In 1961, Stanislaw Rozewicz created the novella film "Birth Certificate" in cooperation with his brother, Taduesz Rozewicz as screenwriter. Such brother tandems are rare in the history of film but aside from family ties, Stanislaw (born in 1924) and Taduesz (born in 1921) were mutually bound by their love for the cinema. They were born and grew up in Radomsk, a small town which had "its madmen and its saints" and most importanly, the "Kinema" cinema, as Stanislaw recalls: for him cinema is "heaven, the whole world, enchantment". Tadeusz says he considers cinema both a charming market stall and a mysterious temple. "All this savage land has always attracted and fascinated me," he says. "I am devoured by cinema and I devour cinema; I'm a cinema eater." But Taduesz Rozewicz, an eminent writer, admits this unique form of cooperation was a problem to him: "It is the presence of the other person not only in the process of writing, but at its very core, which is inserperable for me from absolute solitude." Some scenes the brothers wrote together; others were created by the writer himself, following discussions with the director. But from the perspective of time, it is "Birth Certificate", rather than "Echo" or "The Wicked Gate", that Taduesz describes as his most intimate film. This is understandable. The tradgey from September 1939 in Poland was for the Rozewicz brothers their personal "birth certificate". When working on the film, the director said "This time it is all about shaking off, getting rid of the psychological burden which the war was for all of us. ... Cooperation with my brother was in this case easier, as we share many war memories. We wanted to show to adult viewers a picture of war as seen by a child. ... In reality, it is the adults who created the real world of massacres. Children beheld the horrors coming back to life, exhumed from underneath the ground, overwhelming the earth."
The principle of composition of "Birth Certificate" is not obvious. When watching a novella film, we tend to think in terms of traditional theatre. We expect that a miniature story will finish with a sharp point; the three film novellas in Rozewicz's work lack this feature. We do not know what will be happen to the boy making his alone through the forest towards the end of "On the Road". We do not know whether in "Letter from the Camp", the help offered by the small heroes to a Soviet prisoner will rescue him from the unknown fate of his compatriots. The fate of the Jewish girl from "Drop of Blood" is also unclear. Will she keep her new impersonation as "Marysia Malinowska"? Or will the Nazis make her into a representative of the "Nordic race"? Those questions were asked by the director for a reason. He preceived war as chaos and perdition, and not as linear history that could be reflected in a plot. Although "Birth Certificate" is saturated with moral content, it does not aim to be a morality play. But with the immense pressure of reality, no varient of fate should be excluded. This approached can be compared wth Krzysztof Kieslowski's "Blind Chance" 25 years later, which pictured dramatic choices of a different era.
The film novella "On the Road" has a very sparing plot, but it drew special attention of the reviewers. The ominating overtone of the war films created by the Polish Film School at that time should be kept in mind. Mainly owing to Wajda, those films dealt with romantic heritage. They were permeated with pathos, bitterness, and irony. Rozewicz is an extraordinary artist. When narrating a story about a boy lost in a war zone, carrying some documents from the regiment office as if they were a treasure, the narrator in "On the Road" discovers rough prose where one should find poetry. And suddenly, the irrational touches this rather tame world. The boy, who until that moment resembled a Polish version of the Good Soldier Schweik, sets off, like Don Quixote, for his first and last battle. A critic described it as "an absurd gesture and someone else could surely use it to criticise the Polish style of dying. ... But the Rozewicz brothers do no accuse: they only compose an elegy for the picturesque peasant-soldier, probably the most important veteran of the Polish war of 1939-1945." "Birth Certificate" is not a lofty statement about national imponderabilia. The film reveals a plebeian perspective which Aleksander Jackieqicz once contrasted with those "lyrical lamentations" inherent in the Kordian tradition. However, a historical overview of Rozewicz's work shows that the distinctive style does not signify a fundamental difference in illustrating the Polish September. Just as the memorable scene from Wajda's "Lotna" was in fact an expression of desperation and distress, the same emotions permeate the final scene of "Birth Certificate". These are not ideological concepts, though once described as such and fervently debated, but rather psychological creations. In this specific case, observes Witold Zalewski, it is not about manifesting knightly pride, but about a gesture of a simple man who does not agree to be enslaved.
