Niezwykla podroz Balthazara Kobera (The tribulations of Balthazar Kober) - Wojciech Has

l'ultimo film di Wojciech Has è sempre un gran bel film, non è il migliore, ma sempre un bel vedere.

attori bravissimi, Emmanuelle Riva e Michael Lonsdale i più famosi.

la storia è ambientata in un tempi bui (quando l'Inquisizione era ancora in salute) nei quali Balthazar Kober inizia a conoscere la vita, affronta sempre nuove avventure.

buona visione, se lo trovate - Ismaele

 

 

An exceptionally picturesque fairytale story about 16-year-old Baltazar's journey of initiation around renaissance Europe. The journey is also a search for answers to the key questions - about the meaning of life and the most important values, on the philosophical level of union with the absolute and transition from life to death. The young, 16-year-old Baltazar is the son of doctor Sigismund. During a walk, he meets a stranger on the embankment. Much to his surprise, he realizes it is archangel Gabriel, who orders him to walk through the purifying fire. The flames do not do Baltazar any harm, and thus begins his amazing journey to Jerusalem. The boy is admitted to a theological seminary. It turns out that thanks to his exceptional sensitivity he can contact the nether world. Baltazar finds himself surrounded by spirits of the dead, including troublesome fallen angel Flamand, who is the personification of Satan. On his way back from his father's funeral, Baltazar meets extraordinary traveler Pappagallo. Pappagallo believes that theology constitutes a threat to the boy's mind and takes him to a camp of comedians as an antidote. This is where Baltazar meets beautiful lute player Rosa. In the morning, it turns out that the camp is empty. Baltazar decides to leave the seminary and spends the night in an inn suggested to him by Flamand. His mother comes to him in a vision. She tells him that he helped a man sentenced to death by burning at the stake by the inquisition. He also meets alchemist Fryderyk, who tells him that he has been chosen for great things. With the inquisition on his back, Baltazar leaves the inn and goes to Venice. Once there, he meets a monk called Strozzi, who hides him in Garganella's cathouse. The monk takes Baltazar to Rosa and her friends, who are also in Venice. Baltazar and Rosa ride a gondola through the Venetian canals. The oarsman is wearing a carnival costume of death.

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Manoscritto trovato a Saragozza - Wojciech Has

l'ho visto solo due volte, Luis Buñuel invece l'ha visto tre volte (anche Martin Scorsese ama questo film).
è un film che si fa vedere e rivedere, come il libro, d'altronde, avventure su avventure, dentro le avventure, raccontate ogni volta con occhi diversi.
gli attori sono di serie A (Alfonso è il grandissimo Zbigniew Cybulski) e Wojciech Has è un regista come pochi.
se vi volete bene non perdetevi il film (e il libro, naturalmente).
dura tre ore, ma non stanca mai.
buona visione.

Luis Buñuel, who seldom viewed movies more than once, liked this film so much that he saw it three times.

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Non sorprende che Il manoscritto trovato a Saragozza (Rekopis Znaleziony w Saragossie) fosse uno dei film preferiti da Luis Buṅuel. Il film girato da Wojciech Has nel 1964, presentato come uno degli appuntamenti di punta della sezione dedicata alla nouvelle vague polacca, è un lungo e affascinante viaggio surreale nella Spagna del ‘600, ispirato all’omonimo romanzo del conte polacco Jan Potocki (1805). In paesaggi, toni e atmosfere epicamente picaresche, che inevitabilmente rimandano a La Mancha di Don Chisciotte, le avventure del capitano delle guardie vallone Alfonso Van Worden scorrono tra sogno e realtà, tra passato e presente, e tra storie vissute e storie raccontate e “subite”, il tutto ovviamente indistricabilmente legato e sovrapposto. Saltando tra i vari piani della realtà e dell’onirico, del presente e del passato, Has dimostra una notevole capacità affabulatoria, che rende scorrevole il denso materiale narrativo, oltre che affascinante la visione. A questo contribuisce notevolmente il costante tono umoristico, qua più surreale e laconico, là più ironico e ricco di mordente. Questi sono elementi che in qualche modo ricordano la poetica del grande fan del film Luis Buṅuel. Effettivamente guardando il film di Has, sotto più di un aspetto sembrerebbe di assistere ad un’opera del ben più celebre maestro e regista spagnolo. Questo anche per la presenza di certe tematiche, come le divertite e pungenti rappresentazioni della religione imposta e convenzionale che diventa forma di conformismo e potere e dei riti vuoti e privi di senso della nobiltà/borghesia, senza dimenticare i colti riferimenti artistici e letterari. Meritatamente, quindi, questo divertente e stratificato trionfo del surrealismo è stato uno dei film di maggiore presa della sezione dedicata al cinema polacco della modernità.

