Saturday, May 09, 2015

Ashes and Diamonds

Ashes and Diamonds is a 1958 Polish film I'm watching because Poland is the Memphis in May honored country this year. Andrzej Wajda directs this movie. The IMDB has this synopsis:
During the German occupation noble, bourgeois and worker's partisan groups lived in peace with another. On the first day of freedom they start to fight each other. In these fights is weaved a most tender love story.
War movies are never my first choice (and immediate post-war movies count), but the story here is a tragic one. Poland suffered through German occupation only to win against the Germans and be thrown to the Russians.

part 1:



part 2:



Senses of Cinema concludes, "In this complex and beautiful film, Wajda finds a way to lucidly express confusion and capture the soul of a people constantly trapped by the forces of history." The Guardian says, "it is the film's ambiguities, as the film-maker tries to come to grips with the myths and legends of the era, that continue to render it fascinating." Time Out says, "Wajda's way is the sweet smell of excess, but some scenes remain powerfully memorable". It's listed in the top 40 of Empire's best films of world cinema and is included in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.

Wikipedia says, "Ashes and Diamonds is considered by film critics to be one of the great masterpieces of Polish cinema and arguably the finest Polish realist film. Martin Scorsese has cited the film as one of his favourites." The reviewer at RogerEbert.com says, "A great meditation on the nature of resistance -as well as its limits- "Ashes and Diamonds" is a string of classic scenes and moments, most of which became steady points of reference in Polish culture at large". Rotten Tomatoes has a critics score of 95%.

Other Polish films I have blog posts on:

Dead Man's Bounty (2006)
The Pianist (2002) based on the true story of a Polish Jew
Crime and Punishment (2000)
On the Silver Globe (1987)
PrzekĊ‚adaniec (1968)
Tale of the Fox (1930)

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