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Andrzej Wajda: Artist
built 378 days ago
The notions of "romanticism" and "romantic vision" have been used most often whenever references to the world presented in Wajda's films have been made. These notions have served to characterise the concept of the hero and his patriotic actions, the historical topics and to justify the intense means of expression by the artist. The term "romanticism" seems to be more suitable because of Wajda's cultural and psychological inclinations which confirm his links with the romantic tradition. Even closer to the artist is his Young Poland, post-romantic vision of his country. This is apparent in his later films filled with bitterness, irredentism, existential grief-- references to the artistic programs of Stefan Żeromski, Stanisław Wyspiański and Jacek Malczewski.
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This was politically explosive content in 1979, when the repressive administration of Edward Gierek was characterised, as Wajda notes, not so much by terror but by a gigantic manipulation of people and reality. (5) Under communism, artists were creatively disenfranchised and recruited into the régime to produce Socialist Realist documentaries, an occupation which Wajda himself undertook and which he acknowledges in the film by appending his name to the credits of one of Burski’s documentaries. The script, written by Aleksander Scibor-Rylski, had in fact been shelved by the government for twelve years before a slightly more progressive state film producer in the late 1970s granted permission for the film to be made. (6) When the film went before the censors again after its completion... all attempts were made to restrict its release, and positive reviews of the film were suppressed. Having already approved the content of the screenplay, the reaction of the government suggests the presence of an element fundamentally more subversive than what could be contained in a script, an “impalpable something”, Wajda suggests, “which renders inoperative the rules of censorship” (7).
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[T]he lack of emphasis on meaning has often been used by the authorities and Wajda's ideological adversaries as a political tool. They have interpreted his films in a way which could neutralise the their allusions, ambiguities and implied meanings ... using the films for the purposes of the official ideology. It seems that Wajda's system of communication based on such refined mechanism of manipulation made it possible for some interpreters to accuse the artist of flirting with the authorities.*
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