2002, 100 min

in Polish with English subtitles

 

Revenge

 

Direction:                   Andrzej Wajda

Screenplay:                Andrzej Wajda, based on the play by Aleksander Fredro

Cinematography:       Paweł Edelman

Music:                        Wojciech Kilar

Scenography:             Magdalen Dipont, Tadeusz Kosarewicz

 

Cast:                           Roman Polański, Janusz Gajos, Andrzej Seweryn, Daniel Olbrychski

                                    Agata Buzek, Rafał Królikowski, Katarzyna Figura

 

 

 

"Revenge" is Aleksander Fredro's best known comedy, which moves and amuses each generation till today.  Fredro drew inspiration for "Revenge" from the seventeenth century trial papers pertaining to a 30-year dispute between two owners of the castle in Odrzykon in Galicia. Fredro received the castle after marrying Zofia Skarbkowa in 1828. Among the files, which came into his possession, Fredro came across the trial papers describing the dispute between Jan Skotnicki and Piotr Firlej, co-owners of the castle in the 17th century. The trial went on for 30 years and ended with the marriage of Firlej's son to Zofia Skotnicka. This story gave Fredro the groundwork for the plot of his comedy. However, the author did not exclusively intend to re-create the history of the 17th century. Originally it was supposed to be a contemporary play. Later, the plot was shifted back in time. Fredro described the drama, based on these disputes, in the years 1832-1833. The subject of the comedy is a dispute over the border wall, in fact over the castle, to which both Czesnik and Rejent proclaim themselves the owners. Fredro created a gallery of noble characters, representing different cultures. There are not only figures from the Saxon times (Czesnik, Dyndalski, Rejent), but also figures typical of the Stanislaw epoch (Papkin, Podstolina). The playwright also introduces pre-romantic characters, capable of excessive exaltation, great love, and resistance to the will of their guardians (Waclaw, Clara).

Pictures:

http://www.mge.tv/en/english/revenge_gallery.html

Movie clips:

Andrzej Wajda

b. 1926

 

The legend of Polish cinema, Andrzej Wajda received in March 2000 an Honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which hailed the director as "one of the most respected filmmakers of our time, a man whose films have given audiences around the world an artist's view of history, democracy and freedom, and who in so doing has himself become a symbol of courage and hope for millions of people in postwar Europe."

Wajda was a resistance fighter at age 16 following the death of his father, a cavalry officer, in the Katyn forest massacre of 1940. After the war, he studied at the National Film School in Lodz, graduating in 1954.  He established himself as a key figure in the new Polish cinema with his first feature film, "A Generation" (1955), a penetrating study of the effects of war on a nation's disillusioned youth.  This film and the subsequent "Kanal" (1957) and "Ashes and Diamonds" (1958) form a powerful trilogy of films about the aftermath of World War II.

Although Wajda has proven himself over the last four decades a versatile and prolific director, turning out romantic films, comedies, epics and dramas, he periodically returns to themes of war that echo his obsession with the futility of heroism and the bitter aftermath of combat.  Some of these films include "Lotna" (1959), "Ashes" (1965), and "Landscape After Battle"(1970).

In 1982, Wajda's controversial "Man of Iron" (1981) was submitted to the Academy for consideration as Best Foreign Language Film.  "Man of Iron," a sequel to "Man of Marble" (1977), chronicled the development of the Solidarity Movement in Poland and featured footage of Solidarity leader Lech Walesa.  The Polish government tried to withdraw the film from contention, but the Academy said voting had already begun, refused to drop it and the film was nominated.

Wajda's filmography lists close to 50 films he directed, including three that have been nominated by the Academy as Best Foreign Language Film: "Land of Promise" in 1975, "The Maids of Wilko" in 1979 and "Man of Iron.”  The Polish Film Festival in Seattle had a retrospective of his movies in 2000.

 

Wajda about making “Revenge”

 

After the magnificent success of bringing to the screen Adam Mickiewicz’s epic poem Pan Tadeusz, which was seen in Polish theaters by more than six million viewers, Andrzej Wajda took on another great classic of Polish literature,  Aleksander Fredro’s Revenge. This is what the director said about the project.

 

The idea of realizing a film version of “Revenge” kept coming back to me, but each time some new project emerged and “Revenge” moved away from me again for a long time. This time, to be honest, the success of “Pan Tadeusz” made me get back to“Revenge.” Those two masterpieces of Polish literature, although written at the same time differ significantly from each other. Created in exile “Pan Tadeusz” is based on the longing for lost freedom. “Revenge,” written in Poland in a caustic, ironic style, though in the most beautiful Polish language, depicts those national characteristics, which were often the cause of our national misfortunes. The characters of “Revenge,” presented in this way, are the subject of my interest. I brought this work to the screen almost in its entirety without any modifications. However I believe that today, when we see around us the brutality in politics and international relations, I have the duty to find in “Revenge” the quintessence of the Polish national character. What is this”Polish character?” Suspicion, distrust of other people, reluctance to accept a differing point of view. The two main antagonists of “Revenge” possess these faults – closed in a tight world of their own affairs and not inclined to come to an agreement. The famous border wall that separates them is not just a wall in the material sense, but a mental barrier which is most emphatically expressed by Czesnik’s words:

The waters will dry up in the sea

Before there is between us harmony

Indeed in the end Czesnik and Rejent reach a mutual understanding, but it is rather strained, and therefore undoubtedly fragile: conflict can break out at any moment again – warns the director. It is true that each of us, you and I, are expecting a contemporary Polish film. But observing the past need not be an escape from reality. Our Polish spirit is embodied in our literature. This is why I do not view “Revenge” as a film that I made in anticipation of a screenplay that discusses modern times. “Revenge” is a work within itself, unusual, thrilling, and very contemporary.

 

 

Filmography

 

1950    The Bad Boy

1951    The Potery at Ilza

1952    While You’re Asleep

1955    A Generation

             I'm Going to the Sun

1957    Canal

1958    Ashes and diamonds

1959    Lotna

1960    Innocent Sorcerers

1961    Fury is a Woman

             Samson

1962    Love at Twenty

1965    The Ashes

1967    Gates to Paradise

1968    Roly Poly (TV)

1969    Everything For Sale

            Hunting Flies

1970    The Birch Wood

            Landscape After the Battle

1972    The Wedding

            Pilate and others  (TV)

1974    The Promised Land

1976    The Shadow Line

1977    The Dead Class (TV)

            Man of Marble

1978    Invititation to Come Inside

1979    The Young Ladies of Wilko

            The Conductor

            Rough Treatment (Without Anesthesia)

            Peace Be With You

1980    As Time Goes On (TV series)

1981    Man of Iron

1982    Danton

1983    A Love in Germany

1986    Chronicle of Love Affairs

1988    The Possessed

            Francais vus par…, Les (TV series)

1990    Korczak

1993    The Ring with a Crowned Eagle

1994    Nastasja

1995    Holy Week

1996    Miss Nobody

1999    Pan Tadeusz: The Last Foray in Lithuania

2000    Judgment on Franciszek Klos (TV)

2002    Broken Silence (serial TV) (segment “I Remember”)

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Revenge” provided due to courtesy of  MGE and Vision Films