarding blind patriotism and wartime heroics, using as his alter ego a young, James Dean-style antihero played by Zbigniew Cybulski. The Wajda/Cybulski team went on to make two more films of escalating brilliance, which further developed the antiwar theme of A Generation: Kanal (1956) and Ashes and Diamonds (1958). While perfectly capable of turning out mainstream commercial pictures (often dismissed as "trivial" by his critics), Wajda was more interested in works of allegory and symbolism, with certain symbolic devices (such as setting fire to a glass of liquor, representing the flame of youthful idealism that was extinguished by the war) popping up repeatedly in his films.
In 1967, Cybulski was killed in an auto accident, whereupon the director articulated his grief with what is considered his most personal film, Everything for Sale (1969). Wajda's later devotion to Poland's burgeoning Solidarity movement was manifested in Man of Marble (1976) and Man of Iron (1981), with Solidarity leader Lech Walesa appearing as himself in the latter film. The director's involvement in this movement would prompt the Polish government to force Wajda's production company out of business. After several years' exile in France, Wajda returned to his politically liberated homeland in 1989. In the early '90s, he was elected a senator and also appointed artistic director of Warsaw's Teatr Powschensky. He continued to make films, addressing the topic of World War II in 1993's Pierscionek Z Orlem W Koronie and 1996's Wielki Tydzien. In 1997, the director went in a different direction with Panna Nikt, a coming-of-age drama that explored the darker and more spiritual aspects of a relationship between two high-school girls. Three years later, at the 2000 Oscar ceremony, Wajda was presented with an honorary Oscar for his numerous contributions to the cinema; he subsequently donated the award to Krakow's Jagiellonaian University. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 2008
Polish heavyweight director Andrzej Wajda helms this unusual, way-offbeat project, whose complicated backstory explains the complex structure on hand. Ostensibly the tale of a middle-aged woman who grows obsessed with a much younger man in the years following World War II, while facing her own impending death at the same time, the film reached mid-production when lead actress Krystyna Janda lost her beloved husband to a terminal illness and began to work through the grief. Hit by creative inspiration, Wajda decided to modify the film by superimposing Janda's reading of a deeply intimate, confessional monologue onto the filmed material, thus commenting pointedly on the original work. The tale opens in a contemporary hotel room, shot with large, flat patches of light and shadow stylistically recalling Edward Hopper. Janda stands in the room, and as she walks around, speaks openly and passionately of cinematographer husband Edward Klosinski -- his diagnosis, his physiological decline, and ultimately his death. The narrative then cuts to the period section, with uncanny parallels to Janda's off-set experiences. Here, the actress stars as Marta, a European woman semi-happily married to a local physician (Jan Englert). He learns that she has contracted lung cancer, but deliberately resists informing her of her dire impending fate -- because she's already emotionally fragile given the death of their young sons during the war. Then, one day, Marta is walking with a friend when she catches a glimpse of a handsome, strapping 20-year-old man named Boguslaw (Pawel Szajda) and feels instantly drawn to his youth and sexuality. She then beckons him into a mentor-protégé relationship, which inevitably leads to an affair. Marta expresses her desire to collect rushes for the upcoming Pentecost feast, an event designed to celebrate life, and the passage of spring into summer -- but she doesn't realize that the freshness of life that beckoned her when she first spotted Boguslaw will ultimately be her undoing. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
- Starring:
- Krystyna Janda, Pawel Szajda, (more)
Celebrated Polish filmmaker Andrzej Wajda takes the helm for this Oscar-nominated drama detailing the harrowing events surrounding the 1940 massacre of captured Polish army officers in the Katyn Forest. A unique blend of conventional narrative and documentary-style filmmaking, Katyn opens in the spring of 1940, just as the Soviet Secret police execute a group of Polish officers. On September 1, 1939, Germen forces had descended upon Poland, paving the way for the Red Army to occupy east Poland as part of the Hitler-Stalin pact. As the Red Army assumed control of east Poland, all officers in the Polish army were placed in Soviet custody. Determined to remain loyal to the army despite the growing danger, Polish officer Andrzej refuses to flee with his wife, Anna. It isn't long before invading forces begin