Pokolenie

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!

The movie that made Andrzej Wajda famous depicts a group of people in Poland's resistance during WWII. In one scene, the movie's protagonist Stach (Tadeusz Łomnicki) learns about Marxism from another man. It's clear that this speech is directed not only at the Nazi occupation, but also at the Soviet occupation. A scene towards the end of "Pokolenie" ("A Generation" in English) reminded me of Agnieszka Holland's "In Darkness", which was recently a nominee for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards.

As for what I thought of Andrzej Wajda's feature debut. I earlier saw Wajda's "Popiół i diament" ("Ashes and Diamonds" in English). From what I understand about the themes that Wajda depicted in that one, it sounded like what we might call the perfect Polish movie. "A Generation" is also really good, although I did find "Ashes and Diamonds" to be a little better. In an interview, Wajda noted that the title refers to his generation: the leaders of Poland's pre-war film industry had fled the country, and so his generation was essentially starting it from scratch.

All in all, a very good movie. Watch for a young Roman Polanski as one of Stach's compatriots.

At the height of the Nazi occupation of Poland in 1942, this tells us a story of war with a slightly different slant. It takes up the cudgels of the youth whose innocence was well and truly stripped away by their oppressors and illustrates just how tough it was to grow up in any sort of a natural fashion when guns were everywhere and freedom-fighting the order of the day. That is exemplified here by "Stach" (Tadeusz Lomnicki). He grew up in the Warsaw equivalent of a shanty town, with his mother, and learned to live on a combination of wits and strength. He falls in with some communist resistance fighters at work and that's where he meets "Dorota" (Urszula Modrzynska) whom he begins a relationship with whilst perils mount outside. The killing of an officer by his close friend "Jacek" (Ryszard Kostas) makes matters much more intense and with their enemy now firmly focussed on the group, it becomes even more dangerous and lonely for an increasingly angry and frustrated 'Stach". Andrzej Wajda manages to use the tightly knit cast here to create a drama that's entirely plausible of a society struggling to retain any semblance of it's freedoms and principles in the face of an overwhelming and hostile government. He uses the character of "Stach" cleverly to contrast his vulnerability and, at times even childishness, with his courage and his desires. This also shows us a bit of the enemy of any enemy is my friend philopsohy as people with little in common find themselves (temporarily) allied to combat a common foe safe in the knowledge that each are the other's next foe down the line in due course. Like most of the best films to depict events of WWII, this uses the ordinariness of the people to fight it's corner well. Decent people who were not trained killers, indeed here they are barely out of school, yet they adapt to the wreckage of their city; reduced to huddling in corners or ruins or sewers that are darkly lit and photographed as if these very sets were terrified. This is a tough watch and it tests humanity in many of it's guises as it depicts a sort of hope from hopelessness - but without any danger of rose covered cottages, or cherry pie endings.

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.

"A Generation" (Polish, 1954): This is the first of a war trilogy by Andrzej Wajda. Photographed in rich black & white, "A Generation" is about the youth of Poland, who joined underground rebellions against the Nazis. They formed small "cells" (sound familiar?) of fighters, used pseudonyms, and seldom met with larger groups – for the sake of secrecy and safety. The photography is wonderful (the long opening scene is alone worth the price of admission), the acting is great to average (with a TEENAGED Roman Polanski in one of the supporting roles!), and the dialog gives insight into kids who must grow up overnight and become not merely premature adults, but calculating killers. Made less than a decade after the war, this film depicts the serious, accurate, and even on extremely rare occasion, lighthearted moments that made up their lives. "Kanal" (1957), and "Ashes & Diamonds" (1958) follow.