Ashes and Diamonds

 

Hailed as the masterpiece of Polish cinema, as well as the third in Andrzej Wajda’s War Trilogy, Ashes and Diamonds is arguably the finest European realist film ever made. On-screen, it’s the story of two Home Army assassins, Maciek (Zbigniew Cybulski) and Andrzej (Adam Pawlikowski) in an unnamed Polish town on 8 May 1945 – the day Germany officially surrendered. They struggle to complete their final wartime assignment - to assassinate the local Communist politician, Commisar Szczuka - as Maciek drifts further away from the life he had to live during the war. Off-screen, it is director Andrzej Wajda’s personal and political cinematic declaration.

His Father, a captain in the Polish infantry, was butchered in 1942 during what became known as the Katyn Massacre. Wajda himself joined the Polish resistance aged  fifteen, serving in the Armija Krajowa until the war ended. As a young filmmaker in post-war, Soviet-backed Communist Poland, Wajda’s trilogy of war films (also including A Generation and Kanal) are shaped by the necessity to both please the Polish audience who adored the heroes of the resistance movement, and appease the Communist censors who held complete authority over artistic censorship. Coming less than three years after the death of Stalin, and just months after the Polish October, Wajda was a gifted young filmmaker in a rapidly changing political landscape.

We are introduced to the two assassins with a failed first attempt at Szczuka’s life, during which two workers are accidentally gunned down. They receive a second chance at the local hotel and banquet hall, Monopol. Whilst waiting to ambush the Commisar, Maciek becomes infatuated with the hotel’s barmaid, Krystyna (Ewa Kryźewska). It is their union that acts as a catalyst in reminding Maciek of who he was before the war, and who he wants to become now that it has finally drawn to a close.

Wajda’s masterful use of time creates an atmosphere of both fast-approaching, impending misery and the elongated, never-ending passing of the witching hour. The end of the war cannot come quickly enough, although it means the simple replacement of one enemy with another. The guilt that comes with surviving a conflict in which so many comrades have been killed is coupled with the fear and anxiety of what becomes of a man used only to killing once the war is over. They ache for the clock to tick faster and bring an end to the war that has consumed them and destroyed their country, but dread its climax, where they find themselves in unknown territory.

 

Inspired by the work of Orson Welles, particularly his use of deep focus in Citizen Kane, Wajda’s cinematography is sublime. Thematically, Wajda also drew inspiration from László Benedek’s The Wild One, with a newfound emotional attachment forcing the previously violent male protagonist to reassess their commitments. Rarely do you see Zbigniew Cybulski’s name appear in print without a reference to James Dean, and as well trodden as the comparison is, it remains just. Commonly playing the nonconformist rebel, he was the leading figure in Poland’s “young and wrathful” acting generation before being tragically killed in a train accident, aged just thirty, in 1967.

Of the three films in Wajda’s trilogy, Ashes and Diamonds is by far the most mature and stylishly audacious. He uses several visual symbols throughout the film, most notably fire, which first appears emblazoned across the back of the mistakenly murdered worker in the opening scene. Later, whilst drinking at the bar, Maciek drinks flaming shots for each of his fallen comrades. Finally, when approaching the Commissar to finish his assignment, fireworks intended to celebrate the end of the war fill the night sky creating a bizarre celebration of death.

The title refers to the manner in which diamonds are formed from heat and pressure being applied to coal. Within the film, the pressure is clear to see. Poland itself is trapped between the barbarity of the Nazi regime and the unknown incoming Soviet administration. Maciek is pressurised by his duty to finalise his last assignment and to leave the war behind for good with his newfound love.

Behind the camera, the pressure was on Wajda to create a film worthy of the Resistance in which he served, and still not too damning of those who held final say over censorship. It was Wajda’s ambiguity that ultimately fooled the censors, along with Cybulski’s phenomenal performance portraying the 24-hour transformation of both man and country, serving as the fulcrum connecting the end of a World War to the beginning of a civil war. As Maciek and Krystyna stumble into the wreckage of a bombed-out church after sleeping with each other, they talk about his desire to make changes in his life and attend technical school. Passing an inverted statue of Christ on the cross, she finds an inscription on the wall, coming from the poem by Cyprian Norwid from which the film derived its title:

So often, are you as a blazing torch with flames
of burning rags falling about you flaming,
you know not if flames bring freedom or death.
Consuming all that you must cherish
if ashes only will be left, and want Chaos and tempest
Or will the ashes hold the glory of a starlike diamond
The Morning Star of everlasting triumph.

Ashes and Diamonds will be showing at Broadway Cinema on Monday 8 June 2015 at 7:45pm, as part of  Martin Scorcese Presents Masterpieces of Polish Cinema.

Martin Scorcese Presents... Official Site