LES ADIEUX

By : Wojciech J. Has

With : Maria Wachowiak, Tadeusz Janczar, Gustaw Holoubek, Zdzislaw Mrozewski
POLOGNE, 1958, DVD 9, 4/3 - 105 min
zone 2, noir et blanc,


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English title: PARTINGS
Original title: POZEGNANIA

Directed by : Wojciech J. Has

With : Maria Wachowiak, Tadeusz Janczar, Gustaw Holoubek, Zdzislaw Mrozewski
Poland, 1958, DVD 9, 4/3 - 105 min
zone 2, black and white

Original Polish version with French subtitles

The film is an adaptation of a highly lyrical and reflective novel by Stanislaw Dygat, with a screenplay written by Dygat and Has. Taking place in Poland during the late 1930s and early 40s, this melancholy film evokes the insecurity and despair pervading Poland at the time. The story begins immediately before World War II and focuses on Pawel (Tadeusz Janczar), a member of a conservative and bourgeois family, and his love for the thoroughly jaded Lidka (Maria Wachowiak), a dancer. The mismatched pair finds momentary happiness during a trip to the countryside, however social conventions and the lovers' inability to defy them force Pawel and Lidka to split up. The times change, war breaks out and ends; Pawel suffers at Auschwitz concentration camp and Lidka marries his cousin. Years later the two rediscover each other much changed, and find that they may still have the capacity for love.
The post-war literature that Has appreciated was not well known abroad. Its authors were called by Marxist critics as "The Reckoning of the Intelligentsia". Has based his film PARTINGS (1958) on a novel written by Stanislaw Dygat, and the film HOW TO BE LOVED (1962) on the eponymous novel by Kazimierz Brandys. These novels focused on how the educated middle class came to terms with the war and the transformation of Poland under socialism. They had a tone of nostalgia and irony, both of which Has reflected in his films.

Academy Award Nomination for Best Foreign Film 1977.
BONUS: Chaptering, Filmography, Restored Master, Analysis by J. MANDELBAUM (11 mn.)



Watch a video excerpt :

Les adieux
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