POLISH FILM ACADEMY

50 Years of Polish Film School, Warsaw 2008

In excellent company

Andrzej Bukowiecki

1958, when “Eroica” by Andrzej Munk was released (premiere: January 4), was the best year for the Polish Film School (which will also be interchangeably referred to herein as the “Polish School”) and surely the best one in the history of Polish cinematography. As many as eight out of seventeen films (apart from “Eroica” – “Ashes and Diamond” by Wajda, “Eve Wants to Sleep” by Tadeusz Chmielewski, “The Last Day of Summer” by Tadeusz Konwicki and Jan Laskowski, “The Loop” and “Farewells” by Wojciech Jerzy Has, “Pills for Aurelia” by Stanisław Lenartowicz and “The Free City” by Stanisław Różewicz) gained the status of outstanding or at least highly significant productions. Most of them still enjoy this status.

“Eroica” (year of production: 1957), subtitled “Heroic Symphony in Two Parts” (part I: “Scherzo alla polacca”, part II: “Ostinato – lugubre”) initiated the wonderful series of 1958 film premieres. Munk’s picture turned out to be one of the most prominent achievements of the Polish School and one of the greatest masterpieces of world cinema.

“Eroica”, based on the stories written by Jerzy Stefan Stawiński, one of the key screenwriters of the Polish School, then – half a century ago – belonged to the mainstream and was one of many films which dealt with the post-war reality, attitudes of fellow countrymen who had to come to terms with the past, and the fate of the whole nation which faced a terrible ordeal. Munk polemicised against the heroic attitude praised so much in Wajda’s “Canal” which, interestingly enough, was also based on Stawiński’s texts (he did not however – as it was often imputed to him – deride such attitude). “Eroica” provoked a wave of polemics in press and attacks on the director. A rational look at the Warsaw Uprising which we see through the eyes of a certain Dzidziuś Górkiewicz, a man in the street who is not spoiling for a fight with the armed to the teeth German army, clashed with the legend of heroic deeds of the uprising fighters even more than the metaphor of the uprising’s failure presented in “Canal”. The bitter picture presenting the life of Polish prisoners of war – in part two – was in no way consistent with the legend of “pretty as a picture uhlans”. “Eroica” just like many other distinguished Polish School films was produced by the KADR Filmmaking Team (nowadays: KADR Film Studio). 

The origin and original characteristics of “Eroica”

Having made his first full length feature film – a social drama “Man on the Tracks” (1956) – Adrzej Munk was looking for a lighter topic. He asked Jerzy Stefan Stawiński to write a screenplay for a comedy that would be set in a ballet school for girls. Stawiński was not interested in the project and began to write his war stories. Munk was thinking of directing one of them, i.e. “Canal”, but after exploring the real canals through which Warsaw Uprising fighters had been forcing their way he decided that it was too dark there to make a film. In the end, it was Andrzej Wajda who directed “Canal” and Munk used two other war stories by Stawiński - “The Hungarians” and “The Escape”.  They became the literary basis of “Eroica”. Stawiński also wrote the screenplay – only he is mentioned in the opening credits as the “screenplay author”. It is well known though that Munk took an active part in the literary process. “I can’t imagine – he said in Stanisław Janicki’s book “Polish Filmmakers About Themselves” (Warsaw, 1962) – how a director could not consider himself to be a co-owner of the idea contained in the screenplay. The very choice of topic indicates a desire to express the thoughts which are mentioned in the screenplay. The director can’t just be the producer. Munk also asked: “Can we doubt that the form of the film constitutes the sole property of the director?”

These arguments can hardly be refuted that is why, while fully appreciating Stawiński’s contribution, “Eroica” may well be considered to be Munk’s original masterpiece, a powerful and pioneering film belonging to the trend which was particularly successful in Europe at the end of the 1950s and the beginning of the 1960s (the New Wave in France, the English “Angry Young Men”, early works by Antonioni, Bergman, Fellini…). It was Munk who developed the screenwriter’s ideas into a film and emphasised certain aspects, which not only determined the artistic value but, most of all, the ideological significance of “Eroica”: this polemical – ironic, grotesque, or sarcastic at times – tone in which he speaks about the issues that are always present in Polish collective consciousness such as the sense of national uprisings or the confrontation of myths with reality.