The novella "Drop of Blood" is, with Aleksander Ford's "Border Street", one of the first narrations of the fate of the Polish Jews during the Nazi occupation. The story about a girl literally looking for her place on earth has a dramatic dimension. Especially in the age of today's journalistic disputes, often manipulative, lacking in empathy and imbued with bad will, Rozewicz's story from the past shocks with its authenticity. The small herione of the story is the only one who survives a German raid on her family home. Physical survial does not, however, mean a return to normality. Her frightened departure from the rubbish dump that was her hideout lead her to a ruined apartment. Her walk around it is painful because still fresh signs of life are mixed with evidence of annihilation. Help is needed, but Mirka does not know anyone in the outside world. Her subsequent attempts express the state of the fugitive's spirits - from hope and faith, moving to doubt, a sense of oppression, and thickening fear, and finally to despair.
At the same time, the Jewish girl's search for refuge resembles the state of Polish society. The appearance of Mirka results in confusion, and later, trouble. This was already signalled by Rozewicz in an exceptional scene from "Letter from the Camp" in which the boy's neighbour, seeing a fugitive Russian soldier, retreats immediately, admitting that "Now, people worry only about themselves." Such embarassing excuses mask fear. During the occupation, no one feels safe. Neither social status not the aegis of a charity organisation protects against repression. We see the potential guardians of Mirka passing her back and forth among themselves. These are friendly hands but they cannot offer strong support. The story takes place on that thin line between solidarity and heroism. Solidarity arises spontaneously, but only some are capable of heroism. Help for the girl does not always result from compassion; sometimes it is based on past relations and personal ties (a neighbour of the doctor takes in the fugitive for a few days because of past friendship). Rozewicz portrays all of this in a subtle way; even the smallest gesture has significance. Take, for example, the conversation with a stranger on the train: short, as if jotted down on the margin, but so full of tension. And earlier, a peculiar examination of Polishness: the "Holy Father" prayer forced on Mirka by the village boys to check that she is not a Jew. Would not rising to the challenge mean a death sentance?
Viewed after many years, "Birth Certificate" discloses yet another quality that is not present in the works of the Polish School, but is prominent in later B-class war films. This is the picture of everyday life during the war and occupation outlined in the three novellas. It harmonises with the logic of speaking about "life after life". Small heroes of Rozewicz suddenly enter the reality of war, with no experience or scale with which to compare it. For them, the present is a natural extension of and at the same time a complete negation of the past. Consider the sleey small-town marketplace, through which armoured columns will shortly pass. Or meet the German motorcyclists, who look like aliens from outer space - a picture taken from an autopsy because this is how Stanislaw and Taduesz perceived the first Germans they ever met. Note the blurred silhouettes of people against a white wall who are being shot - at first they are shocking, but soon they will probably become a part of the grim landscape. In the city centre stands a prisoner camp on a sodden bog ("People perish likes flies; the bodies are transported during the night"); in the street the childern are running after a coal wagon to collect some precious pieces of fuel. There's a bustle around some food (a boy reproaches his younger brother's actions by singing: "The warrant officer's son is begging in front of the church? I'm going to tell mother!"); and the kitchen, which one evening becomes the proscenium of a real drama. And there are the symbols: a bar of chocolate forced upon a boy by a Wehrmacht soldier ("On the Road"); a pair of shoes belonging to Zbyszek's father which the boy spontaneously gives to a Russian fugitive; a priceless slice of bread, ground under the heel of a policeman in the guter ("Letters from the Camp"). As the director put it: "In every film, I communicate my own vision of the world and of the people. Only then the style follows, the defined way of experiencing things." In Birth Certificate, he adds, his approach was driven by the subject: "I attempted to create not only the texture of the document but also to add some poetic element. I know it is risky but as for the merger of documentation and poety, often hidden very deep, if only it manages to make its way onto the screen, it results in what can referred to as 'art'."
After 1945, there were numerous films created in Europe that dealt with war and children, including "Somewhere in Europe" ("Valahol Europaban", 1947 by Geza Radvanyi), "Shoeshine" ("Sciescia", 1946 by Vittorio de Sica), and "Childhood of Ivan" ("Iwanowo dietstwo" by Andriej Tarkowski). Yet there were fewer than one would expect. Pursuing a subject so imbued with sentimentalism requires stylistic disipline and a special ability to manage child actors. The author of "Birth Certificate" mastered both - and it was not by chance. Stanislaw Rozewicz was always the beneficent spirit of the film milieu; he could unite people around a common goal. He emanated peace and sensitivity, which flowed to his co-workers and pupils. A film, being a group work, necessitates some form of empathy - tuning in with others.
In a biographical documentary about Stanislaw Rozewicz entitled "Walking, Meeting" (1999 by Antoni Krauze), there is a beautiful scene when the director, after a few decades, meets Beata Barszczewska, who plays Mireczka in the novella "Drops of Blood". The woman falls into the arms of the elderly man. They are both moved. He wonders how many years have passed. She answers: "A few years. Not too many." And Rozewicz, with his characteristic smile says: "It is true. We spent this entire time together."
