335. Popiół i Diament (Ashes and Diamonds) (1958)

Directed By Andrzej Wajda

Synopsis

A man is on a mission to kill a communist leader. When he falls in love he is on a reluctant mission to kill a communist leader.

Review

Well this film could have been better. It is much loved for its cinematography but The Cranes Are Flying was much better for example, and even if the film has a load of potential it seems to be a bit dispersed.

Two things would have made the film better, trimming or getting rid of some of the side plots (who cares about the mayor's secretary?) or making the film longer in order to further explore the main romantic relationship.

The fact that the main character falls in love seems a bit rushed, his motivation for his reluctance becomes less than obvious. There are moments of real beauty in the film, as the moment depicted in the above picture when the couple have a conversation with an upended crucifix in the foreground or how the blood comes through the sheets at the end, but not enough to make the film great.

Final Grade

7/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The main character, Maciek, has to wear a sunglass all the time, since he was in the Warsaw Uprising, which took place between August 1 and October 2 (63 days in total), and where insurgents used the Warsaw sewers to move between the Old Town and the Downtown of Warsaw. Maciek being part of the uprising explains his hatred of the Soviets, who were on the other side of the Vistula but did not help the insurgents at all. He also mentions Warsaw as a beautiful memory to the porter, obviously referring to the almost total (85%) destruction of Warsaw by the Germans following the uprising.

Good Scene: