Andrzej Wajda: Three War Films (A Generation / Kanal / Ashes & Diamonds) (The Criterion Collection)

CRITERION: A worthy treatment of a brilliant piece of cinematic history - hats off for Criterion.A GENERATION (1955) - 9/10For an audience to appreciate the magnitude of A Generation, Andrzej Wajda's first film and the initial story in his war trilogy, some historical background is necessary. The story is set in 1943 in the middle of the Nazi occupation of Poland where the Poles were held under the fascist shadow of Adolf Hitler while the Communist leader Stalin was infiltrating the Polish community for future expansion. Initially, the Poles welcomed the help from Stalin, as they were fighting the same enemy. However, Stalin made a deal with the Allies in the 1943 Tehran Conference, a year and half before the war was over, that would grant him parts of Poland. Consequently, after the war Poles went from fascist regime to communist control while Poland also had suffered the loss of approximately six million Polish lives in the war between Hitler and Stalin. A Generation takes place during this year when the story's protagonist Stach (Tadeusz Lomnicki) gradually becomes involved with the Polish resistance and the Communist party.In the backdrop of the World War II, the poverty-stricken seem to assemble in the outskirts of Warsaw, as they can only afford living in this location. The naïve Stach is one of these poor who finds himself living on the fringe of shattered society. Together with his friends Stach steals coal from passing German trains, until the day when one of his friends are shot by the Nazis while leaving him wounded. In a tumbling escape from the German train Stach enters the sewers where he encounters a man that introduces him to Sekula (Janusz Paluszkiewicz) who later finds him an apprenticeship as a carpenter. Through his newly acquired friends Stach learns much about life. Eventually, Stach finds himself in a crossroads where he must choose his own path relying on his values and morals.A Generation provides several layers of the Polish society during a part of World War II, which provides an cinematic mosaic with numerous small and large portions expressed in a visually artistic manner. Stach becomes the story's narrator, as he is slung into adulthood from being an innocent teen. Through this rapid maturation that Stach experiences the mosaic comes to life before the eyes of the audience, as the audience gets to witness his coming of age. The values and morals that Stach acquires mature from observing Poles selling bunk beds for concentration camps, the Jewish Warsaw ghetto rebellion in the spring of 1943, learning about Karl Marx, the Polish social classes, being abused by Nazi soliders, building connections with the resistance, and meeting a beautiful girl with whom he falls in love. Through the many experiences the audience gets an chance to learn much about what happened and the mentality of the Polish society, which provides several interesting thoughts.The director Andrzej Wajda maximizes the visual experience through the use of terrific cinematography, which offers thoughtful analogies that elevate the film. One of these wonderful scenes provided through Wadja's direction is when Jasio (Tadeusz Janczar) escapes the Germans up a spiraling staircase where he finds himself not being able to get further. A thought of only being allowed to a certain place within society comes to mind from the scene at the staircase. Another small sequence is when people are calling for glue in the beginning of the film, which offers an opportunity to think of how some abuse their powers while others nurture their leadership. When the film descends towards its poignant ending several scenes will display marvelous camerawork, terrific mise-en-scene, and artistic framing of each scene. All of these aspects of filmmaking enhance the cinematic experience, which in the end offers much to ponder in both a historical and contemporary perspective.KANAL (1957) - 10/10Kanal is the director of Andrzej Wajda's second tale in his war trilogy based on real events that took place starting in August 1944 when the Poles rose up against the Nazis with hope of getting help from the Soviet Red Army. The story takes place in September, as much of Warsaw remains in ruins where human lives seem to be extinguished by the minute. Throughout the revolt, approximately 250.000 people died in the city, as many of the participating rebels were both teens and women. In the shadow the Red Army little did the Polish people know about the true intentions of the Soviets, as they had plans of keeping Poland under the rule of the Soviet sickle and hammer. Ingeniously, Wadja captures both the past and the future through this dark and ominous film, where the Poles were trading one occupation for another.A city in ruins followed by a large group of tired men in dusty patched uniforms and an attitude of perseverance are the first things to strike the retina when viewing the Kanal. This group of partisans, led by Lieutenant Zadra (Wienczyslaw Glinski), used to consist of 70 men while gunfire and explosions have reduced the number to 43. The noticeable men and women in the story are Zadra, Second Lieutenant Wise (Emil Karewicz), Wise's messenger girl the innocent Halinka, Zadra's assistant Sergeant Major Bullet, Officer Cadet Korab (Tadeusz Janczar), Slim (Stanislaw Mikulski) Korab's aide, and lastly the composer Michal (Vladek Sheybal),. These men and the rest of the 3rd Platoon are on a mission to relive another unit battered by the Nazis when the audience finds out that they will not live more than a day.The arrival to their destination welcomes them in an exchange of small arms fire with the enemy. Eventually the noise and tumult settle and a moment of serenity emerges within this place where the Grim Reaper frequently seize new souls. This silence brings about an extraordinary situation where the men and women return to their own humanity, as they move beyond war and death into a personal place where they can exercise their freedom of what they desire the most. For example, composer Michal plays the tango La Comparsita with energetic liveliness and Korab gets to meet the blond beauty Daisy (Teresa Izewska) who has arrived through the sewers to meet him. This moment, however, will soon be crushed under the overhanging threat of the Nazis and symbolically the arrival of the Red Army.Subtle assaults on the serenity begin with a phone call that Michal makes to ensure that his family is ok, but he is cut off in the middle of the conversation and this leaves him with strong anxiety and trepidation. This angst that Michal and many others, no doubt, experience seeps out through the way he later plays the piano with a distant and icy touch, as if his humane side has gotten lost in some wilderness. However, Michal complains about the piano, "It's out of tune. Too many musicians around here." This is a very clever manner in which Wajda creates a sense of emotional isolation and coldness in war. Yet, it is only the beginning of the horror to come, as they are forced to escape through the sewers.The journey into the darkness of the sewers takes the survivors on what the composer refers to as an Alighierian venture, as they descend into a nauseating stench of knee high fluid feces while things only get worse as they continue. This notion holds up with what the audience can read in Dante's Devine Comedy and the purgatory where he ventures through hell and purgatory in order to reach heaven. However, in Wajda's version they have trouble reaching heaven, as several different blockades prevent them from reaching the fresh air above. This blockade could very well be an analogy for the imminent occupation by the Soviet Union, which forced the Poles to be under the rule of foreign power.In the end, Kanal offers the audience an improvement from Wadja's first film A Generation, which enhances the artistic quality of the story while also having a cast that provides more complex characters. The lighting, cinematography, mise-en-scene, and the framing of each scene enhance the claustrophobic atmosphere in the film to such a degree that it is almost unpleasant as smells of the sewers perforates through the screen into the room where one views the film. Altogether, Kanal is a brilliant piece of cinematic history that should not be forgotten, as it retells the horrors of World War II and the perseverance of the Polish people.ASHES AND DIAMONDS (1958) - 10/10Days after Hitler's suicide Germany signs an unconditional act of surrender, which leaves Europe in peace. Poland on the other hand faces another invader, the Soviet Union, that intends to make Poland a satellite state with a Communist government. The Soviet Union succeeded in this matter, which can be read in the history books. This also made it very difficult to film the story Ashes and Diamonds based on Jerzy Andrzejewski's novel, as the director Andrzej Wajda had to balance multiple political issues in order to prevent the censors from cutting his film or angering any Communist leaders that could prevent the making of the film. Nonetheless, Wajda accomplishes deceiving the censor board and makes an exceptional post-war film that finishes his war trilogy, which compares to Wolfgang Staudte's Murderers Among Us (1946).Ashes and Diamonds focuses on the Maciek (Zbigniew Cybulski) the films protagonist who constantly wears sunglasses while being the hatchet man for Andrzej (Adam Pawlikowski). Both were operatives for the Polish Home Army, as they drove the Germans out of Poland. Now they try to usher the Soviet Union out of Poland. However, this is a far more complicated issue than defending Poland against the Nazis, as the Poles now suffer from war fatigue of a bloody war that cost them 25% of the Polish lives. The opening scene when Maciek and Andrzej await a recently appointed Communist official, Szczuka (Waclaw Zastrzezynski), that is suppose to arrive in a jeep symbolically displays their fatigue and the difficulty of driving the Soviets out of Poland, as they accidentally kill the wrong man.Maciek is a man of principles, which shines through when they await for their snitch. However, he also has soft spot for women, as he must have spent most of his youth fighting the Nazis. In a bar waiting to make a call to confirm their assassination, of which they made a mistake on, Maciek meets the bar girl Krystyna (Ewa Krzyzewska) with whom he begins to flirt. Eventually, Maciek and Andrzej discover their error, and they have to stay another night to get the job done by killing Szczuka. To hasten time Maciek continues to flirt with Krystyna, whom he invites to his hotel room, but he has no allusions that she will visit him, which she does.The meeting with Krystyna provides an opportunity for Maciek to ponder over his existence, as he seems to have been stuck in a rut ever since the war that seems difficult to stop. Krystyna does not intend to fall in love with Maciek, as she has lost her whole family to the war and she does not need further heartache. She also asks why he wears the sunglasses, as he informs her that he spent much time in the sewers during the Polish uprising in 1944. A detailed illustration of how it was in the sewers is provided by the second film, Kanal (1957), in Wajda's war trilogy. In addition, this also delivers another analogy to the aftermath of the war that offers a thought to his darkened perspective of the Polish society, which he seems to have a hard time to getting rid off.Wajda continues to frame each scene with artistic detail, as the mise-en-scene and the cinematography continue to amaze the audience. The subtle shots of the Red Army marching while tanks makes porcelain vibrate causing a sound of pressing danger. Yet, the people are tired of fighting, as they simply surrender to the arriving Red Army. The surrender finds it way to the audience through several scenes such as when Maciek and Krystyna lay in bed and talk about her losses. In addition, parties and endless drinking also offer the notion of no more war while trying to forget the painful memories of the war. Despite the notion of war fatigue some still find an opportunity to fight against the Soviet involvement in Poland, which is wittingly and comically portrayed through a scene where a drunk reporter asks, "Is this a democracy or not?"