arresting professors in Cracow, and as the detainees languish in prison camps, their families start to fear that they'll never see their loved ones again. Flash forward to April 1943, and the Germans announce the discovery of mass graves. While Anna is relieved not to hear her husband's name on the list of bodies discovered, countless others are left to grieve their losses with no explanation or consolation. January 18, 1945: Cracow is liberated by the Red Army, and propagandist newsreels from the Soviet Union blame German forces for the massacre at Katyn. It is at that point that the fine line between collaboration and resistance within the People's Republic of Poland becomes exceptionally blurred. As the details surrounding the massacre gradually begin to emerge, Wajda reveals precisely how this horrifying massacre unfolded by flashing back to the spring of 1940 for an extended sequence in which Polish officer internees are transported by railroad to Smolensk and methodically dispatched before being casually buried in a mass grave. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Maja Ostaszewska, Artur Zmijewski, (more)
- 2006
Primo Levi's harrowing memoir If This Is a Man appeared in the U.S. in 1959 as Survival in Auschwitz; historians now regard it as the most critically important written conveyance of the horrors within the Nazi concentration camps. But the account in that text only represents half of Levi's story. The other half began after his release from Auschwitz. Instead of simply returning to his native Turin, Levi and 600 others were forcibly shipped east -- thousands of miles away from their homes. Thus began a grueling, trans-national journey that Levi undertook, across war-ravaged Europe and back to Turin -- a journey that took all of 12 months to complete, and that filled him, alternately, with incredulity, anger, wonder, and astonishment -- as he reflected on the meaning of his own survival in the camps. Levi died in 1987; as a tribute to the belletrist and historian, acclaimed nonfiction filmmaker Davide Ferrario (Far from Rome, Borderline) retraces Levi's route with his cameras in his documentary Primo Levi's Journey. Ferrario travels through Ukraine, Belarus, Moldavia, Romania, Hungary, Germany, and south to his native country, evaluating, at each stop, the sociological climate and the various ways in which Eastern Europe has alternately evolved and remained static over the prior 60 years. Ferrario touches on numerous issues relevant to the contemporary sociopolitical landscape of Eastern Europe, as the Russian satellite countries struggle to develop national identities, and concurrently reflects on the experiences of Levi's original trip. Celebrated Polish filmmaker Andrezj Wajda appears early on and serves as a "tour guide" for one of the first legs of the voyage. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
- Starring:
- Chris Cooper, Umberto Orsini, (more)
One of the most important figures in the Polish cinema, director Andrzej Wajda, teams up with the nation's most famous filmmaking expatriate, Roman Polanski, in this light comedy based on a perennially popular stage farce by Aleksandr Fredo. Czesnik (Janusz Gajos) and Rejent (Andrzej Seweryn) are the combative scions of two prominent families fallen on hard times, both of whom have the poor fortune of having homes which share a common courtyard. Czesnik's niece Klara (Agata Buzek) has fallen in love with Waclaw (Rafal Krolikowski), Rejent's son. However, Rejent has promised his son to Podstolina (Katarzyna Figura), a beautiful widow who has attracted Czesnik's eye. Meanwhile, Papkin (Roman Polanski), a former nobleman short on both cash and courage, hopes to wed Klara, but as a neutral party in the feud between the two clans, Klara thinks she might be able to use Papkin for her own purposes to bring her together with Waclaw. A major box-office hit in Poland, Zemsta marked the first time Wajda and Polanski had worked together since Pokolenie in 1952. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Janusz Gajos, Andrzej Seweryn, (more)
- 2002
Based on the book by Stanislaw Rembek, Wyrok na Franciszka Klosa (The Condemnation of Franciszek Klos) was made for Polish TV by director Andrzej Wajda. During WWII, Klos (Miroslaw Baka) works as a policemen who helps the occupying Nazi soldiers in his village. Against the better judgment of his wife (Grazyna Blecka-Kolska) and his mother (Maja Komorowska), Klos degrades himself for the Nazis after he gets condemned to death for war crimes. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi
- Starring:
- Miroslaw Baka, Maja Komorowska, (more)
