Ashes and Diamonds (1958)

 Andrzej Wajda's "Ashes and Diamonds"


The 1958 Polish film "Ashes and Diamonds" closes out an unofficial trilogy in the filmography of Andrzej Wajda. The trilogy, consisting also of 1955's "A Generation" and 1957's "Kanal" center on Polish resistence during the Second World War. The final installment of this trilogy, "Ashes and Diamonds" brings the themes of resilience and struggle from the first two films to a harrowing and bleak conclusion. 

"Ashes and Diamonds" centers on Maciek, a young man tasked with assassinating a political opponent and secretary of the Polish Workers' Party. This task comes on the first day of the end of the war, May 8, 1945. During his assignment, he falls in love with Krystyna, a barmaid. Maciek then spends the film questioning whether to go through with his political execution or to run away with his new love interest. 

I think the film taking place immediately after the war ends is a valuable insight into the themes of the film. Now that Poland has been liberated from the suppression of Nazi forces, there is a new blank slate with which to operate. I believe that the film is a tapestry of the various emotional perspective on the concept of 'starting over' after having enduring endless pain and suffering. Some characters choose to continue to be in wartime scenarios, like the comrades of Maciek who still find political opponents everywhere. There are others, like many of the patrons in Krystyna's bar who are now aimlessly celebrating a newfound empty solitude. 

This is the spirit of the film: a group of lost soul searching desperately for a newfound sense of meaning after having endured the horrors of war and battle. If you view the film through this harrowing lens, the entire ensemble of characters become lost soul trapped between two choices: continue fighting wargames or wither away into oblivion. Maciek spends the film realizing the finite nature of life and the needless and pointless pursuit of continuing to struggle. The film becomes elevated into the realm of spirituality and enlists the viewer to question the relevant value of their own circumstances.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

La Dolce Vita (1960)

Image
  Federico Fellini's "La Dolce Vita" The famed Italian poet and director Pier Paolo Pasolini once said that Federico Fellini's 1960 masterpiece " La Dolce Vita " was too important to be discussed in the usual way one discusses a film. I absolutely agree. " La Dolce Vita " is not only a monolith in cinematic history - it set a new precedent for how films could be constructed. Its DNA lies in the very components of modern cinematic convention. The themes and narrative beats remain as relevant today as they were in 1960, lending the film a remarkable sense of timelessness. To call " La Dolce Vita " a masterpiece almost feels like an understatement.  The film departs from traditional narrative structure, unfolding instead through a series of interconnected episodes. Marcello Mastroianni stars as Marcello Rubini, a tabloid journalist who aspires to write literature. Navigating the glamorous yet hollow world of Rome's café society, he spend...
Read more

The Silence (1963)

Image
  Ingmar Bergman's "The Silence" There's something very bemusing about Ingmar Bergman's 1963 film " The Silence ." Based on the title, along with the notion that it is the final installment in a trilogy of films centered around 'the absence of God,' I went in believing that it would be emotionally devastated. What I received instead was confusion. Typically, this is a turn off for people. Not I. Confusion, as long as it doesn't signify a convolution in the plot, allows me to enjoy the film on an emotionally deeper level. Despite not completely understanding " The Silence ," I was enthralled by it.  Because the film was released in a post-" Hiroshima Mon Amour ," post-" L'Avventura " world, Bergman gets to craft something with a bit of modernity. By this, I mean the 'plot' is a bit more like the anti-plots found in an Antonioni film.  Two sisters, one with a 10-year-old son, arrive at a hotel in a fict...
Read more

Quai des Orfevres (1947)

Image
  Henri-Georges Clouzot's "Quai des Orfevres" 1947's " Quai des Orfevres " was Henri-Georges Clouzot's first directorial effort after his controversial 1943 film " Le Corbeau ." Clouzot had been banned from filmmaking by the French government for his collaboration with a German film studio financing " Le Corbeau ." However, many didn't quite make the thematic connections with " Le Corbeau "'s anti-Nazi sentiment and felt that the film was critiquing France itself. One Clouzot's ban was lifted, he decided to adapt Stanislas-Andre Steeman's 1942 novel " L'egitime defense ."  Clouzot's film focuses on a married couple, Maurice Martineau and his theater performing wife, Jenny Lamour. After Jenny becomes acquainted with a sleazy businessman, Brignon, who promises her a film deal, the jealous Maurice goes to Brignon's home to kill him only to find him already dead. A police procedure initiated...
Read more