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…Cybulski was often called the Polish James Dean for his electric channelling of postwar angst in his performances for Andrzej Wajda, youth appeal with his trademark dark sunglasses—this is one of the few films where he discarded them—and early, tragic death just three years after making this film. He delivers a terrific performance as Alfonso, partly comic fool of fortune, part swaggering young gay blade, even if he disappears for a long stretch of the second half: he manages to make Alfonso neither overly knowing or ludicrously naïve, leading to the delightful moment where his protests of religious scruples give way to dizzied yelps as the sisters push him back forth and plant voracious kisses on him. He’s not alone in offering hilarious turns, with Kobieda’s Toledo and Maklakiewicz’s Busqueros particularly good, and Czyzewska’s Frasquetta in all her saucy, naughty glory. Niemczyk as Avadoro suggests a Polish Harrison Ford waiting to cut loose with some swarthy swashbuckling, though, unfortunately, he never does. The most exciting formal element is the score provided by Krzysztof Penderecki, the great Polish avant-garde composer; the score mixes delirious snatches of classical forebears with spare, bizarre musique concrete flourishes. The Saragossa Manuscript is a hell of a fun ride.

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…Le Manuscrit Trouvé à Saragosse fait partie de ces rares films monde qui semble posséder ses propres lois et fonctionne de manière autonome. Empruntant aussi bien aux films fantastiques qu’aux films d’aventures, et même au Vaudeville, s’inspirant des expériences scénaristiques avant-gardistes de l’époque tout en abordant des genres populaires dans une forme classique, le film de Has trouve, malgré tout, une cohérence qui semble relevée du tour de force tant le récit est foisonnant (c’est le moins que l’on puisse dire !). Loin de ressembler à un film à Sketchs, Le Manuscrit Trouvé à Saragosse est sauvé du n’importe quoi qui le guette à chaque instant, par la rigueur absolue du filmage (l’auberge où se retrouve plusieurs fois Von Worden est toujours introduite avec le même plan, seul quelques éléments dans le cadre changent, pour signifier un autre degré de réalité ou d’histoire…) et la construction quasi-mathématique de son scénario. Si le film est absolument impossible à résumer (tout du moins après une première vision) il ne semble jamais pour autant illisible : le fil conducteur qui relie les histoires entre elles est tortueux mais miraculeusement limpide. Le spectateur n’est donc jamais largué et ressent au contraire une jubilation de tous les instants face à ce spectacle labyrinthique et infiniment ludique. Les multiples récits s’enchaînent à vitesse grand V, les protagonistes de chaque histoire ne cessent de se croiser et de se recroiser (surveillez bien les arrières-plans et tendez l’oreille…), le ton passe de franchement drôle à franchement inquiétant… Bref, un véritable film de fou orchestré par un savant et un esthète…

…C’est que Le Manuscrit Trouvé à Saragosse est avant tout un récit initiatique. Il s’agit là de mettre Von Worden à l’épreuve en maltraitant le réel, en le tordant jusqu’à ce qu’il plie sous les assauts du fantasme (rêves, mensonges, légendes…). Et Von Worden de trouver sa vérité dans ce tourbillon d’aventures grotesques et/ou terrifiantes…Le retournement final qui n’en est pas vraiment un (puisque apparemment aussitôt démenti) se garde bien de lui donner une réponse… Le spectateur, lui, est K.O et n’a qu’une envie : revoir le film afin de délier les nombreux fils du vrai et du faux. Mais finalement peu importe car Le Manuscrit Trouvé à Saragosse semble nous avoir déjà livré ce joli secret : les histoires que l’on invente permettent de mieux comprendre notre vie.
A moins que ce ne soit l’inverse…

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Pod mocnym aniolem (The Mighty Angel) - Wojciech Smarzowski

già il grande Wojciech Has, con Petla, aveva messo al centro un uomo alcolista come pochi, Wojciech Smarzowski fa lo stesso, in un film che fa soffrire come pochi altri film, senza scorciatoie e sorrisi.