Brave decision

Munk borrowed the title and the subtitles of “Eroica” from Ludwig Van Beethoven’s III Symphony which is referred to as the “Eroica Symphony”. The symphony is composed of three parts, the first of which is called “Scherzo furioso alla pollaca”. The director also wanted his film “symphony” to consist of three parts all of which were to be set during the Second World War. The literary material was not sufficient though. Munk asked Stawiński to write the third story (which was supposed to become the first part of “Eroica”). Although with reluctance, the author agreed. He felt half-hearted – as he admits today – about writing “The Nun”, a short story with an on-screen title “Con bravura”. The story describes war experiences of a young underground activist disguised as a nun (Teresa Szmigielówna) who travels along the secret courier route leading from the General Gouvernement via the Tatra Mountains to Hungary. Despite her camouflage, the girl gets captured by the Nazis, her courage, risk, and sacrifice came to nothing. The short film – quite an interesting one in itself – was much worse than the other two parts so Munk did not use it. The decision he made proved his self-criticism, it was brave both from artistic and economic point of view. “Con bravura” was shown on Polish television in 1972 in Stanisław Janicki’s programme “W starym kinie” [In an old cinema].

Scherzo alla polacca

In the end “Eroica” was composed of two parts – “Scherzo alla polacca” and “Ostinato – lugubre”. Although set in different places and characterised by different mood, both parts are united not only by the common theme of war. “Scherzo…” is set during the Warsaw Uprising and “Ostinato…” in an Oflag among whose prisoners are the recent Uprising fighters. A chronological and logical sequence of events emerges from this elaborate structure – a specific action first, in this particular case it is the heroic but irrational armed action sceptically evaluated by the main character and the authors of the film, and then its consequences: the bitterness of failure experienced in captivity. “Eroica” was released eight months after “Canal”. Wajda created a metaphor of uprising failure by setting his film during the last days of the uprising and “condemning” all his characters to death in the dark, reeking canals. (After the premiere of “Canal” some of the ex-fighters felt rather resentful towards the director, they would have prefered to see a reassuring legend of the young brave boys throwing petrol-filled bottles at German tanks. Wajda, just like Munk, forced the audience to ask themselves a question which will probably be never unambiguously answered: was it worth doing? This is the only similarity that can be found between “Canal” and “Scherzo alla polacca” though. Wajda gave his film a tragic tone and Warsaw was portrayed as the city fully devoted to the heroic though reckless fight with the enemy. 

“Scherzo…” which is also set at the end of the Uprising can be referred to more as a “tragicomedy”, “tragifarce”, “grotesque”, and the civilian population of Warsaw – as was pointed out by Aleksander Jackiewicz in his extensive sketch “Twórczość” [Artistic Work] placed in a collective publication “Andrzej Munk” (Warsaw 1964) – is led by the will to survive rather than to fight. Dzidziuś Górkiewicz (Edward Dziewoński), the main hero of the film or the anti-hero – as described by Stanisław Ozimek (“Konfrontacje z Wielką Wojną” [Confrontation with the Great War] in the History of Polish Film, vol. 4, Warsaw 1980) represents this pragmatic, common sense oriented part of the society. His very name sounds grotesque. Equally grotesque looks the drill of a decimated unit whose commanding officer is keen to give the following orders but only Dzidziuś, who is carrying them out clumsily and somewhat unwillingly, notices the approaching German plane and raises alarm: he is able to assess the hopeless situation level-headedly.

Dzidziuś – “Mr Nobody”: a minor sly one and crafty bugger from the Warsaw’s suburb of Zalesie – having realised that the Uprising is going to fail anyway, deserts from the battlefield renouncing at the same time his participation in History. But then History asks for him once again and the intrigue he becomes involved in refers to an authentic event that took place during the Warsaw Uprising. In mid-August of 1944 the fighters captured two officers of the Hungarian army which was allied with the Germans. The commanding officer of the Mokotów area contacted the General Headquarters via the captives. Negotiations during which the Hungarians were to offer the fighters some weapons in exchange for the guarantee of safety after the expected encroachment of the Soviet army (which the fighters were obviously unable to guarantee) never took place. Neither did they take place in “Scherzo…” but the proverbial Polish fate understood as the necessity of an individual to get involved – sooner or later, in this or that way – in the events which are significant for the whole nation,  the fate, which Dzidziuś Górkiewicz was trying to avoid so much finally caught up with him, too. And not only during the grotesque “Hungarian” operation but also in another, dramatic dimension – in the last, heartbreaking scene of “Scherzo alla polacca”.

