The Devil (1972)

During the Prussian army's invasion to Poland in 1793, a young Polish nobleman Jakub is saved from the imprisonment by a stranger who wants in return to obtain a list of Jakub's fellow ... See full summary »

Director:

Andrzej Zulawski

Writer:

Andrzej Zulawski

Stars:

Wojciech Pszoniak, Leszek Teleszynski, Malgorzata Braunek

Cast

Cast overview:
Wojciech Pszoniak	...	nieznajomy - Diabel
Leszek Teleszynski	...	Jakub
Malgorzata Braunek	...	Narzeczona
Iga Mayr	...	matka Jakuba
Wiktor Sadecki	...	Herz
Michal Grudzinski	...	Ezechiel
Maciej Englert	...	Hrabia - pan mlody
Monika Niemczyk	...	Zakonnica
Bozena Miefiodow	...	Turczynka
Marian Zdenicki	...	Karzel
Anna Parzonka	...	siostra Jakuba
Lukasz Zulawski	...	Aktor
Jerzy Zygmunt Nowak	...	Kamerdyner
Eugeniusz Priwieziencew	...	Kompan

Storyline

During the Prussian army's invasion to Poland in 1793, a young Polish nobleman Jakub is saved from the imprisonment by a stranger who wants in return to obtain a list of Jakub's fellow conspirators. Following his mysterious saviour across the country, Jakub sees the overall chaos and moral corruption including his father's death and his girlfriend's betrayal. Being apparently demented by what he has seen, he commits a number of seemingly motiveless and gory killings.

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Plot Keywords:

poland | 1790s | experimental | stranger | death | 

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Genres:

Drama | History | Horror

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

Poland

Language:

Polish

Release Date:

1972 (Poland)

Also Known As:

The Devil

Filming Locations:

Bagno, Dolnoslaskie, Poland

Company Credits

Production Co:

Zespól Filmowy "X"

Technical Specs

Runtime:

119 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Featured in Brows Held High: Häxan (2012)

User Reviews

"Do I see the world ugly because of my illness or because it is?"

Depravity, violence, a world permanently tipped off balance.

Near the end our halfmad protagonist asks someone else if he sees the world ugly because of his illness or because it is. The other replies that the world is filled with beauty, flowers, fruit, women, then reasons that he cannot adequately describe it. Instead he will dance about it.

His dance is not beautiful though, it's a wild spasmodic flailing of arms like we're seeing an epileptic suffer a seizure.

Diabel is that dance.

Superficially an allegory on how revolutions become mired in distraction - the political hedonism of power? - and how Poland has been used and abused by so many, deeper we find the same frightful pantomime that made Possession such a terrifying beast: inner soul made visible.

Slight problem is that he does not abstract enough to hit that bedrock were every image becomes multi-layered utterance of different cosmii. Characters remain pieces of the allegoric jigsaw, pawns in a game. There is not enough emptiness from life to pour into.