Robert Wieckiewicz, attore bravissimo (come tutti, d'altronde), già Walesa nel film di Andrzej Wajda, è il protagonista del film, intellettuale di successo col vizio del bere.

sta in un ospedale per alcolizzati, e di ciascuno dei colleghi d'ospedale conosceremo la storia.

di Wojciech Smarzowski non si sa praticamente niente in Italia, come del cinema polacco, uno dei più vivi d'Europa.

meno male che c'è internet (e i sottotitoli, sempre siano lodati quei pazzi che li fanno).

cercate questo film, soffrirete, ma ne vale la pena.

Wojciech Smarzowski fa Cinema, segnatevi il nome, se vi volete bene.

buone visioni - Ismaele

The films from Polish filmmaker Wojciech Smarzowski are always interesting to follow, no matter what theme he chooses – whether the dark crime thriller of “The Dark House”, the humorous drama of “The Wedding”, the coldness of war in “Rose”, or the severe accusations of corruption and power abuse made by Polish police in “Traffic Department” – each of them had something valuable to say in its harshness and objective rawness. “Pod Mocnym Aniolem” (translated “The Mighty Angel”) is another powerful drama focused on alcoholism and based on Jerzy Pilch’s successful fourth novel with the same title. The film follows Jerzy (Robert Wieckiewicz), an intelligent and talented writer who can’t keep off from the bottles of vodka, even doing frequent treatments in a rehabilitation house and attending group sessions. Evincing a corrosive sense of humor, his denial takes him to a cynicism and to a spiral of degradation that not even the woman of his life is capable to bear. He wanders and writes in a sort of limbo state where reality and imagination interweave. We are taken through the stories told by other alcoholics, but also to Jerzy’s memories of his drunken father. Horrible images haunt us, depicting embarrassing situations, deliriums, vomiting, and crazy hangovers. It’s a sad film, about suffering, about loss, about fate… Its finale is simply devastating, even cruel. I was touched in two ways – one given the last hope sought by Jerzy, and the other through the creepy loneliness that can ruin everything again. Although with a slow-burning start, “Pod Mocnym Aniolem” won me over.

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…The Mighty Angel is not an extended sermon, it’s far more subtle and human than that. Director Wojtek Smarzowski has a keen eye for detail, for the subtle shifts in tone that mark human conversations when the subjects are trying to resist cynicism and cling to hope and compassion. This is alcoholism set within the much broader and more complex issue of heavy social drinking, which is a problem many are unwilling to discuss, not just in Europe, but in countries around the world.

The Mighty Angel is also a visually impressive film. Hand-held GoPro (point of view) shots and closed circuit video feeds are mixed with more conventional cinematic techniques to create a shifting range of perspectives. The timeline of the film often shifts, so we are often not sure at what point in the story we are, or whether the conversation is real, imagined, or reconstrucated from the drunk’s fragmented memories.

The Mighty Angel is a stark, harrowing and thoroughly intelligent look at both alcoholism and the all-pervasive place of alcohol in society. Brilliantly directed and anchored by a remarkable lead performance, The Mighty Angel is essential viewing – highly recommended.

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Polish cinephiles await Wojtek Smarzowski’s every film as impatiently as cinephiles in the USA wait for, let’s say, Quentin Tarantino’s pictures. Smarzowski is now a trademark of Polish quality cinema that can proudly be exported. He is an auteur. Surprisingly enough, after his latest success with Traffic Department (2013), his newest film The Mighty Angel (2014), an adaptation of a Jerzy Pilch novel, has been met with cold indifference and at times strong revulsion. But while Smarzowski’s newest production is yet another brilliant (yes, brilliant) piece of cinema, the reasons why it is criticised shed some light both on society’s attitude towards alcoholism and on the way in which we idealize the role of director in the collective art of filmmaking.

