Gigi 1958 roger ebert9/10/2023 ![]() ![]() It all ends in the wee hours of the morning with a funeral-like dance of shadows, all lined up to perform the national dance of polonaise, with no visible verve or enthusiasm. ![]() The power is up for grabs and no one is more power-hungry in the movie than one Drewnowski, played by the great Bogumił Kobiela as a study in sleazy opportunism (a year later, Kobiela will take this persona even further in Andrzej Munk's absurdist meditation on Poland's "Bad Luck"). Wajda has no qualms about presenting it as a booze-fueled affair, simultaneously random and blatantly based on conformism and servitude. The party is in fact a seething cauldron of fresh political power - it's boiling, but it's also settling firmly into place. ![]() But Andrzej will have none of that: orders are orders and the fight is not over until Poland is free and sovereign again.Īs Maciek experiences his doubts, a fancy reception is taking place in the hotel he's staying at (as does his designated victim). In the course of the movie, he tries to reason with Andrzej (Adam Pawlikowski), his Home Army superior and a literal-minded man of honor to boot. Maciek senses that further struggle is not likely to yield any results - Poland's fate as a Soviet satellite seems more or less sealed. The film is time-specific both in historical and dramatic sense: we are as aware of the passing hours as we are of the ticking clock of history. It's the first day of peace and Maciek begins to doubt - is further bloodshed really necessary.? The film tells the story of a Home Army officer Maciek Chełmicki (Zbigniew Cybulski) and the order he gets to assassinate a local communist bigwig, Szczuka (Wacław Zastrzeżyński). Based on Jerzy Andrzejewski's novel of the same name, "Ashes and Diamonds" owes its existence to the post-1956 political thaw that transformed Polish culture into some semblance of normalcy after the period of Stalinist terror and censorship. ![]()
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