Ashes and Diamonds (Popiol i Diament)

Rating:
Summary: The third part of Wajda's "War Trilogy"
Review: "Ashes and Diamonds" (1958) is the third part of Andrzej Wajda's "war trilogy" that also includes "A Generation" and "Kanal." This film takes place in rural Poland at the end of World War II. With the Germans gone, but Russians throughout the country, the Polish resistance has a new target: Communists.

Zbigniew Cybulski (also know for his leading role in "The Saragossa Manuscript") plays the part of Maciek, a patriot who's mission is to assassinate a mid-level Communist Party member. By chance, he meets a woman named Krystyna at the bar, which leads to a delay of his assignment.

"Ashes and Diamonds" is in black-and-white, 105 minutes long, and spoken in Polish with optional English subtitles. Extra features include behind-the-scenes images, original posters, and Anrezej Wajda's biography and filmography.

Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Film from Poland's Greatest Director
Review: "Ashes and Diamonds" (Pol.: Popiol i Diament, 1958), directed by Andrzej Wajda, is the third film of a trilogy of films about the Polish Resistance. The first two were "A Generation" (1954) and "Kanal" (1956). "Kanal" is being released on DVD simultaneously with "Ashes and Diamonds." "A Generation" (Pol.: "Pokolenie"), an overtly propogandistic film, Wajda's first feature and not as moving as the other two, once had a VHS release. Of more recent fame are Wajda's two films about the conflict between the individual and the state. "Man of Marble" (1976) is available on DVD. The DVD release of its sequel, "Man of Iron" (1981), which was screened recently on cable TV, has already been announced and cannot be far off. Given Wajda's political position and his willingness to express his views, it is surprising that he did not suffer more from the repressive regime in Poland. As it is, he felt it wise to leave the country for a while after "Man of Iron."

The ashes and diamonds of the title clearly refer to the physical destruction of the country by the Germans and the beauties, largely of a human nature, that can still be found among the ruins. The hero of the story, a young anti-communist played by famed Polish actor Zbigniew Cybulski, has botched an assassination attempt on a party official in the countryside by killing the wrong man. Now he must return to the city and kill the man in a setting which exposes him to far greater risk. In the meantime, he chats up a hotel barmaid, who quickly becomes his lover. The assassination now puts not only his life in jeopardy but also his new relationship. I will explain no more lest I spoil the film for others.

Zbigniew Cybulski, who also had a small part in "A Generation," was known as the Polish "James Dean" because of his vulnerability and low-key machismo. Like Dean, his life ended tragically (trying to catch a train he fell under the wheels). Unlike Dean he lived to be 39 and made 29 films.

Of "Kanal" and "Ashes and Diamonds," it is the first film that has the stronger images and is the more moving. "Ashes and Diamonds" is a less classical and more modern film, with much in common with Film Noir. Both films are remarkable achievements, and neither is the sequel (except chronologically) to previous films in the trilogy. Watch them both.

Rating:
Summary: ashes and diamonds
Review: "Ashes and Diamonds" (1958) is the third part of Andrzej Wajda's "war trilogy" that also includes "A Generation" and "Kanal." This film takes place in rural Poland at the end of World War II. With the Germans gone, but Russians throughout the country, the Polish resistance has a new target: Communists.

Zbigniew Cybulski (also know for his leading role in "The Saragossa Manuscript") plays the part of Maciek, a patriot who's mission is to assassinate a mid-level Communist Party member. By chance, he meets a woman named Krystyna at the bar, which leads to a delay of his assignment.

"Ashes and Diamonds" is in black-and-white, 105 minutes long, and spoken in Polish with optional English subtitles. Extra features include behind-the-scenes images, original posters, and Anrezej Wajda's biography and filmography.

Rating:
Summary: The third part of Wajda's "War Trilogy"
Review: "Ashes and Diamonds" (1958) is the third part of Andrzej Wajda's "war trilogy" that also includes "A Generation" and "Kanal." This film takes place in rural Poland at the end of World War II. With the Germans gone, but Russians throughout the country, the Polish resistance has a new target: Communists.

Zbigniew Cybulski (also know for his leading role in "The Saragossa Manuscript") plays the part of Maciek, a patriot who's mission is to assassinate a mid-level Communist Party member. By chance, he meets a woman named Krystyna at the bar, which leads to a delay of his assignment.