Between Wojciech Jerzy Has’ The Noose (1957) and The Mighty Angel, there was no remarkable film produced in Poland that tackled alcoholism in a comprehensive way. Smarzowski in his trademark sensory way reveals the worst about the disease: numerous alcoholics flood each scene with rivers of cheap spirits, vomit, urine and desperation. Rare glimpses of “normal life” – where love triumphs and people are pretty and kind – are continuously overpowered by the dark ugliness of poor living conditions and the even poorer shape of human morale. Despite being a famous writer who supposedly finds the love of his life, protagonist Jerzy is repeatedly hospitalised due to excessive drinking. Each of Jerzy’s detoxifying visits is yet another visit that should – one day – cure him completely. Certainly, refined aesthetes will shy away from almost every scene exposing the interiors of alcoholics’ stomachs. And that seems to be the problem…

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I just watched this move today. Like all movies directed by Smarzowski this is not Hollywood-like story. A story about real problem in our life - alcohol. If you ever get wasted, if you ever had hangover and if you ever had black out or hunger for drinking another shot - you would not be satisfied after watching it. It is not a romantic story about drinking problems like "When a Man Loves a Woman". It is funny at first but then you realize that you might behave the same when you drunk - then it's not funny any more. No-one laughed at the end of this movie. My wife even wanted to leave cinema without watching it till the end. But don't get me wrong- it's a great movie. It's comparable to "Requiem For A Dream" but without such great music. That's why I gave it a nine.

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Lalka - Wojciech Has

Wojciech Has è un regista grandissimo, e sconosciuto.
non ha fatto film facili, di quelli che si possono vedere mangiando il popcorn.
ha fatto film dell' altro tipo, di quelli che restano nella storia del cinema.
qui c'è la storia di un affarista che si perde dietro una ragazza della vecchia aristocrazia in decadenza.
ogni immagine è un quadro, basterebbe solo questo per guardarlo, e in più c'è tutto il resto.
davvero una bella visione, ma non per tutti, è un film d'altri tempi - Ismaele

qui e qui due grandissimi film di Wojciech Has.

Wojciech Has is probably one of the most mesmerizing directors ever. He's one of these rare directors who manage to make the viewers forget their accounts just by depicting the most beautiful scenes.
Unfortunately he has grown out of fashion and has sadly been forgotten by everyone. Unfair. And yet, his films are among the wealthiest filmic pieces of art. They are built with words and pictures. They are a literary works with words borrowed from the books the Polish director adapted. They are obviously visual with loaded and ornate shots full of incredible details which are reminiscent of gothic art and surrealism.
The Doll is more linear and more accessible than most of Has's movies, but it's in no way a betrayal of what he has done before. Has manages to make this conventional piece of literature a film coherent to his work as he included his dearest themes among which the theme of travel, spiritual and of course physical travels and the morbid theme of decay here through the slow agony of the aristocracy.

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…Sumptuously, beautifully, formally it depicts a people trapped and betrayed by themselves. Wokulski, who fought in a rebellion against the Russian occupiers and went to Siberia for it, made his fortune supplying the Russian army fighting Turkey. The film shows his abilities- his business acumen, his skill in finding potential profit, his deep friendships, his generosity and freedom from prejudice- but all are made vain by his obsessive love of Izabella, the selfish and snobbish daughter of a stupid and bankrupt aristocrat. Wokulski realises the stupidity of his obsession at the end- Izabella might even realise her own contemptibility- but his madness and what he abandons for it probably destroys him…

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…Multipliant les travellings latéraux qui enferment les personnages dans des décors extravagants et baroques, le réalisateur signe un nombre incalculable de natures mortes où même les aristocrates ressemblent à des automates dans un musée de cire. Par de subtils glissements progressifs, Has nous invite dans une sorte d’entre-deux-mondes, réaliste par bien des aspects, mais sublimé par une esthétique fantastique qui invite à la rêverie poétique. Chaque plan deLa poupée devient alors un tableau de maître d’une richesse visuelle jamais gratuite. Il faudrait donc rendre hommage au travail formidable effectué par toute l’équipe technique, des éclairagistes au directeur de la photographe en passant par les costumiers et les décorateurs qui se sont totalement mis au service d’un artiste visionnaire. Peu de cinéastes peuvent se vanter d’avoir tourné dans leur vie une œuvre aussi puissante sur le plan visuel, mais également profonde sur le plan thématique. Sans doute unique œuvre purement politique de son auteur, La poupée est de ces films qui provoquent chez le spectateur un choc esthétique violent. Comme la certitude d’être devant l’un des plus beaux films de l’histoire du cinéma. Rien de moins.

