Pokolenie

The Polish film Pokolenie (1955) was shown in the U.S. with the title "A Generation." It was directed by Andrzej Wajda. (A Generation was Wajda's first directorial effort, and the first of his three World War II films.)

The movie stars Urszula Modrzynska as Dorota--a resistance leader who recruits students to join the resistance during the German occupation of Poland. Stach Mazur (Tadeusz Lomnicki) is a young man who answers the call to resist the occupying army.

Even at this stage of his career, Wadja had talent, and many of the scenes in the movie are memorable. However, some of the plot elements were clearly added to please the censors, because Poland was under Soviet rule by 1955. For example, the movie puts forth Communism as the only form of Polish resistance. Of course, Communists were in the resistance, but so were non-Communists. Ringing speeches about how Poland will be happy and free under Communism are painful to watch, given what we know now. (And, of course, given what Wadja knew in 1955.)

Still, Wadja got this brave and important movie past the censors, and presented us with a film that is definitely worth seeing.

We saw this movie at the marvelous Dryden Theatre at George Eastman House in Rochester. It was shown as part of a Wadja retrospective. It's not a great film, but it's a very good film. It's worth seeing on it's own merits, and definitely worth seeing if you have watched--or plan to watch--Ashes & Diamonds and Kanal. (The other two movies in the World War II trilogy.)

'Pokolenie' certainly has some interest for being Andrzej Wajda's first feature film, and for showing the heroism of the Polish resistance fighting their Nazi occupiers. It also shows some of the young director's filmmaking skills, with interesting compositions and narration which give it a highly personal feel, particularly at the beginning. However, because Poland was under the subjugation of the Soviet Union when it was made, Wajda was forced to depict the resistance as being communist led, when the reality was the USSR was another enemy to Poland, having invaded from the east just weeks after Hitler had from the west, and committed their own horrifying atrocities. The combination of these recurring references to the Party and an overall tone which seems light and off for most of the film makes it simply average, which is unfortunate. There are some really nice visual moments - the expressions on the faces of the Polish citizens as they stand in front of their hanged compatriots, the chase and fall through the spiral staircase, and the photo booth with the giant heart all come to mind, among others - but it's tough to overcome the constraints Wajda was operating under. This seems to be a case where the occasionally great visuals exceed any deep emotional impact we feel, which seems wrong given the magnitude of the historical moment.

"A GENERATION is about awakening, our protagonist Stach (Lomnicki), a young apprentice of a furniture shop in Warsaw, gets politicized and involved in an underground communist resistance movement fighting Germans, witnesses war-time cruelty at first hand and experiencing camaraderie, romantic tingling and loss in quick succession, everything is fugacious and the growing pains never relent, the final juxtaposition of Stach's tearful face and the smiles of a bunch of fresh-faced new recruits is pregnant with poignancy."

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This was director Andrzej Wajda's first full-length film--and because of that, this stands as an amazing achievement. On the Criterion disk is an interview with Wajda and he credits much of the film's success to the cameraman and I agree wholeheartedly that this is one of the best looking black and white films I have ever seen.

The film concerns a young man during the Nazi occupation of Poland. In the beginning, he's a bit of a jerk but eventually gets a job and shows great responsibility. Later, he is welcomed into the partisans and it is an interesting look into this seldom talked about period of history.

The film gets a score of 8. It would have had a higher score had the film been more honest--as it portrays the Communists as being THE resistance and those partisans wanting a return to the democratic system as being greedy bourgeoisie. However, on the Criterion DVD, Wajda talks about how this was one of the required changes the Soviet-dominated Polish government mandated before they'd allow his film to be shown. So, considering the sensibilities of the time, it's not surprising that a little misrepresentation occurs. Still, it's a near-great film and a wonderful addition to KANAL. Wajda's 3rd film, ASHES AND DIAMONDS, unfortunately is a big disappointment to me and is considered the third in this trilogy about life in Poland during WWII.

There is one MINOR mistake in the film. At one point, the hero is hit in the head and is bleeding. Later in the same scene, there is no head wound!

I really enjoyed this movie. It tells the story of three young men who join the Polish Resistance to fight the Germans in the Second World War. The interesting aspect of the movie is the exploration of the motivations of each of the men in deciding to fight the Germans. These men do not appear to all be motivated by patriotism but rather a variety of different motivations. The main character seems to be motivated by his attraction to the female leader of the Communist resistance, while the character played by Roman Polanski seems to be involved because he is looking for excitement. Finally, the Jasio character does not seem to have any idea why he is involved at all.

This is a very gritty and realistic movie, which was apparently made to celebrate the anniversary of the Communist Party in Poland. It is interesting how the director, Andrzej Wajda, didn't quite make the movie which the Party had hoped he would make.

On the DVD edition I watched there was an extended interview with Andrzej Wajda which is also very worthwhile. He explains how he did not really know what he was doing when he made A Generation and that the final product was not really what he had been asked to make. After some delay the Party did agree to release the movie.