EVE WANTS TO SLEEP [1957]
year:
- 1957
release date:
- 17 III 1958
runtime:
- 94 min
directed by:
- Tadeusz Chmielewski
written by:
- Tadeusz Chmielewski, Andrzej Czekalski
director of photography:
- Stefan Matyjaszkiewicz
cast:
- Barbara Kwiatkowska [Ewa Bonecka], Stanisław Mikulski [Piotr Malewski], Stefan Bartik [Captain], Ludwik Benoit [Safecracker Leon Pistynek Ptuszko], Maria Kaniewska [Helutka], Roman Kłosowski [Lulek], Wacław Kowalski [gunsmith at the eighth precinct], Gustaw Lutkiewicz [policeman Dobiela], Stanisław Milski [Fafuła], Władysław Osto-Suski [an undertaker], Jarema Stępowski [Wacek Szparaga, a waiter at the Snal Bar], Wojciech Turowski [Profesor, lecturer at the Seminar], Edward Wichura [officer Teofil], Zygmunt Zintel [major Piętka], Kalina Jędrusik [Biernacka], Jan Kobuszewski [Marian, Biernacka’s lover]
edited by:
- Janina Niedźwiecka
music by:
- Henryk Czyż
production design:
- Roman Mann, Adam T. Nowakowski
produced by:
- Zespół Filmowy „Syrena”
executive producer:
- Wiesław Mincer
awards:
-
- IFF San Sebastian (Spain) 1958: Golden Shell, the Award of the Spanish Association of Screenplay Writers for the best screenplay
- IFF Mar del Plata (Argentina) 1958 award for the best set of films (with Heroism and Assassination)
About the film
An intelligent compilation comedy derived from all varieties of this genre: from burlesque gags to sophisticated comedy. However, the film does not deviate from Polish reality mainly through dialogue and by reference to the Polish tradition of satire. Chmielewski’s debut was the second (since Skarb) commercially and artistically successful Polish comedy.
The film is a comedy take on a commonplace situation: a young naive girl is looking for accommodation because she has not been admitted to school the day before classes begin. Walking the streets of a peculiar town, she meets a sympathetic policeman, Piotr, and his colleagues from the police station, as well as an entire array of crazy, grotesque figures.
The town community for the most part consists of adventurers living on the best of terms with the police. There is a complete reversal of roles: thieves have their own training academy, while the police spend most of their time in quiet, safe police stations, learning... to play the flute in order to lure criminals out of their hideouts; prostitutes knit as they wait for their clients.
Jan Słodowski, Leksykon polskich filmów fabularnych, Warszawa 1996
