Movies
Wajda is no doubt one of Poland's most lauded directors, but so far I haven't really gelled with his work. It's either very political or war-inspired, and it has a strong Eastern European vibe, but maybe I just need to watch some of his more recent films to get a better impression of his style.
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Man of Marble isn't slow or uneventful, so that's something. Wajda plays around with different forms, but the film is long-winding, and the presentation is drab. I didn't care much for the performances, nor the story that was being told, so I was pretty much done with the film before the entire second act even started.
One of Poland's biggest classics. I'll readily admit I'm not too familiar with Polish cinema (even though my all-time fav was shot there), its closeness to Russian and Eastern-European drama is something that deters me from having a real go at it. Ashes and Diamonds only seemed to underline my bias.
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Right after WWII ends, Poland becomes a battlefield where the Polish resistance and Russian soldiers fight each other to take hold of the country. Maciek is tasked to kill a communist leader, but he turns out to be one of the soldiers Maciek fought with during WWII. This puts him in a very awkward position.
The cinematography is decent, though it isn't until the very end that it finally comes into its own. Performances are also decent, but not good enough for a film that relies so much on its characters. The plot is quite slow and there's not that much intrigue, which makes this quite a chore to sit through. Not my cup of tea.
A classic war film, that reminded me a bit of Le Trou (especially those final 30 minutes). I didn't really care for Wajda's direction though. The first hour, in particular, was pretty dry and dreary. It picks up when they finally enter the titular sewer system, but by then the film had already lost me and the finale isn't that strong that it could rectify the rest of the film.
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The performances are pretty wooden and the start of the film is very slow. I imagine the first hour is there to build a relationship with the characters, but that part failed for me. The trip through the sewers is more thrilling, but it just wasn't enough to save the film for me. Not the worst, but not very memorable either.