Kazimierz Opalinski Movies

Adapted from Stanislaw Wyspianski's turn-of-the-century play, The Wedding, or Wesele embodies a poetic exploration of Polish society in a crucial period during the mid-19th century when Poland had disappeared as a nation and was split three ways. Drenched in specifically Polish symbolism, it is not an easy film to understand. Much of the dialogue is in verse, the actors are made up in an exaggerated fashion indicating their mythical status, and the scenes are filmed in a hallucinatory style. The tale - based on real events - concerns the wedding of an intellectual poet and a peasant girl from Bronowice. At an ever-stranger celebratory gathering, the bridegroom's friends dance, imbibe spirits, and mourn Poland's subdivision into Prussia, Austria and Russia. The groom, his artist friend and a belletrist are visited by spirits from Poland's past; later, a prophet charges the bridegroom with responsibility to "arm the peasants and prepare for a revolution," though his words are then unveiled as a ruse. Variety wrote of the film, "Average audiences will be hard-pressed to piece together all the different threads and illusions... it is beyond non-Polish comprehension... though... [it is] beautifully filmed and acted."
~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

This Communist propaganda film finds mine workers subjected to cruel and inhumane treatment at the hands of opportunistic, evil capitalists. When a gas leak is discovered, the workers are ordered to ignore the obvious dangers and report to work. A labor leader tries to rally the workers into action, but the only action they see is the mine caving in on them. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

A satirical account of common man's twenty year life experiences and his attempt to cope in a rapidly changing world. The story begins with his childhood and accounts his first love that is ended by his being caught up in the political climate of the times. He is mistaken for being Jewish before joining the army solely to impress women. World War II interrupts his dreams of becoming Don Juan as he is captured by the enemy, suffers a nervous breakdown and continues to look for a peaceful existence. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

This 1957 Anti-Stalinist Polish film centers around a recently laid off train engine driver who is found dead, and the subsequent investigation following it. As different characters who knew the man in different contexts relay their impression of him and the reasons he may have been killed or committed suicide, the film makes a heavy and deliberate comment about what happens to those who don't fit into a Stalinist society. ~ Cammila Collar, Rovi