影片投资超1870万欧元，这女角也太水了吧。。。
还是比较精彩的故事，像一本书不像电影，旁白很多，但对于一个一心想跻身上流社会的人来说，巴黎是残酷的，新闻的真谛片中也有涉及，保皇党和自由派的斗争，人性的黑暗都在此中一览无余。有空要把巴尔扎克的原著看一遍
巴尔扎克批判现实主义写尽社会的残酷真相
波旁复辟；Au 19e, le principe de publicité va être dévoyé au sens où les propriétaires de journaux vont vouloir faire de l’argent donc faire de la publicité de tout et n’importe quoi ,et pas seulement des idées politiques；Un art devient bourgeois : le théâtre.
今年真的是看了太多better stay as fiction的电影了。
是85年盛夏的Benjamin voisin弟弟！弟弟依然貌美！还有我更喜欢的演员/配音兰兰，兰兰真的是好优秀的演员夸夸！没有读过巴尔扎克这本原著，但还是那个年代宏大叙事里的个人沉浮，和一些些当代可以relate的现象。这个年代每个认真拍古典的作品都值得赞美。故事走向就很巴里林登，当然比是不敢比。
爱情，爱情，该死的爱情。
2021/12/4香港
法语原声+荷兰语字幕把脑子搅得天翻地覆，但还是看懂了关键的部分，甚至一些笑点也get到了。很有代入感，就像打开一本厚重的历史传记。但那时候的法国真是讲究太多，现在这种生活方式的我觉得天差地别哈哈哈。
我喜欢，今年目前为止看过的觉得最好的。摊牌了，我就是吃法国电影这一套
改编比较大，对19世纪20年代巴黎各阶层社会氛围的还原是亮点，还算值得一看吧。
不知天高地厚的年轻人闯巴黎，旁白很多，没有吸引人的演员，服装有质感。看了45分钟。
这情节和红与黑的于连好像啊。看来天才穷小子到大城市寻梦幻灭的故事真是亘古不变呀。
8.2
这部电影非常得有意思，两个小时就把一个屌丝逆袭又倾覆的故事讲清楚了。人们有时候觉得是自己在掌控自己的命运，其实你周围的一切都会影响你的想法，迫使你放弃某些东西，为了融入某些环境，所以命运掌握在自己手中其实是个幻觉吧……打算把巴尔扎克的原著找来读读
He would stop hoping, and start living.
《娱乐至死》、《什么在决定新闻》、《红与黑》、《远大前程》等的混合体。巴尔扎克在那个年代就把报社和新闻、舆论界嘲讽个遍，笑死，放在当下也完全吻合。“Je pense a ceux qui doivent en eux trouver quelque chose apres le desenchantement.”无论是19世纪的巴黎还是今天的我们，在这浮华生活的背后，内心的力量是良知、真理、坚定的决心。
一个城乡结合部青年，凭借着天赋和野心，在魔都历幻，在红尘历劫。金钱与名誉的游戏，权力与欲望的魔法，赤裸裸呈现。强盗在他们的城堡论功行赏，歌女在锦绣的舞台期待掌声。游动的笔尖投出标枪，尊严的铠甲被击得粉碎。华袍之内跳蚤密布，面具之下包藏祸心。满堂猪狗，走兽活猴。哗啦啦大厦倾，俱尘灰满面，断壁颓垣，残肢哀嚎不忍听。
在极端困难时，他遇到了一个小报编辑，在报社，一个崭新的世界向他展开，这里提倡胡编乱造，收费发贴，他如鱼得水，编写大量高质量水贴，获得了巨大的声誉和金钱，并收获了一个青年女演员的爱。然而旧情人要求再续前缘时，他背叛了自由派同志们，妄想加入保皇派中，获得爵位，名正言顺和初恋在一起。这种首鼠两端的做法，又无强力背景和高智商支持，结局已经注定了，在他期望最辉煌时，遭到两个派别的联合打击，小情人死去，自己负债累累，整个悲惨人生还变成了人家的小说素材。惨。
棋子们并不知道其实是棋手，伸舒手臂主宰着自己的命运 ，棋子们并不知道严苛的规则 ，在约束着自己的意志和退进。黑夜与白天组成另一张棋盘，牢牢将棋手囚禁在了中间。上帝操纵棋手，棋手摆布棋子。上帝背后，又有哪位神祗设下尘埃、时光、梦境和苦痛的羁绊。
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