Legendary Polish filmmaker Andrzej Wajda adapts a nationally treasured epic poem to the silver screen. For 400 years, Lithuania and Poland were linked, until the country was partitioned in 1795 by aggressive nations at its borders -- Russia, Prussia, and the Austrian empire. At that point, the formerly huge nation simply ceased to exist. Yet one hope remained for the patriotic Poles yearning for autonomy -- France. Napoleon promised to restore the Polish homeland if they, in turn, helped him defeat Russia. Thousands of Poles were part of the French force that reached the gates of Moscow before being forced into a long and bloody retreat. The film itself centers on two families who live in the Russian-controlled part of Poland: the Horeszkos, who ardently favor independence, and the Soplicas, who support Russia. In 1792, the last household lord of the Horeszkos was killed by Jacek Soplica; as a result, the latter was rewarded with the former's castle by the Russian colonizers. Twenty years later, the region is rife with rumors of Napoleon's imminent invasion. A destitute Count (Marek Kondrat) and heir to the Horeszko family estate almost throws his lot in with the richer and more powerful Soplica clan before he stumbles upon Gervais (Daniel Olbrychski), who reminds him of the treacherous murder of his ancestor. Meanwhile, Tadeusz (Michal Zebrowski), the rakish nephew of Judge Soplica (Andrzej Seweryn), who symbolizes all that is good and right about Poland, is confronted with a choice upon returning from university. He can either give his heart to the beautiful, pure, 14-year-old Sosia (Alicja Bachleda-Curus), a distant cousin of the Horeszkos who is living with the Soplicas, or he can opt instead for the worldly, sophisticated, St. Petersburg-educated Telimena (Grazyna Szapolowska), who is related to both clans. This film, which in many ways sums up Wajda's long and illustrious career, was a massive success in its native Poland. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
- Starring:
- Boguslaw Linda, Daniel Olbrychski, (more)
- 1997
Andrzej Wajda directed this metaphoric coming-of-age story. Marysia (Anna Wielgucka) is a shy and withdrawn 15-year-old girl whose family moves from a small town to a large city. Marysia feels like an outcast until she meets Kasia (Anna Mucha), a bright and talented girl who takes Marysia under her wing and introduces her to a circle of student musicians and artists. Kasia insists that a life of emotional isolation is vital to the creative mind, but when she informs Marysia, who was raised a devout Catholic, that she must renounce her faith if she is to succeed as an artist, Marysia break ties with her friend. Marysia soon becomes close with Ewa (Anna Powierza), a girl from a wealthy family whose life of pleasure and privilege seems to be the opposite of Kasia's more ascetic worldview. However, in time Marysia discovers that they're linked in a way that she would have never imagined. Panna Nikt (Miss Nobody) premiered at the 1997 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- 1996
Andrzej Wajda, the most acclaimed Polish filmmaker of the post-WWII era, returned from exile to make films again in Poland in the 1990s, including this saga based on the novel by Jerzy Andrzjewski. The English translation is Holy Week, and the film is set during the week before Easter in WWII Poland. Irena Lilien (Beata Fudalej), a young Jewish woman, escapes from the Warsaw ghetto where the Nazis are persecuting Jews and sending them off to extermination. She seeks out her former lover, Jan Malecki (Wojciech Malajkat). Jan and his wife Anna (Magdalena Warzecha), a Catholic who hates the Germans, agree to shelter Irena from the authorities, though in so doing, they are risking their own lives. Jan's younger brother leaves the house and joins the Resistance. Irena chafes at her virtual house arrest and soon attracts the attention of neighbors and a local black-market businesswoman, whose husband tries to rape Irena. Eventually, the leaders of the neighborhood call for Irena to be turned over to the Nazis. The situation boils over, pitting neighbor against neighbor and illustrating how the Nazis drove rifts in the Polish community. ~ Michael Betzold, Rovi
- 1994
In this truly unique film, Andrzej Wajda, takes the final scene from Dostoevsky's novel "The Idiot" and then has two Kabuki- trained actors perform it in Japanese. The film was shot in 13 days on location in Warsaw's Pac Palace. The story focuses upon the conversations and memories of two very different men, the manly Rogozhin, and his weak and epileptic friend Myshkin who are in love with the same woman. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Tamasaburo Bando, Toshiyuki Nagashima, (more)
- 1993
