This biopic of Romany poet Bronislawa Wajs features a little too much landscape and not enough life
If you like artfully crafted old-school black-and-white cinematography, of the sort that distinguished Pawel Pawlikowski’s Ida, you may well be enraptured by Polish film Papusza. It’s fabulously shot by Krzysztof Ptak, with any number of gorgeous landscape tableaux; I could have stared and stared at the opening shot alone. But visuals apart, this biopic is frustratingly slack. It’s the story of poet Bronislawa Wajs – Aka Papusza, meaning “doll” – who became a celebrated figure in Poland while living a life of exclusion. Early on, we see her released from imprisonment for stealing a chicken and rushed to a concert hall to attend an oratorio based on her verse.
The film skips non-chronologically through her life, including episodes from childhood, days on the road as a young woman and a frustratingly cursory...
If you like artfully crafted old-school black-and-white cinematography, of the sort that distinguished Pawel Pawlikowski’s Ida, you may well be enraptured by Polish film Papusza. It’s fabulously shot by Krzysztof Ptak, with any number of gorgeous landscape tableaux; I could have stared and stared at the opening shot alone. But visuals apart, this biopic is frustratingly slack. It’s the story of poet Bronislawa Wajs – Aka Papusza, meaning “doll” – who became a celebrated figure in Poland while living a life of exclusion. Early on, we see her released from imprisonment for stealing a chicken and rushed to a concert hall to attend an oratorio based on her verse.
The film skips non-chronologically through her life, including episodes from childhood, days on the road as a young woman and a frustratingly cursory...
- 4/3/2016
- by Jonathan Romney
- The Guardian - Film News
"Weiser" is about a mystery, but it's a far cry from the way Hollywood does things. In a studio film, a mystery begins with a dead body and ends with a solution. In "Weiser", from Polish writer-director Wojciech Marczewski, there never is a body -- or at least none that anyone ever finds -- and it ends with an enigma. "Weiser" wants to play the old what-is-truth game: The movie deals with the tricks memory can play and the ultimate impossibility of divining what is and is not true.
Such games can intrigue movie audiences, but they also can frustrate. "Weiser" is likely to do both in about equal measure. Many might thrill to the realization that what really happened in an incident more than 30 years old will remain illusive, no matter how many times it is replayed in the mind or how much one investigates the memories of others. To others, such story maneuvers ring hollow. In any event, the mystery of "Weiser" is not likely to spread beyond film festivals and European art houses.
"Weiser" is told in fragments in two time planes set 33 years apart. In the earlier period -- 1967, according to media notes but not well-established in the film -- a group of 12-year-olds in a small Silesian town fall under the thrall of a strange playmate, Dawid Weiser (Andrzej Basiukiewicz).
He seduces them into playing games with death -- walking on railroad tracks before an oncoming train and lying down on an airstrip just as a plane is about to land. From an old munitions factory, he produces explosives, which he detonates on aging, unused structures. Then, during one mistimed explosion, he disappears without a trace.
In the other time frame, in present day, one of the survivors, Pawel (Marek Kondrat), remains haunted by the incident. Returning to his native town with a German girlfriend (Juliane Kohler) after many years in Germany, he revisits the others to test their memories of the episode. When one dies on the anniversary of the detonation -- a man claiming to have seen Dawid recently -- Pawel begins to think his childhood chum was perhaps a magician. After all, didn't they once all see him levitate?
These twin story lines are intercut with the interrogation of the youngsters by school and government authorities following the explosion. In the immediate aftermath of the event, the children seek to hide what knowledge they do have.
Pawel has not much better luck in present day. Memories are faulty or at odds with his own. One man doesn't even want to discuss the incident.
The movie hints at bigger issues. The fact that Dawid is Jewish and that the munitions factory presumably is left over from World War II is no doubt significant. And what of all those poisoned fish in the local river? But the movie leaves all interpretations to the viewer.
However, when the viewer is reading inadequate subtitles and not always familiar with the Polish cultural and historical references, this can add to the mystery in ways the filmmaker never intended.
The film is intelligently designed with the fragments interlocking neatly so as to keep tensions building. Cinematographer Krzysztof Ptak films the past in bright, summery colors, while the present is shrouded in a wintry blue-gray.
Kondrat is clearly playing a man in crisis. But it is not clear what has triggered all these bad memories. For Marczewski, any search for meaning or truth is an end in itself. Philosophically, he might be right. But in cinema, this can lead to unsatisfying storytelling.
WEISER
Tor Film Production, Vega Film AG, Provobis Film
Producer: Krzystof Zanussi
Director: Wojciech Marczewski
Screenwriters: Wojciech Marczewski, Maciej Strzembosz
Based on the novel by: Pawel Huelle
Director of photography: Krzysztof Ptak
Production designer: Andrzej Kowalczyk
Music: Zbigniew Preisner
Costume designer: Mag dalena Biedrzycka
Editor: Milenia Fiedler
Color/stereo
Cast:
Pawel: Marek Kondrat
Elka: Krystyna Janda
Juliane: Juliane Kohler
Dawid: Andrzej Basiukiewicz
Pawel as a Child: Maciej Jaszczuk
Elka as a Child: Olga Frycz
Running time -- 100 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Such games can intrigue movie audiences, but they also can frustrate. "Weiser" is likely to do both in about equal measure. Many might thrill to the realization that what really happened in an incident more than 30 years old will remain illusive, no matter how many times it is replayed in the mind or how much one investigates the memories of others. To others, such story maneuvers ring hollow. In any event, the mystery of "Weiser" is not likely to spread beyond film festivals and European art houses.
