thesaurusuk

A beautiful tale of soldier's misadventures during the turbulent immediate aftermath (1946) of the second world war in Poland. Magnificently shot in Bieszczady mountains, where the actual story is set. Great performances by all but especially by Wieslaw Golas, who is his cheerful best throughout. It's a serious film but thanks to him it's also quite funny sometimes. There are more comedy touches from other actors too - check out the face of a policeman holding out against the attack by the anti-communist partisans, where the old man above him shouts insults at them. We don't know of course if this policeman considered surrendering but now he knows that he has no such option. Film is obviously shown from the point of view of winning and governing Polish communist side but shows the complicated events when Ukrainian nationalists have actively cooperated with Polish anti-communist partisans. All the classic elements of a good western (or rather eastern) are there: horse chases, escapes, ambushes, shoot outs etc. Thoroughly enjoyable but also smart war film from the creative duo of husband and wife.

"Pan Samochodzik" books are a cultural phenomenon in Poland. They tell a story of a minor government official, who works in a department of Museum and Culture in the 1960s. What sounds like a boring job is actually a fascinating detective-like activity, where the hero tries to solve historical mysteries leading to lost works of art and other treasures. It's cleverly and engagingly written, although you can tell that its time has passed. The series of books have been adapted for film and TV a number of times, with the most successful being "Samochiodzik i templariusze", which you can watch on YouTube with automated English subtitles. Fans have been waiting for the next adaptation of the adventures of Pan Samochodzik for many years. Unfortunately, it wasn't really worth it. The production team of "Mr Car and Knights Templar" completely wasted the potential of the best book in the series. The title was chosen not only because Netflix decision-makers thought that they will have a ready fan audience, who remembered the excellent series starring Stanislaw Mikulski, but also because of the still prevailing "fashion" for the Templars. Fascination still seems to be going strong all over the world, so Netflix clearly wanted to score points here as well. Probably only the last reason was the consistency and quality of the original book. The author, Zbigniew Nienacki, was not a literary genius, but he was certainly an efficient writer, and "Mr. Samochodzik and the Templars" is a great example of this. How good this novel is was clearly shown by the excellent TV series mentioned earlier, which, although it differed slightly from the literary original, was logically coherent, and efficiently implemented, with great performances by all the actors. In the Netflix film, we have a contradiction of all this. It is completely unrelated to the book, has logical holes of which Swiss cheese makers would be proud, and is played hopelessly by almost everyone, both professional and respected actors and "rookies". The script is very weak and incredibly chaotic, which can be seen even in the first, introductory scenes with a silly James Bond-Indiana Jones theme. The main character is alternately repulsive, comical, pathetic, and sad. Netflix's assumption that the product (because let's face it - that's how they approach the production of any film) needs to be "modernized" tragically backfires creating a bizarre and illogical farce. It's a shame as Netflix obviously has the money and talented people who could do a proper job. Do yourself a favour and skip this atrocity and watch the original 1973 TV series instead.

Paris Police 1900 was an excellent series, mixing fiction with actual history. Paris Police 1905 is equally gripping with great story and compelling performances. Don't expect fast action but the intrigue is intricate. The series is dark and uncompromising but it's not an easy viewing so be warned. There's plenty of blood and mayhem throughout. Corruption, greed and plain stupidity also plays it part. At the same time it's an exciting time in Paris with first women lawyers, motor cars craze and police reforms, which would eventually make the force as we know it today. Although it's not necessary I would strongly recommend to watch the Paris Police 1900 first.