A fascinating contrast with many other Polish films about the Second World War. This film consists of two separate stories. One, Scherzo alla Pollaca, set in the Warsaw rising, features an venal, opportunistic character- a former black-marketeer, it's made plain- who becomes a hero in spite of himself. None of the characters are very sympathetic, none are very villainous- the "hero's" wife flirts with a handsome Hungarian officer, the Hungarians want to change sides at the right opportunity, the Polish resistors practise drill in an air raid, a German soldier hauls the "hero" out of a refugee column just to make him carry an old woman's worthless possessions, a German tank creeps up behind the hero to surprise him by a canal and then goes away, raucous laughter echoing from its hull. In the end, even though the rising is defeated and his messages pointless, the hero leaves his penitent wife and returns to Warsaw and probable death.
The second part, Ostinato Lugubre, is ostentatiously grimmer. Set in a PoW camp in the Alps in the winter of 1945, two new prisoners, from the Polish Home Army, are admitted. Everyone else in the camp has been there from 1939 and they have been psychologically deformed by captivity and the constant presence of others. The camp has one hero, Zawistowski. who escaped and so saved their honour. The only trouble is, he didn't escape but hid from the Gestapo in the hut roof, where he is slowly dying. His friends feed him inadequately and hide his coughs by distracting the others. The other officers grate against one another- shut themselves away, literally or mentally, enforce absurd prewar customs, make insane wagers with one another. In the end, Zak, one of the most disturbed of them all, walks out of the hut in an air raid and is shot by a guard and Zawistowski dies in the hut roof. One of his friends, an artist, arranges for his body to be taken away hidden in the hut's boiler so that no more of the prisoners know he did not escape.
Both stories are presented as meaningless and futile anecdotes and both could as easily be comedies or tragedies. The second one, especially, has Munk's fascination with faces looked at close to, is more typical of the way we see him.
The second part, Ostinato Lugubre, is ostentatiously grimmer. Set in a PoW camp in the Alps in the winter of 1945, two new prisoners, from the Polish Home Army, are admitted. Everyone else in the camp has been there from 1939 and they have been psychologically deformed by captivity and the constant presence of others. The camp has one hero, Zawistowski. who escaped and so saved their honour. The only trouble is, he didn't escape but hid from the Gestapo in the hut roof, where he is slowly dying. His friends feed him inadequately and hide his coughs by distracting the others. The other officers grate against one another- shut themselves away, literally or mentally, enforce absurd prewar customs, make insane wagers with one another. In the end, Zak, one of the most disturbed of them all, walks out of the hut in an air raid and is shot by a guard and Zawistowski dies in the hut roof. One of his friends, an artist, arranges for his body to be taken away hidden in the hut's boiler so that no more of the prisoners know he did not escape.
Both stories are presented as meaningless and futile anecdotes and both could as easily be comedies or tragedies. The second one, especially, has Munk's fascination with faces looked at close to, is more typical of the way we see him.