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Petla - Wojciech Has

24 della vita di un uomo, vittima dell'alcolismo e prigioniero dei suoi fantasmi.
forse una cura contro la sua dipendenza può dargli una nuova vita, la sua fidanzata gli sta dietro, ma i suoi fantasmi lo perseguitano e lo fanno ricadere.
bellissima la sequenza nel bar, ottimi attori.
a suo tempo non ebbe il visto della censura per l'estero, la dittatura del proletariato non dava la felicità a tutti e forse questo non si doveva sapere.
"La leggenda del santo bevitore" è un film solare, al confronto, "Petla" è un film nerissimo.
una grande opera prima, da non perdere - Ismaele

Eight o’ clock in the morning. On the main road some workers are setting the street watch, while Kuba is watching them from his window, waiting anxiously for someone to arrive. Finally the door bell rings: it’s Krystyna his girlfriend.

The man is very upset, they have a brief discussion about what is going to change in their lives; after they’ll attend the appointment she got later in the afternoon. She is an hurry, but she’ll be back at the meeting hour.

After a while, Kuba left alone, is craving for something, and his addiction is finally revealed: the man is an alcoholic.

Wandering in the streets, waiting for the late afternoon visit with a doctor that could help him, Kuba is determined to stop drinking. But while the time passes by, all the people he meets instead to help him, with their sarcastic comments, brings him even more down the spiral of the desire of one last little drink more.

He’ll get drunk. He’ll be beaten and robbed. And when back, too late for the appointment with the doctor, he’ll find Kristina once again waiting for him.

The following morning at eight o’clock some workers are setting the street watch, while Kuba waits anxiously for someone to arrive again, but this time the loop of his life in which he constantly keeps repeating the same mistakes every day, will be stopped only by a definite and terrible decision: to commit suicide hanging himself.

The debut long feature of Polish director  Wojciech Jerzy Has,Petla, is an astounding piece of filmmaking, revealing the enormous talent of its director. With a firm and coherent approach, Has brings us in this world of misfits, derided by common people, and avoided even by their friends and relatives…

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…Construit sur l’espace d’une journée, le film de Has distord d’emblée par sa mise en scène les présupposés temporels au fur et à mesure que resurgit l’insupportable addiction. Donnant d’abord le sentiment d’un suspens qui se déroule quasi en temps réel (le héros va-t-il tenir jusqu’à l’heure de son rendez-vous à l’hôpital ?), l’action devient plus fragmentée ou diluée montrant l’incapacité de Kuba à assumer l’environnement qui l’entoure. Il fuit le temps, les souvenirs qui ressurgissent au dehors et les responsabilités intimés qu’il ne veut pas tenir. Mais le dispositif est d’autant plus infernal que ni l’alcoolisme ni « la réalité quotidienne » ne semblent au fond pouvoir représenter un cadre vivable et potentiellement stimulant. « Le pire des rêves c’est la vie. Elle passe aussi »est-il dit à un moment donné. C’est tout à fait ce qui est à l’œuvre : incapable d’évoluer, Kuba s'enchaîne une existence en forme de rêve dans le rêve où l’espoir lui ferait vivre un jour sans fin. Son cynisme, sa porte de sortie salutaire et sa replongée se succèdent dans un monde en ruine qui se fige d’un peu partout. Jusqu’à en arriver à ce que le titre suggère?...

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Dark and truthful about alcohol addiction. Dark streets of Krakow, dark moments. 24 hours in the life of a man ready to quit drinking...but will he make it? Some ready to help him, some ready to drag him down. Even the walls seem to play a part in the suspense. The same oppressiveness as in Bergman's Silence with the same intelligence in manipulating time sequences: a factual, step-by-step narrative becomes slowly warped, elliptic... Fine black-and-white photography, sharp dialogs. Sterling proof of Wojciech Has's talent and yet another example of how good Polish cinema was. 
The (long and central) drinking scene with the ex-saxophonist wasted by vodka is a gem. Gustaw Holoubek is extraordinary throughout and the short form for the name of his character "Kuba" will probably remain ringing in your ears…

