A Generation (1954), directed by Andrzej Wajda. This is Wajda’s first feature film and the first of his war trilogy. The opening panning shot is worth the price of admission. Here the camera takes us on a tour of the outskirts of Warsaw as we observe the daily life (drudgery?) of the local people. Then it comes to rest on three young men playing with a knife. One of these young men, Stach (Tadeusz Lomnicki), provides a voice-over and also will be the film’s protagonist. This is a coming-of-age story following this young man and also a group of young people who become involved in the Polish resistance during the Second World War. One of the group of youngsters is played by a teenaged Roman Polanski. Anyway, the filming is beautiful, providing an ironic counterpoint to the action that involves young people learning to kill. The camera is fluid as it ranges through neighbourhoods and workshops and homes and streets. The scene with the spiral staircase is powerful. The film has the sensibility of post-war neo-realism. The look of the film reminded me of Hollywood noir films, and the beginning reminded me of Ford’s The Informer. For a first feature, this film is assured and absorbing. 

Kanal (1957), directed by Andrzej Wajda. This is the second of Wajda’s war trilogy, and it ups the ante considerably. A passing reference to Dante lets us know, had we somehow been oblivious to this, that we have entered the underground in all its filthy ugly violent and punishing horror. The last third of the film takes place in the sewers of Warsaw, and a ragged troop of resistance soldiers try to make their way to the centre of the city. A voice over at the outset of the film, lets us know their fate; nevertheless, no viewer can be prepared for the way this fate plays out. Again we have Wajda’s fluid camera; the film begins with a four minute tracking shot that introduces us to the troop we will follow on their doomed journey to the underworld. Actually, they are in the underworld from the beginning (or is this purgatory?), but they simply go deeper as the action moves along. This is as harrowing an anti-war film as we could ask for. We get to know most of these soldiers and knowing them makes what happens more difficult to accept. The scenes in the sewers must be some of the most powerful in cinema. Perhaps the tone of the film is set early when one member of the troop stops to talk with a wounded girl who lies covered on a stretcher. He asks what her mother said about her joining the resistance. We have a pause. The girl then replies, “She’s dead.” The solider then asks about the young woman’s wound, and she says, "It’s nothing.” At this point, a couple of soldiers lift the stretcher and the woman’s blanket falls away revealing her legs. One leg has been amputated (or blown off) above the knee. 

 

Man of Iron (1981), directed by Andrzej Wajda. Using documentary footage folded into a fictional narrative, this film chronicles the days of the strike at the Gdansk shipyard that spread throughout Poland in 1980. Through the perspective of a reporter, Winkel (Marian Opania), we learn about the life of activist Maciej Tomczyk (Jerzy Radziwilowicz), from his early days as a student to his work with the shipyard union. The film manages to merge historical events with the personal lives of its main characters. Lech Walesa even makes an appearance. What strikes me as important about this film, is its peek at state-controlled media and state-controlled life in general, something uncomfortably close to what could happen in our own time and our own place. The film has an intensity born of anger and a mixture of hope and dread. Unlike Ashes and Diamonds, this film is less interested in cinematic experiment than in historical urgency.