Andrzej Wajda’s satire of women who attempt to reform their men stars Zygmunt Malanowicz as Wlodek, a former language student who works as a librarian. Fed up with typical Eastern bloc living arrangements—which force him into a small apartment with his wife and in-laws—he starts to look for some extracurricular activity, finding it in the form of library patron Irena (Malgorzata Braunek), an attractive young woman who takes an interest in him. The librarian, eager for a simple fling, is soon engulfed by the whirlwind generated by Irena, who sees him as a hidden literary genius in need of her help. Exploiting her manifold contacts in the literary world, she is able to launch his career as a man of letters, but she’s incapable of seeing that Wlodek is no genius, hidden or otherwise. When her plan disintegrates, the lovers separate. Returning home, the disappointed Wlodek finds that his normally passive wife, Hanka (Ewa Skarzanka), has suddenly conceived her own ambitious plans for him. An impressive and frightening performance by the wide-eyed Braunek helps carry Wajda’s fascinating attempt to expand his prodigious gifts into the realm of satire. —Rotten Tomatoes
A major figure in the world of post-World War II Eastern European cinema, Polish director Andrzej Wajda has chronicled his country’s political and social evolution with sensitivity, fervor, and a refusal to make compromises in dealing with his difficult subjects. The son of a Polish cavalry officer who was killed early in World War II, Wajda fought in the Resistance movement against the Nazis when he was still a teenager. After the war, he studied to be a painter before entering the Lodz film school. On the heels of his apprenticeship to director Aleksander Ford, Wajda was given the opportunity to direct a film on his own. With A Generation (1955), the first-time director poured out all his bitterness and disillusionment regarding blind patriotism and wartime heroics, using as his alter ego a young, James Dean-style antihero played by Zbigniew Cybulski. The Wajda/Cybulski team went on to make two more films of escalating brilliance, which further developed the antiwar theme of A Generation… read more