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Sanatorium pod klepsydra - Wojciech Has

un film tratto da una storia di Bruno Schulz, dentro ci sono la vita e la morte, i sogni, gli ebrei, l'amore, la comunità, la persecuzione, il padre, e la madre, e molto altro.
c'è un mondo dentro il film, che Wojciech Has dirige da fuoriclasse, e lo è senza dubbio.
uno di quei film difficili da raccontare, da vedere più di una volta per iniziare a capire qualcosa, ma lo sforzo sarà pienamente ricompensato.
certo che capire di sogni e psicoanalisi aiuta non poco, e comunque è una festa per gli occhi e per la mente.
da cercare, trovare e non perdere più, siamo ai piani alti del Cinema - Ismaele

QUI il film completo con sottotitoli in spagnolo

…Un joyau qui s’inscrit dans l’unicité. Placé sous le signe du morbide, le film de Wojciech Has nous renvoie à notre mortalité avec une mélancolie douloureuse et absolument bouleversante, soulignée par une musique somptueuse, malheureusement indisponible en CD. Les affiches cinéma polonaise et française, signées par l’un des maîtres de l’illustration polonaise, Starowieyski, donnent un bel aperçu de ce que ce long métrage peut offrir aux spectateurs qui ne redoutent pas l’hermétisme. Les adeptes de Béla Tarr ou d’Andrei Tarkovski apprécieront. On retrouve chez ces trois auteurs des réflexions métaphysiques servies par des réalisations virtuoses où les décors et l’esthétisme participent à la même émotion intellectuelle. Si Tarkovski est toujours à la mode et le talent de Béla Tarr enfin reconnu, il est désolant de constater que Wojcieh Has, qui fut peu actif après La clespydre, jusqu’à sa mort à la fin des années 90, soit aussi méconnu du public contemporain français pourtant généreux et curieux…

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…In the sanitarium, Joseph finds that Dr. Gotard is maintaining his father's life signs by slowing down time. In fact, here time has come to a full stop and has started to travel backward. Thus, Joseph is able to revisit his youth in a Hasidic village. Not only are his old friends and family there, but so are the Three Wise Men with advice on buying on credit, as well as some samba-dancing, saber-wielding Haitian soldiers from his boyhood fantasies.

Eventually, Joseph returns through the corridors of time to the pedestrian present and crawls into bed with his ailing father, who complains that his son has not visited him sooner. Childhood memories fade as Joseph tumbles back through the Slavic looking glass to take back the responsibility of middle age.

An exploration of immortality, memory and the functions of psychoanalysis, "The Sandglass" pours out its grains of wisdom in a deluge of ambiguity. Not for clock-watchers or fans of quick pace or plot.

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Our protagonist is on a train to go visit his sick father. Apart from that very little of the plot can be known for certain. Time is treated in a wild manner, where the past is visited and jumped through with little more than a masked scene transition. We are inside our protagonist’s memories, as people, moments, and historical events from his life return to entice and haunt him. The subtext points towards the Holocaust, but there seems to be more than that going on in this often traumatic, personal, surreal adventure. Sexualised, voluptuous females bare their flesh with abundant and bountiful cleavage. Nature intrudes into the buildings as vines wrap around the walls and water drips continuously in the background. The cinematography is atmospheric with its soft, dreamlike tracking shots and layered framing. The soundtrack beats and shrieks, adding to the disorientation and uneasiness of the fragmented narrative. It is almost Felliniesque in the way that characters come and go and dreams and reality mix together whimsically.

The greatest glory of The Hour-Glass Sanatorium is the set design and use of locations. The sets are complex, beautifully constructed and endlessly detailed. They create an expansive, distinctive world that is rich with both the beautiful and the decrepit. Subtle use of unnatural colour lavishes each wonderful location. Characters have self-reflexive discussions about the nature of time and memory, and the film has a strange obsession with birds. We are asked to ponder just what is real and what is fake, and if it really matters in the context of past events. There are mystical, playful scenes, such as a mannequin tea-party, although that quickly turns eerie and frightening. There is a strange sense of humour throughout the film, even as the tone shifts more towards horror as danger sets in around our protagonist and his paranoia grows. Everything is highly poetic, metaphoric and decorative. It is easy to get lost in such an imaginative, surreal, deeply textured film, with an exceptionally powerful, visually epic ending.

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