A GENERATION-written, produced & directed by Andrzej Wadja it is the first war movie in what has become known as his war trilogy. It is a film covering Warsaw through the uprising in the Ghetto of Warsaw. This isn't based primarily on the Nazi actions of that time but is rather a straight forward look at what life was like for the populace, working by day in German held companies & resisting by night. It doesn't take a strong stomach to watch this & I believe that is by design.Focused mainly on the daily hardships of being Polish in Poland during the occupation & the common tragedies suffered by all around Warsaw it is an entirely different condemnation of war & its effects on a local population. The next movie called KANAL focuses on the general uprising outside of the Ghetto in Warsaw. In A GENERATION you get an introduction to the Polish resistance & the Communist resistance efforts. The trilogy is finished by ASHES & DIAMONDS which covers the end of WWII.A truly significant effort to portray Poland in WW-II & heartily recommended unless you must have high adrenaline action. This isn't anyone's propaganda. It's not propaganda at all. History on film as much as a fictional movie can be & recognized as the foundation of the Polish New Cinema School. It is a condemnation of war & its effects.

You can find synopses for these films on the internet, so I will go straight to the heart of Andrzej Wadja's war trilogy: You will rarely watch such gritty, heart-wrenching films in your life, nor will you ever care so much for the people whose struggles to rid themselves of a Nazi occupation resulted in another 45 years of Soviet domination. Life isn't fair, of course, but rarely is it so perverse! The films take place in 1942, 1944, and 1946. They, the films and the events shown, remind me of the adage: "The wheels of fate grind slowly but exceedingly fine." For those of us who lived in the West during the WWII and the Cold War, this trilogy brings out how easy we had it by comparison with the Poles. What struck me most about the films, made in the 1950s, was how closely they held depiction of the human condition and eskewed the ideology of the moment. Yeah, there are small nods to Communists as "nice guys", but there is context and political realities the director had to balance out to tell these remarkable timeless tales of Poland's struggle to exist as a people and a country. What are heroes but ordinary people placed in extraordinary circumstances they have hope they somehow will survive? The trilogy is about such people.

I enjoyed all 3 films though to varying degrees. They run in sequence from early in the war to mid-war to post-war. Ashes and Diamonds is interesting but somewhat erratic in pace and hard to follow in places. I'd give it 3 stars. It deals with the former resistance members struggle against the new communist government via assassination attempts. I liked A Generation more - it dealt with the Polish resistance in the early days of Nazi occupation, and had more action, plus characters that were easier to identify with, and a strong, though not extraordinary, plot. A solid 3.5 stars.Kanal - the middle film, which deals with the final days of the Warsaw uprising - is damn good: tight, suspenseful, unpredictable, with final scenes that are hard to forget. You really experience the setting and emotions with the characters. 4.5 stars.

I am delighted to have this marvellous collection.