THE ENCHANTED STATIONS [1975]
year:
- 1975
release date:
- 27 XI 1975
runtime:
- 95 min
directed by:
- Janusz Majewski
written by:
- Pavel Hajný
director of photography:
- Miroslav Ondřiček
cast:
- Marek Kondrat [Roman Boryczko], Roman Wilhelmi [Robert Fornalski], Roman Skamene [Fryc], Cestimir Randa [Pancer], Michał Pawlicki [Albin], Martin Hron [Henek], Stanisława Celińska [Hela], Joanna Kasperska [Paulina], Jaroslava Schallerova [Zośka], Włodzimierz Boruński [a journalist], Czesław Wołłejko [baron Humaniewski], Tadeusz Drozda [a waiter], Zdzisław Maklakiewicz [a waiter]
edited by:
- Elżbieta Kurkowska
music by:
- Jerzy Matuszkiewicz
production design:
- Tadeusz Wybult, Milan Nejedlý
produced by:
- Studio Filmowe „Tor, Dramaturgicka Skupina dr. V. Kaliny
executive producer:
- Tadeusz Drewno, Jan Suster
awards:
-
• Polish Feature Film Festival Gdańsk 1975: award for best male performance in a leading role for Roman Wilhelmi, award for best sound for Stanisław Piotrowski
• Warsaw Mermaid 1976
• IFF Panama (Panama) 1977: award for best director for Janusz Majewski, best performance award for Marek Kondrat, best screenplay award for Pavel Hajný
• Golden Camera 1976 for Marek Kondrat
About the film
The early 1930s. Country boy, Roman Boryczko, gets a job in the restaurant of the luxury hotel Pacific. He pays for his fast tracked career from a washer to a waiter with humiliation, beatings, prohibitions and orders; these come mainly from the sadistic waiter, Fornalski, on whom he takes revenge by tampering with his cash register. He is promoted by forces of the restaurant’s inner mechanism and chance rather than his own aspirations.
When he is just a step away from the highest level on the waiter hierarchy, a sudden realisation dawns on him. Boryczko hands in his notice. He is unable to bear a system that breaks one’s character and stirs up antagonisms; he rejects the scheming and intrigue that his "mentor" Fornalski uses every day. He thus makes a mature choice of values, wanting to follow them in his own life.
A sequence of episodes made with reverence for the era. A study of a milieu subject to strict rigors and ruled by lawlessness.
Jan Słodowski, Leksykon polskich filmów fabularnych, Warszawa 1996