Ostinato - lugubre

The shift of mood at the end of the first part introduces the viewers into the second one. “Ostinato – lugubre” was given a gloomy tone, the occassional ironic or grotesque accents do not change the general depressing impression made by the film. A new group of Polish prisoners of war arrives at an Oflag situated at the foothils of the Alps. The men are lodged in a barrack where they meet other Polish prisoners, some of whom – as we find out – have been there for five years. Long-term captivity provokes frustration which infects the newly arrived ones. In the diversified prisoner community, in claustrophobic conditions of the cramped barrack, conflicts and animosities occur on daily basis. Fanatical observance of the code of honour rules by the pre-war officer corps – in which lieutenant Korwin-Makowski (Mariusz Dmochowski) leads the way – is how they try to maintain the tradition but in prisoner camp conditions it makes their lives even more difficult to bear. Among the newly arrived prisoners, lieutenant Kurzawa (Józef Nowak) keeps his distance from the conflicts and two of the veteran-prisoners – lieutenant Turek (Kazimierz Rudzki) and lieutenant Żak (Józef Kostecki) – assume a defensive outsider attitude.

It seems then that after the special screening of “Eroica” organised to commemorate the 50^th anniversary of the film premiere (on January 4, 2008 in the Muranów Cinema in Warsaw) 

Andrzej Werner proposed a very accurate interpretation of the relationships existing between POW camp prisoners presented in “Ostinato – lugubre” saying that it can be treated as a metaphor of the “Polish hell” returning both in the past and present.

The prisoners feel comforted when they listen to a story about lieutenant Zawistowski. He allegedly was the only one who managed to escape from the well-guarded prison and now “he is probably fighting with general Maczek or Anders” (Korwin-Makowski). New prisoners are rahter sceptical about this legend but it gives hope to many others who have been there for some time, they want to believe that maybe they will also manage to fulfill the basic obligation of each captive soldier , that is to escape. “Ostinato – lugubre” would often be interpreted as a film talking about the unifying function of myths.

Kurzawa finds out what really happened with Zawistowski by sheer coincidence, the truth was known only to a few and kept secret. It is not Kurzawa though but Turek who has to perform another dramatic role connected with the legend of Zawistowski’s “brave escape” in the final scene of the film.

Against the current

The premiere of “Eroica” drew huge press response. The significance and artistic value of Munk’s film (which are discussed in more detail in the following chapter) were rarely questioned but the character of Dzidziuś Górkiewicz, trying to dodge from fighting with the Nazis, or the petty-mindednes of the prisoners wearing Polish military uniforms were at odds with the popular ideas and romantic legend. The director was often accused of having questioned the value of heroism. Such opinions were provoked for example by the famous scene from “Scherzo alla polacca” where Dzidziuś, failing to notice a German tank behind him, throws a bottle at it. It is not a petrol-filled bottle – as the legend has it – but a wine bottle he has just emptied and when the tank shoots, Dzidziuś reacts in a cowardly and comical way. The legend is “brought down to earth”.

In “Ostinato – lugubre” idealistic heroism is challenged in the scene where lieutenant Żak takes a desperate attempt to escape from the camp. He is not, however, doing it in order to fulfil his honourable officers obligation but because he cannot stand the tense atmosphere within his own “veteran” community.

In fact, Munk was not questioning the idea of heroism but the so-called “cheap heroism”. According to Stanisław Ozimek (op. cit.), the concept most often referred to “the idea of irrational heroism uncritically based, in completely different times, on romantic literature and the uprisings of the previous century (meaning the 19^th century, author’s note) […]”

The director himself refuted the arguments: “Those who claim that my films represent anti-heroic tendencies do me a great deal of injustice […]. “Eroica” does not present heroes in an unfvourable light even if they act irrationally, they are always presented respectfully and sentimentally. We have only demonstrated the uselessness of such attitudes in specific situations” (in: Stanisław Janicki, op. cit.).

