Five Great Polish Films You Might Not Have Seen
Polish cinema holds many "hidden treasures" known only to true cinephiles. However, the films in this "magnificent five," while remaining "treasures," are far from "hidden" or "obscured"—each was awarded at various film festivals in its time and firmly secured an honourable place in the global history of the "seventh art."
Yet, given the current intensity of information flows, you might have simply overlooked them amidst the overload of "incoming data," though each of these films is well worth seeing.
"Mocny człowiek" ("A Strong Man"), directed by Henryk Szaro, 1929
This silent cinema masterpiece, filmed on the eve of the sound era, combined the literary tradition of Polish decadents with German Expressionism. However, after World War II, it turned out that all copies of "A Strong Man" had been destroyed, and for a long time, this unique film was considered lost. It was only in 1997 that a copy was discovered in the Royal Film Archive of Belgium. The film was based on a novel by Stanisław Przybyszewski, one of the most prominent and scandalously famous Polish writers of the early 20th century. "A Strong Man" tells the story of journalist Henryk Bielecki, who dreams of literary fame and does not hesitate to murder his close friend, the talented writer Jerzy Górski, to seize the manuscript of his new novel. Łucja, Bielecki's lover, becomes an accidental witness to this crime, but Bielecki explains his actions as a desire to secure their life together. He publishes Górski's book as his own and achieves all he had longed for—fame and money. But as the saying goes, one should be careful with their desires—sometimes they come true in ways far different from what was originally imagined. The plot is overflowing with passions, guaranteeing the film's commercial success, but its artistic value lies not in the narrative but in the luxurious visual composition, using double and triple exposures and expressive montage comparisons. A particularly successful decision by Henryk Szaro was to cast Gregori Chmara, a famous German actor of Ukrainian descent (born in Poltava, educated in Kyiv), who managed to imbue Bielecki's character with the traits of a tragic hero, who fancies himself a Nietzschean superman but ultimately fails to overcome his inner demons.
"Matka Joanna od Aniołów" ("Mother Joan of the Angels"), Jerzy Kawalerowicz, 1961
The plot of this film is based on a real historical event—in 1634, in the French town of Loudun, there was an outbreak of collective hysteria among the Ursuline nuns. They accused the priest Urbain Grandier of trying to seduce them through witchcraft, which caused them to be possessed by demons. Grandier was found guilty by the court, and the unfortunate priest was burned at the stake. This story has inspired numerous books and films (such as "The Devils" by Ken Russell), but Kawalerowicz uses the Ursuline case from Loudun merely as a pretext for reflecting on good and evil. Firstly, he moves the action of his film from France to Poland; secondly, unlike Russell's film, which focuses on Grandier's trial and death, the events in "Mother Joan of the Angels" take place a year after the auto-da-fé—since the diocesan priests had failed to free the nuns from the demons, a devout and meek Jesuit theologian, specialising in exorcism, is sent to the convent. It is important to note that Kawalerowicz's film is not a horror (although William Friedkin, when starting work on "The Exorcist," was undoubtedly inspired by the Polish film, which received the Silver Palm at the Cannes Film Festival). Kawalerowicz was interested in the eternal problem of a person facing imposed restrictions and the metaphysical essence of sacrifice (since the Jesuit, to free the nuns from demons, commits murder, thus condemning himself to eternal damnation). Critics rightly call "Mother Joan of the Angels" the most "Bergmanian" (Ingmar Bergman) film in Polish cinema. It is also worth noting that Paweł Pawlikowski, when working on his film "Ida," for which he received an Oscar in 2015, was inspired by Kawalerowicz's aesthetic concept (especially the play of light and shadow, which was admired by Martin Scorsese).