World War II buffs may know of the rebellion against the Nazi occupiers of Poland in 1944, but the story may be less familiar elsewhere. It is called "The Warsaw Uprising." In addition, though the Polish communist authorities allowed certain films to be made about that brave (but futile) effort, the participation of non-communists was very much downplayed. Director Andrzej Wajda made several films dealing with this subject in those years, but was forced to make the facts fit the political wishes of the government. Finally, in 1992, he was able to take the novel by Aleksander Scibor-Rylski and make the movie he really wanted to make. In this story, Marcin (Rafal Krolikowski) is a member of the Home Army, a non-communist army of resistance. In alliance with every conceivable anti-Nazi faction, the group struggles for a little over two months to oust the German army from Poland, but in the end is unable to accomplish this and are forced to go on the run. Perhaps they would have been able to keep the fight going longer if there hadn't been so many internal rivalries among the resistance fighters. Marcin tries to steer a moderate course between the royalist right-wingers and the communist factions, but is unable to accomplish anything before the Russians come. In a parallel story, as he is just going off to participate the uprising, Marcin has a love-interest (Agnieska Wagner) who gives him a ring engraved with the symbol of a free Poland (the crowned eagle), but loses track of her in the chaos of the rebellion and its aftermath. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Cezary Pazura, Adrianna Biedrzynska, (more)
- 1990
The life of Polish pediatrician Janusz Korczak (Wojtek Pszoniak) is the subject of Andrzej Wajda's docudrama. Also known as an author who wrote primarily for young readers, Korczak's name became legend as a result of the Jewish orphanage he established in Warsaw. When the invasion of the Nazis in 1939 forced him to move his students to the ghetto, he struggled on without provisions or adequate space, refusing to give in to Nazi pressures. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi
- Starring:
- Wojciech Pszoniak, Ewa Dalkowska, (more)
- 1988
This political drama is taken from the classic story from Feodor Dostoyevsky, but liberties have been taken and many secondary characters eliminated. The author's condemnation of a godless society and his disdain of those who follow blindly to popular political causes remains intact. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jean-Philippe Ecoffey, Isabelle Huppert, (more)
- 1986
The futility of war was one of Polish director Andrzej Wajda's major themes, and he explored it from nearly every perspective imaginable, using storytelling styles which range from the strictly commercial to those focusing more on symbolic imagery. As this film opens it is 1939, and war seems to be only a distant possibility to a group of vacationing young Polish Lithuanians who are seen greeting their Lithuanian Catholic and Jewish neighbors respectfully. In particular, Witek, a young man hoping to pass his final exams so as to begin university study, is having a bit of a lark, attempting to woo a lovely fellow student, and braving a shotgun blast from her protective father. He and his fellows are full of foolhardy and pompous talk about war and death. Meanwhile, Polish troops are mobilizing to fight the Germans, and the impending storm of war overshadows everything. One of the most idyllic scenes of young love ever committed to film (in the opinion of one reviewer) graces this film, and the story closes just as the war is beginning in earnest. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Paulina Mlynarska, Piotr Wawrzynczak, (more)
- 1983
Based on a non-fiction bestseller of the same name by Rolf Hochhuth, Eine Liebe In Deutschland is about a tragic and forbidden love affair between Stanislaw, a Polish POW (Piotr Lysak) and Paulina (Hanna Schygulla) a fruit-and-vegetable vendor in a small town in Germany along the border with Switzerland. Their affair would have gone undetected except for the busybody women of the village, and when Stanislaw is picked up by a German stormtrooper (Armin Müller-Stahl) and brought in for a mock trial, he is given a chance to prove his racial purity and so perhaps escape execution. As for Paulina, she is ostracized by the villagers and imprisoned for consorting with someone who was not of the same high Aryan caste as herself. Depressing, yet politically relevant to Poland of the early 1980s, this film by acclaimed director Andrzej Wajda) is an effective and emotional statement on the nature of oppression. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Hanna Schygulla, Marie-Christine Barrault, (more)
- 1983
In this documentary on the filming of director Andrzej Wajda's movie Danton, Polish director Tomasz Pobog-Malinowski went to France and documented the filming of the confrontation between Robespierre and Danton in the French National Assembly and the guillotine scenes (both men were guillotined a few months apart, in 1794). In focus is how director Wajda intensely involves himself in all details of the action: cameras, actors, and technical support, yet he never loses respect for anyone. On a more subtle level, a Polish actor plays the violent Robespierre who promoted the infamous "Reign of Terror" when thousands were guillotined, and a Frenchman plays the moderate Danton, who wished to curb the bloodletting. Other subtle parallels are drawn between the French Revolution of the 1790s and the Polish upheavals led by Solidarity in the early 1980s. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Andrzej Wajda, Igor Luther, (more)