Munk was also strongly against generalising “Scherzo alla polacca”: “Those who think that the first part of “Eroica” is a story of the uprising [Warsaw Uprising] which expresses personal opinions of its authors concerning the event have forgotten that everything that happens on the screen reflects the attitude of this given character to what is going on around him […]” (in: Stanisław Janicki, op. cit.).

After all “Eroica” defends heroism. Surprisingly enough, in the final scenes of both parts Dzidziuś Górkiewicz and lieutenant Turek perform heroic acts, which is not something we would have expected of them. Partial demythologisation of the Warsaw Uprising is combined with the rehabilitation of its participant who has been sticking his head in the sand so far, sarcastic judgement on our army in captivity is counterbalanced by the enhanced status of the apparently reserved officer who seemed to heve lost touch with reality.

“[…] In hard times real acts of heroism are performed by ordinary men and they occur almost imperceptibly – without fanfares, empty gestures and in secret kept hidden from the worshippers of someone else’s greatness” – as Marek Hendrykowski aptly concludes in his book entitled “Andrzej Munk” (Warsaw, 2007).

Mastery in every respect

The meaning of “Eroica” used to be a bone of contention. Its artistic perfection has never been questioned though. In the first part, “Scherzo alla polacca”, Edward Dziewoński was absolutely brilliant in the role of Dzidziuś Górkiewicz. “The humourous character of “Scherzo” – as Ewelina Nurczyńska-Fidelska points out in “Andrzej Munk” (Cracow, 1982) – is unseparably connected with Edward Dziewoński’s acting style […]. Dziewoński was able to combine all the negative traits of his character’s personality – slyness, drunkenness, cowardice, and indifference towards the fate of the dying city – with kindness, warmth, plebeian vigour and common sense. He succeeded in making his character’s metamorphosis credible up to the final dramatic gesture which was his deliberate choice.

“Scherzo alla polacca” features an individual character whereas “Ostinato – lugubre” a collective one – the micro-community of an Oflag barrack. The acting is particularly good. None of the actors are trying to come to the fore but two of them – Kazimierz Rudzki (as lieutenant Turek) and Józef Kostecki (as lieutenant Żak) – surpass the others without outshining them though. Both of them play the roles of camp outsiders whose souls are exhausted.

“Ostinato – lugubre” is considered to be one of Munk’s best achievements and one of the finest examples of technical brilliance in Polish cinema. Jerzy Wójcik’s contribution as a cameraman cannot be overestimated here. “Eroica” was Wójcik’s debut, later on he filmed, among others, “Ashes and Diamond” and “Samson” by Andrzej Wajda, “Mother Joan of the Angels” and “Pharaoh” by Jerzy Kawalerowicz, “Westerplatte” by Stanisław Różewicz, and Jerzy Hoffman’s “The Deluge”.

In “Eroica” Jerzy Wójcik used – for the first time in the history of Polish cinematography – a widened (1:1.66) frame format instead of the standard (1:1.37) one. While working on “Ostinato – lugubre”, just like Munk, he was inspired by the achievements of Orson Welles and his cameraman Gregg Toland in “Citizen Kane” (USA 1940): he filmed it in long shot with deep focus using wide-angle lens. Scenes taking place inside the barrack were filmed with 18 mm lens. Such short focal length enabled the cameraman to film several characters simultaneously, which produced an on-screen effect of the prisoners being crowded together in a restricted, enclosed space. The camera was also able to capture the ceilings which produced an overwhelming effect and compounded the tension, especially in those scenes in which the characters were filmed from below.

“I got off the tram once outside the Moskwa cinema – writes Jerzy Wójcik in his memoirs entitled “Labirynt Światła” [The Labirynth of Light], edited by Seweryn Kućmierczyk (Warszawa, 2006). There [outside the cinema] was a long queue, I didn’t know what all these people were queuing for […]. Something must have been going on, if there were so many of them […]”. A moment later Jerzy Wójcik realised that these people were queuing to buy  tickets for “Eroica”…

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