"Nóż w wodzie" ("Knife in the Water"), directed by Roman Polanski, 1962
For many cinema lovers, Roman Polanski begins with "Rosemary's Baby" (and for some, even with "Chinatown"), though one of his best films was made in the early 1960s in his native Poland. The plot of "Knife in the Water" might initially seem quite mundane: a successful sports journalist and his young wife set off to the Masurian Lake District to spend the weekend on their yacht and at the same time try to overcome the crisis in their relationship; along the way, they pick up a student hitchhiker and invite him to spend the day on the lakes with them; it soon becomes clear that the yacht owner intends to impress the young man with his glamorous lifestyle, to assert his superiority, and to reaffirm himself in the eyes of his wife. Over the course of several hours, the tension between the men escalates into open hostility, while the woman, seemingly indifferent to what is happening, enjoys this confrontation, realising that it is all being played out because of her and for her sake. "Knife in the Water" became the first Polish film to be nominated for an Oscar, although in Poland itself, it was received rather coldly—at a preliminary screening, representatives of the Ministry of Culture expressed numerous objections: they were unhappy with the "frequency of nude female bodies appearing on screen," the "deliberately ambiguous ending," and the "lack of a clear moral message." As a result, the film was "shelved." The authorities' reaction strengthened Polanski's resolve to leave Poland and seek his fortune in other countries. Incidentally, the yacht on which the film was shot was rumoured to have once belonged to Hermann Göring, who often spent his summer holidays on the Masurian Lakes—during World War II, the yacht was sunk but later raised and restored.
"Rękopis znaleziony w Saragossie" ("The Saragossa Manuscript"), directed by Wojciech Has, 1965
As recounting the plot of this film is a thankless task (akin to trying to summarise the tales of "One Thousand and One Nights" in a few words), it is more fitting to focus on the personalities involved. And it is best to start with Jan Potocki, the author of the quirky and mysterious novel commonly referred to as "box-like" (or, as the French say, mise en abyme)—in the sense that each box-like plot contains another box-like plot, which in turn contains another, and so on infinitely. In these labyrinthine plots of "The Manuscript Found in Saragossa," everything is mixed together: love intrigues, resurrected corpses, incest, alchemy, Freemasons, Maghrebian princesses, and daredevil adventurers of all kinds. The biography of the "Manuscript" author itself resembles an adventure novel—this remarkable erudite, free-thinker, historian, and archaeologist lived in Morocco, Egypt, and China, served in the Austrian army, flew in "Montgolfiers," and fought Berber pirates in the Mediterranean Sea. When, in 1964, film director Wojciech Has decided to adapt "The Manuscript Found in Saragossa," no one believed it was even possible—the novel's structure was just too complex. But thanks to skilled direction, a soundtrack by none other than Krzysztof Penderecki, and superb actors (just mention Zbigniew Cybulski and Beata Tyszkiewicz), Wojciech Has succeeded brilliantly. The success of this film would lead to an even more challenging project eight years later—the adaptation of "Sanatorium pod klepsydrą" by Bruno Schulz. It should also be added that after its release, the film "The Saragossa Manuscript" gained cult status. Luis Buñuel, David Lynch, Martin Scorsese, and Francis Ford Coppola all admired Has's film. And now you know which novel and film title Paulo Coelho playfully referenced in his pseudo-literary "Manuscript Found in Accra."
"Diabeł" ("The Devil"), directed by Andrzej Żuławski, 1972
When discussing Andrzej Żuławski's films, the average film enthusiast usually starts either with "Possession," starring Isabelle Adjani, or even with "Mes nuits sont plus belles que vos jours," featuring Sophie Marceau. However, among Żuławski's earlier films, made before he left Poland, there are true gems. "The Devil" is essentially a unique (or rather, a mad) interpretation of Shakespeare's "Hamlet," with the action transferred from medieval Denmark to late 18th-century Poland (the period of the so-called "Second Partition," when the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was being torn apart by the Russian Empire and Prussia). Instead of the Prince of Denmark, the main character is a nobleman named Jakub, who once attempted to assassinate the king, and instead of the Ghost, Jakub's actions are guided by a mysterious "man in black," who may be either the Devil in the guise of a Prussian spy or a Prussian spy posing as the Devil. Critics have dubbed this Żuławski film a "historical-hysterical drama," where all the events resemble dark, apocalyptic visions, while the director himself called "The Devil" a "documentary story about a nightmarish dream in which the history of Poland collapsed." Naturally, in the era of the Polish People's Republic, such a film could not pass censorship—it was officially banned (a ban that would only be lifted 18 years later) "due to the abundance of violent and obscene scenes," though in reality, censors saw in the plot an allegory of the Polish political crisis of 1968 (although there are other theories, one of which suggests that the film was banned by direct order from the Kremlin). "The Minister of Cinematography of the People's Republic of Poland lost his post, and I was forced into exile," Żuławski recalled years later. "But I got off lightly because some of my Soviet colleagues (Żuławski was referring to director Serhii Parajanov, editor's note) under similar circumstances ended up in prisons or psychiatric hospitals."