"Weiser" is told in fragments in two time planes set 33 years apart. In the earlier period -- 1967, according to media notes but not well-established in the film -- a group of 12-year-olds in a small Silesian town fall under the thrall of a strange playmate, Dawid Weiser (Andrzej Basiukiewicz).
He seduces them into playing games with death -- walking on railroad tracks before an oncoming train and lying down on an airstrip just as a plane is about to land. From an old munitions factory, he produces explosives, which he detonates on aging, unused structures. Then, during one mistimed explosion, he disappears without a trace.
In the other time frame, in present day, one of the survivors, Pawel (Marek Kondrat), remains haunted by the incident. Returning to his native town with a German girlfriend (Juliane Kohler) after many years in Germany, he revisits the others to test their memories of the episode. When one dies on the anniversary of the detonation -- a man claiming to have seen Dawid recently -- Pawel begins to think his childhood chum was perhaps a magician. After all, didn't they once all see him levitate?
These twin story lines are intercut with the interrogation of the youngsters by school and government authorities following the explosion. In the immediate aftermath of the event, the children seek to hide what knowledge they do have.
Pawel has not much better luck in present day. Memories are faulty or at odds with his own. One man doesn't even want to discuss the incident.
The movie hints at bigger issues. The fact that Dawid is Jewish and that the munitions factory presumably is left over from World War II is no doubt significant. And what of all those poisoned fish in the local river? But the movie leaves all interpretations to the viewer.
However, when the viewer is reading inadequate subtitles and not always familiar with the Polish cultural and historical references, this can add to the mystery in ways the filmmaker never intended.
The film is intelligently designed with the fragments interlocking neatly so as to keep tensions building. Cinematographer Krzysztof Ptak films the past in bright, summery colors, while the present is shrouded in a wintry blue-gray.
Kondrat is clearly playing a man in crisis. But it is not clear what has triggered all these bad memories. For Marczewski, any search for meaning or truth is an end in itself. Philosophically, he might be right. But in cinema, this can lead to unsatisfying storytelling.
WEISER
Tor Film Production, Vega Film AG, Provobis Film
Producer: Krzystof Zanussi
Director: Wojciech Marczewski
Screenwriters: Wojciech Marczewski, Maciej Strzembosz
Based on the novel by: Pawel Huelle
Director of photography: Krzysztof Ptak
Production designer: Andrzej Kowalczyk
Music: Zbigniew Preisner
Costume designer: Mag dalena Biedrzycka
Editor: Milenia Fiedler
Color/stereo
Cast:
Pawel: Marek Kondrat
Elka: Krystyna Janda
Juliane: Juliane Kohler
Dawid: Andrzej Basiukiewicz
Pawel as a Child: Maciej Jaszczuk
Elka as a Child: Olga Frycz
Running time -- 100 minutes
No MPAA rating...
"Weiser" is about a mystery, but it's a far cry from the way Hollywood does things. In a studio film, a mystery begins with a dead body and ends with a solution. In "Weiser", from Polish writer-director Wojciech Marczewski, there never is a body -- or at least none that anyone ever finds -- and it ends with an enigma. "Weiser" wants to play the old what-is-truth game: The movie deals with the tricks memory can play and the ultimate impossibility of divining what is and is not true.
Such games can intrigue movie audiences, but they also can frustrate. "Weiser" is likely to do both in about equal measure. Many might thrill to the realization that what really happened in an incident more than 30 years old will remain illusive, no matter how many times it is replayed in the mind or how much one investigates the memories of others. To others, such story maneuvers ring hollow. In any event, the mystery of "Weiser" is not likely to spread beyond film festivals and European art houses.
"Weiser" is told in fragments in two time planes set 33 years apart. In the earlier period -- 1967, according to media notes but not well-established in the film -- a group of 12-year-olds in a small Silesian town fall under the thrall of a strange playmate, Dawid Weiser (Andrzej Basiukiewicz).
He seduces them into playing games with death -- walking on railroad tracks before an oncoming train and lying down on an airstrip just as a plane is about to land. From an old munitions factory, he produces explosives, which he detonates on aging, unused structures. Then, during one mistimed explosion, he disappears without a trace.
In the other time frame, in present day, one of the survivors, Pawel (Marek Kondrat), remains haunted by the incident. Returning to his native town with a German girlfriend (Juliane Kohler) after many years in Germany, he revisits the others to test their memories of the episode. When one dies on the anniversary of the detonation -- a man claiming to have seen Dawid recently -- Pawel begins to think his childhood chum was perhaps a magician. After all, didn't they once all see him levitate?
