Pan Tadeusz

Andrzej Wajda has taken a masterpiece in one genre (poetry) and not only done justice to it but created a masterpiece in another genre (film), one which did not even exist when Mickiewicz wrote the poem 166 years earlier.

The actors are mainly well-known faces in Polish cinema and yet all rise above the stereotypical images many of the audience have of them. The greatest example of this is Boguslaw Linda as Robak the Priest. In the most moving scene in the film he gives the performance of his life.

The harmonious blend of Wajda's direction and Wojciech Kilar's score is a sensual feast. It is a film which impresses a profound sense of beauty to such an extent that one could appreciate the sheer art of the film without even having to understand the language (I cannot vouch for the quality of the sub-titles in English as I saw it in its original version).

If you only see one foreign language film this year, make sure it is this one.

Although I am Polish by extraction, I had never read or been told the story of this great, early 19th century Polish classic poem. To my delight the tale of rustic Lithuania, at the time of Napoleon is exciting, warm, tender and just sweeps you off your feet.

The dialogue is drawn directly from the poem so it is in rhyming couplets. The acting styles and set design marvelously match the romantic, expressive language. The poem was published in 1834 and Adam Miczkiewicz was, I understand, influenced by Walter Scott. The English subtitles fail the film badly. They should have taken the risk of using a translation in a similar style. Unfortunately, for a non-Polish speaking person, I expect it is like watching Shakespeare translated into the language of the evening news. It looks terrific but a lot of the richness is missed.

That's very true: this film's redeeming quality (if any) are the dialogues, and also narrator's voice-overs, which have been taken verbatim from "Pan Tadeusz", the Polish 19th century verse epic by Adam Mickiewicz. Mickiewicz was an excellent poet (one of the strongest in Polish language, and of decent standing in European literature of 19th century), and "Pan Tadeusz", written in 1834, is one of his peak works. The text, written in syllabotonic rhymed verse, is at time funny, at times touching, but always flowing and vibrant. The epic tells a story from the lives of Polish lesser gentry in eastern part of the former Commonwealth of Poland (these parts are now in Lithuania or Byelarus) in the times of Napoleon's conquests. The plot includes a little bit of love story, a little bit of war (skirmishes, really), mystery, intrigue, resistance against Poland's occupiers, scenes of everyday life - all with a good measure of nostalgia thrown in, as it was written by Mickiewicz as emigree in Paris, with the patriotic goal to cheer up (literally, in Polish, "to strengthen the hearts") of other emigrees and of Poles in the partitioned and non-existing Poland, at the time shortly after yet another unsuccessful uprising against the Russian Empire.

"Pan Tadeusz", the movie, is a costume drama directed by Andrzej Wajda, the Polish director with some notable previous work under his belt. Into this film he brings mainly his experience and routine as filmmaker. The acting, with few exceptions, fails to impress, the actors simply mill around and recite the splendid lines by Mickiewicz. The camera-work is passable, with some nice shots of the beautiful locations. Also scenography and costumes are decent. What stands out is the music by the renowned Wojciech Kilar. But then again, it is standing out against the backdrop of a, frankly, not very exciting movie.

All in all: the most interesting feature of this film is unfortunately lost in translation from rhymed verse in 19th century Polish.

Adam Mickiewicz is not only a Polish treasure. Thanks to Russian genial poet Alexander Pushkin, he became known in my homeland as well. What he wrote appealed to all the people. Such themes as home, Motherland, love, loyalty, bravery, war and peace are clear and true to all of us, be we Russian, Polish, American or Jewish. Andrzej Wajda has managed to fix this masterful poem, Pan Tadeusz, telling about the Napoleonic war times and the conflict between Polish who supported Buanaparte and Russians who fought him. Love story is another theme here and thus the Poet interwove all those in his intricate poem while the Movie Maker brought it all on to the screen. And it worked! When you hear those impeccable poetic lines spoken by the whole constellation of Polish actors - such as Boguslaw Linda, Marek Kondrat, Andrzej Seweryn - plus a great Russian film star Serhey Shakurov - you cannot but feel an immense pleasure. This is a very aesthetically beautiful movie, rich in costumes and in nature. Highly recommended for all who love poetry and excellently cut films.

Pan Tadeusz had a huge impact on Polish audience this year. The film, which was made on a three-million dollar budget, beat all records of popularity in Poland. On the first weekend 420,000 Poles saw the movie. By mid-November more than three million Poles watched Pan Tadeusz in the 130 movie theaters nationwide.

We can expect high popularity level in Lithuania, and, maybe, to some extent in Belarus. But otherwise, the movie will be overlooked and probably discarded by the people who are not familiar with the history of the region, namely, with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the union with Recz Pospolita (The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth).

For Poles, Lithuanians, Belarusians this is a movie that brings back poignant nostalgia for the glorious past of the Duchy. For everyone else, it is just another historical ballad, based on the classical poem of Adam Mickiewicz.

The director, Andrzej Wajda, did a wonderful job -- the casting seems almost perfect, the whole organization is very nice, the acting is powerful. Some Polish movie critics predict that the film is going to be nominated for Oscar, but as far as it looks now, it is going to be huge -- but only on a regional scale.