badelf
There are so many great things about how this movie is made - the directing, the shots, the tonal quality, and the pacing. Probably most brilliant of all is how the total makes the viewer feel claustophobic. I admit, though, it's a tad dated.
Ashes and Diamonds
- Drama
- War
- Romance
10/3/1958
103
Touched with the fire and rebellion of a new generation of Polish film makers
A young academy soldier, Maciek Chelmicki, is ordered to shoot the secretary of the KW PPR. A coincidence causes him to kill someone else. Meeting face to face with his victim, he gets a shock. He faces the necessity of repeating the assassination. He meets Krystyna, a girl working as a barmaid in the restaurant of the "Monopol" hotel. His affection for her makes him even more aware of the senselessness of killing at the end of the war. Loyalty to the oath he took, and thus the obligation to obey the order, tips the scales.
- Director:
- Writers:
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Cast
Zbigniew CybulskiMaciek Chełmicki
Ewa KrzyżewskaKrystyna Rozbicka- Wacław ZastrzeżynskiSzczuka
- Adam PawlikowskiAndrzej Kossecki
- Bogumił KobielaDrewnowski
- Jan CiecierskiPorter
- Stanisław MilskiPieniążek
- Artur MłodnickiKotowicz
- Halina KwiatkowskaStaniewiczowa
- Ignacy MachowskiWaga
- Zbigniew SkowrońskiSlomka
- Barbara KrafftównaStefka
- Aleksander SewrukŚwięcki
- Zofia CzerwińskaLili
- Irena OrzeckaJurgieluszka
- Halina SiekierkoPuciatycka
Reviews
badelf
There are so many great things about how this movie is made - the directing, the shots, the tonal quality, and the pacing. Probably most brilliant of all is how the total makes the viewer feel claustrophobic. I admit, though, it's a tad dated.
Geronimo1967
You might have thought that on May 8th, 1945 the population of Poland would have been united in celebrating the defeat of their Nazi invaders. Instead, though, this film quite deftly illustrates a mixture of joy and trepidation as those who had fought together to free their country now found themselves on opposite sides of a new societal order that was going to pit the freedom-loving Poles on one side with those more Soviet-minded Communists on the other. This polarity is epitomised by "Maciek" (Zbigniew Cybulski) and "Andrzej" (Adam Pawlikowski) who are charged with getting shot - literally - of the communist leader and new minister "Szczuka" (Waclaw Zastrzezynski). They manage to screw their assassination attempt up, though, and innocent ...