These twin story lines are intercut with the interrogation of the youngsters by school and government authorities following the explosion. In the immediate aftermath of the event, the children seek to hide what knowledge they do have.
Pawel has not much better luck in present day. Memories are faulty or at odds with his own. One man doesn't even want to discuss the incident.
The movie hints at bigger issues. The fact that Dawid is Jewish and that the munitions factory presumably is left over from World War II is no doubt significant. And what of all those poisoned fish in the local river? But the movie leaves all interpretations to the viewer.
However, when the viewer is reading inadequate subtitles and not always familiar with the Polish cultural and historical references, this can add to the mystery in ways the filmmaker never intended.
The film is intelligently designed with the fragments interlocking neatly so as to keep tensions building. Cinematographer Krzysztof Ptak films the past in bright, summery colors, while the present is shrouded in a wintry blue-gray.
Kondrat is clearly playing a man in crisis. But it is not clear what has triggered all these bad memories. For Marczewski, any search for meaning or truth is an end in itself. Philosophically, he might be right. But in cinema, this can lead to unsatisfying storytelling.
WEISER
Tor Film Production, Vega Film AG, Provobis Film
Producer: Krzystof Zanussi
Director: Wojciech Marczewski
Screenwriters: Wojciech Marczewski, Maciej Strzembosz
Based on the novel by: Pawel Huelle
Director of photography: Krzysztof Ptak
Production designer: Andrzej Kowalczyk
Music: Zbigniew Preisner
Costume designer: Mag dalena Biedrzycka
Editor: Milenia Fiedler
Color/stereo
Cast:
Pawel: Marek Kondrat
Elka: Krystyna Janda
Juliane: Juliane Kohler
Dawid: Andrzej Basiukiewicz
Pawel as a Child: Maciej Jaszczuk
Elka as a Child: Olga Frycz
Running time -- 100 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Such games can intrigue movie audiences, but they also can frustrate. "Weiser" is likely to do both in about equal measure. Many might thrill to the realization that what really happened in an incident more than 30 years old will remain illusive, no matter how many times it is replayed in the mind or how much one investigates the memories of others. To others, such story maneuvers ring hollow. In any event, the mystery of "Weiser" is not likely to spread beyond film festivals and European art houses.
"Weiser" is told in fragments in two time planes set 33 years apart. In the earlier period -- 1967, according to media notes but not well-established in the film -- a group of 12-year-olds in a small Silesian town fall under the thrall of a strange playmate, Dawid Weiser (Andrzej Basiukiewicz).
He seduces them into playing games with death -- walking on railroad tracks before an oncoming train and lying down on an airstrip just as a plane is about to land. From an old munitions factory, he produces explosives, which he detonates on aging, unused structures. Then, during one mistimed explosion, he disappears without a trace.
In the other time frame, in present day, one of the survivors, Pawel (Marek Kondrat), remains haunted by the incident. Returning to his native town with a German girlfriend (Juliane Kohler) after many years in Germany, he revisits the others to test their memories of the episode. When one dies on the anniversary of the detonation -- a man claiming to have seen Dawid recently -- Pawel begins to think his childhood chum was perhaps a magician. After all, didn't they once all see him levitate?
These twin story lines are intercut with the interrogation of the youngsters by school and government authorities following the explosion. In the immediate aftermath of the event, the children seek to hide what knowledge they do have.
Pawel has not much better luck in present day. Memories are faulty or at odds with his own. One man doesn't even want to discuss the incident.
The movie hints at bigger issues. The fact that Dawid is Jewish and that the munitions factory presumably is left over from World War II is no doubt significant. And what of all those poisoned fish in the local river? But the movie leaves all interpretations to the viewer.
However, when the viewer is reading inadequate subtitles and not always familiar with the Polish cultural and historical references, this can add to the mystery in ways the filmmaker never intended.
The film is intelligently designed with the fragments interlocking neatly so as to keep tensions building. Cinematographer Krzysztof Ptak films the past in bright, summery colors, while the present is shrouded in a wintry blue-gray.
Kondrat is clearly playing a man in crisis. But it is not clear what has triggered all these bad memories. For Marczewski, any search for meaning or truth is an end in itself. Philosophically, he might be right. But in cinema, this can lead to unsatisfying storytelling.
WEISER
Tor Film Production, Vega Film AG, Provobis Film
Producer: Krzystof Zanussi
Director: Wojciech Marczewski
Screenwriters: Wojciech Marczewski, Maciej Strzembosz
Based on the novel by: Pawel Huelle
Director of photography: Krzysztof Ptak
Production designer: Andrzej Kowalczyk
Music: Zbigniew Preisner
Costume designer: Mag dalena Biedrzycka
Editor: Milenia Fiedler
Color/stereo
Cast:
Pawel: Marek Kondrat
Elka: Krystyna Janda
Juliane: Juliane Kohler
Dawid: Andrzej Basiukiewicz
Pawel as a Child: Maciej Jaszczuk
Elka as a Child: Olga Frycz
Running time -- 100 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 2/15/2001
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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