"Ashes and Diamonds" is in black-and-white, 105 minutes long, and spoken in Polish with optional English subtitles. Extra features include behind-the-scenes images, original posters, and Anrezej Wajda's biography and filmography.

Rating:
Summary: Means are more important than the ends
Review: Any great art hinges upon how it is able to address the conflicts that a person goes through in one's lives. Ashes and Diamonds, tries to bring out the conflict of an individual trapped between whether the ends are more important than the means. He is a part of a revolutionary group assigned to assassinate a political figure, and before the assassination takes place, he has an affair with a bar girl. The affair and the events thereof makes him realise the futility of the violence and whether the revolution are able to achieve the ends that they are working towards. A brilliant film, the best by Wajda and it will continue to have a timelessness associated with it.

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Summary: isolation, war, tragedy: just a few elements of a great film
Review: At the peak of the Polish school of film, Andzej Wajda made "Ashes and Diamonds," a film that deals largely with the national experience in Poland. Thus, it helps to know a bit of Polish history before viewing this film. The story: Manciek is a young solider in the right-wing Nationalist Army who is ordered at the conclusion of the war to assassinate the newly-arrived Communist District Secretary. In the meantime, he falls in love. The film then becomes a discussion of conscience v. loyalty, with Manciek living in both the established and criminal world and often crossing the line between a life with his new girlfriend and his continued life as a revolutionary. The title itself (taken from Norwid's romantic poem) obviously plays into this conflict.

Wajda's films do not avoid bitterness and pessimism, and this film in particular treats art as a response to the problems of society, revealing the factors that emphasize its complexes as well as its symptoms. At the end of the film, the immediate devastation has ended; but, the ongoing devastation has only begun. In fact, Wajda seems to say, it is a devastation with no end in sight because it is imposed by a memory that makes the line between life and death a thin one; Manciek wears dark glasses because his eyes could never adjust to the light after his time spent in the sewers during the Polish resistance. "Will there remain among the ashes," the Polish poet Norwid asked, "a star-like diamond, the dawn of eternal victory?" Wajda presents this question to the viewer throughout his film-- a question which he leaves open for you to answer.

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Summary: Disturbing film !
Review: Definitvely the craft of Wajda shows us over and over he is a real master.
In this case Wajda a demolishing picture in which the burocracy , it is merciless beaten through the eyes of an apparent , minor shy and anodyne employer who literally will defy the system with all the consequences .
This is real gem and historical portrait of Poland in the sixties .

Rating:
Summary: ashes and diamonds
Review: I have never written a review before. I enjoy all kinds of film, especially the classics and have seen thousands. Of those, this film would be ranked in the top 10. Few films can I look back on and say "perfect". This was one of them. I greatly enjoyed it, and would highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Closing Chapter
Review: With Ashes and Diamonds, Andrzej Wajda completed his trilogy concerning the Polish experience during World War II. It is the last day of the war, and a young Republican resistance fighter, Maciek, has been assigned to assassinate a high ranking member of the Communist resistance. Maciek's experiences leading up to the killing--his contact with the kindly Communist leader, his romance with a young barmaid--seriously undermine his initial allegiance to the dying Republican cause. Director (and former resistance member) Wajda brilliantly portrays the fratricidal impulses guiding Poland immediately after the war--impulses which ultimately prostrated Poland under a Communist regime for decades. The directionlessness and confusion of postwar Poland is evident in Wajda's treatment and, although it is never directly seen, the Soviet Union's Red Army is unmistakably present. In its entirety, the trilogy of A Generation, Kanal, and Ashes and Diamonds devastatingly documents the death of Old Central Europe. However, it is a testament to Wajda's talent that Ashes and Diamonds can easily stand on its own.

Rating:
Summary: Poland's Screen Debut
Review: Zbigniew Cybulski brings to life the Polish resistance in post-WW2 Poland. Now under the rule of Soviet Russia, Poland becomes the object of Communist militarization and control. A young Polish freedom fighter, along with his compatriots, plot to cause upheavel in the new communist regime in the area. Excellent actors, plot and setting bring this film to life on the screen as one of the greatest "resistance" type films of all time. Filmed in Polish, a real treat to hear as well as see.