In 1982, legendary Polish filmmaker Andrzej Wajda fled his homeland and relocated in France to direct this powerful story about the ethical boundaries of power and leadership, which had many parallels to Poland's volatile political situation in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Danton (Gérard Depardieu) and Robespierre (Wojciech Pszoniak) were close friends and fought together in the French Revolution, but by 1793 Robespierre was France's ruler, determined to wipe out opposition with a series of mass executions that became known as the Reign of Terror. Danton, well known as a spokesman of the people, had been living in relative solitude in the French countryside, but he returned to Paris to challenge Robespierre's violent rule and call for the people to demand their rights. Robespierre, however, could not accept such a challenge, even from a friend and colleague, and he blocked out a plan for the capture and execution of Danton and his allies. Wajda remained in France until 1989, when the collapse of Communist rule made it possible for him to return to his homeland. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Gérard Depardieu, Wojciech Pszoniak, (more)
- 1981
- PG
Polish filmmaker Andrzej Wajda's sequel to his immensely well-received Man of Marble covers some of the same ground: the relationship of labor leaders to their communist political masters and the difficulties the media encounters in covering that story. But it adds an exceptionally timely element: footage from the real-life Solidarity movement strikes led by Lech Walesa that were taking place during the film's production are woven into the dramatic story. There are a few glimpses of Walesa, and he even pops up as a guest at the wedding of the fictional story's hero. That man, Tomczyk, is the son of Birkut, the labor leader profiled in Man of Marble, and he's played by the actor Jerzy Radziwilowicz, who played Birkut in the first film. In Man of Marble, a student filmmaker in late 1970s Poland tried to uncover the story of Birkut, a working-class hero of the '50s who was later politically discredited and killed in a 1970 strike demonstration. Here, Winkiel (Marian Opania), an alcoholic radio journalist, is assigned by the state to cover the rise to prominence of Tomczyk, but with an eye to discrediting him and the Solidarity movement as well. Like The Godfather II, Man of Iron successfully expands on the story of its predecessor while provocatively exploring many of the same issues. ~ Tom Wiener, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jerzy Radziwilowicz, Krystyna Janda, (more)
- 1979
Jerzy Michalowski is a journalist who has been licensed by the Polish State to travel abroad. He researches stories and at the same time represents the country in journalistic circles. When, on a foreign broadcast, he displays a much too-thorough knowledge of the actual state of affairs inside Poland, the authorities decide to punish him by inexorably withdrawing his privileges one by one, without any explanation. Each reduction in privileges brings this once-proud man's estate lower, and the intervals between them are great enough for him to think that his punishment has reached it's culmination...until the next. This unusual and politically significant Polish film follows director Andrzej Wajda's Men of Marble in indicting abuses of power by the state, and was made shortly before the military took control of the government. Wajda says "I worked on this film in a blind rage..." ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Zbigniew Zapasiewicz, Ewa Dalkowska, (more)
- 1979
Polish director Andrzej Wajda had a habit of switching gears between socially conscious films and pure box-office entertainments. The Conductor, released in Poland in 1979 as Dyrygent, falls into the latter category. John Gielgud stars as an old and venerated orchestra conductor, making his annual personal appearance in a small Polish town. Violinist Krystyna Janda, who like the guest conductor is a devotee of Beethoven, finds her entire life altered by Gielgud's brief stay. The film made a few allegorical points about making oneself accessible to change, but otherwise The Conductor is all that it seems to be on surface: A simple story, simply told. English-language prints of The Conductor are blighted by the poor dubbing of the principal characters--with of course the exception of John Gielgud. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- John Gielgud, Krystyna Janda, (more)
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