Niewinni Czarodjeje (Innocent Sorcerers)

illustration by Maciek
(http://statekkosmiczny.pl/niewinni-czarodzieje/)

Mędrce dawnych wieków
Zamykali się szukać skarbów albo leków
I trucizn - my niewinni młodzi czarodzieje
Szukajmy ich, by otruć własne swe nadzieje.

(Adam Mickiewicz: DZIADY - cz. I, in http://mickiewicz.kulturalna.com/a-7214.html)

(click here for the Romanian version)

Niewinni Czarodzieje (Innocent Sorcerers), a movie made in 1960, gathering some of the greatest names of Polish cinema: director was Andrzej Wajda; Jerzy Andrzejewski (the author of Ashes and Diamonds, the novel on which the homonym film was based) created here the screenplay, together with Jerzy Skolimowski (who also had a cameo); the music was composed by Krzysztof Komeda (who also scored some of the first movies of Polanski); you will recognize in the cast Zbigniew Cybulski and Roman Polanski; the lead characters were played by Tadeusz Lomnicki and Krystyna Stypulkowska. It's a feast to see them all, time will go and each one will follow a different path, here they are together, in their young years, these legends of the film universe.

I saw the movie for the first time by the end of the sixties. I was very young, and I liked Polish movies very much. This one took me totally by surprise, as I was expecting something different. I realized it was a movie with heroes of my generation, people in their twenties (now we are the baby-boomers of late sixties). However, the plot came to me as a non-issue. A young physician, kind of a playboy, kind of tired of his sexual successes, meets one evening a young woman who comes to his apartment. What follows is a night of discussions. The atmosphere is tensioned, we expect the obvious outcome (and they expect this outcome as well), their talk is endless. Next morning he goes out, has a brief discussion with some guy on the street after which he probably realizes he loves her, so he comes back, she is no more. Or is she still there? Maybe. That's all.

I was a fan of Polish movies, and I loved the films of Wajda and Kawalerowicz. This one was not that kind. And it was directed by Wajda!

Actually this movie is stamped Skolimowski! The director was indeed Wajda, but he played faithfully the hand of his scriptwriter. Michael Open (who reviewed the movie for imdb) says it bluntly: the creative force is here Skolimowski, not Wajda. Innocent Sorcerers is hundred percent New Wave, and by that time I wasn't familiarized at all with this current.

It looks quirky and it looks cynical, because that's the way New Wave looks like. Quirky because it throws away some respected cinematic conventions (and not only cinematic), and cynical, because it doesn't believe in the system, be it political system, be it any other blah-blah system.

I watched again Innocent Sorcerers recently, on youTube. Years have passed and I saw many great movies of the New Wave. This time I understood it, and I had a feeling of nostalgia, just because of that. A movie made when my generation was in the twenties, with heroes of that age, with mentalities of that age, speaking to the person I was at that age, no more to the person I am now.

So the movie made me a bit nostalgic. In the same time, I was charmed. I had been hundred percent wrong when watching it first time. It's far from being a non-issue. This film is perfect, and watching it brings something like organic satisfaction: such an artwork comes as naturally as air or water.

Maybe the title was translated in Romanian more appropriately than it was in English: Inocentii fermecatori, it could mean Innocent Charmers, also Charming Innocents. Charmers is more fit than Sorcerers: this movie is superbly ambiguous beginning with its title. It also is ambiguous beginning with the beginning: the very first scene shows a woman passing the street and leaving behind huge posters of this movie! So, is Niewinni Czarodzieje (Innocent Sorcerers, or Innocent Charmers, whatever) a movie about itself?

For Krystyna Stypulkowska, the female lead, it was her first movie. She would play only in two more films. I looked for further information, without success. Well, she played here amazingly, the perfect charmer who never let you tell what's behind the charm, the good and the evil, who never let you know where she came from and where will she go.

The title of the movie comes from a masterpiece of Polish literature: Dziady (Forefathers'Eve), the poetic drama created by Adam Mickiewicz. It's a line in the first part of Dziady that names the niewinni młodzi czarodzieje (innocent young charmers) who własne swe nadzieje (poison their own hopes).

Dziady has four parts, very loosely related, each one created by Mickiewicz in a different period of life. The first part follows the sentimental tribulations of a young couple, confused about the path to take in their relationship: the innocent charmers who burn their own hopes. But it's not only the first part: love comes as an important theme in the whole poem. Dziady is about Polish ethos, both individual and collective. Giving and returning love is viewed by Mickiewicz as essential for the salvation of that ethos: individual and national. While keeping on the innocent charm level will poison hope and ultimately life: personal life and national life.

Coming back to the movie, there is a scene by the end in which the main hero asks someone on the street what is over Faith and Hope. Love, comes the answer. It's a quote from I Corinthians 13, and it gives us the clue: this movie is a replica to the first part of Dziady, played in our epoch. The innocent young charmers must recognize and assume their love, to not burn hope.

The movie was made in 1960. In 1968 Dziady will come once again in the picture: a representation of the poem will be forbidden, which will bring the Polish students on the streets, against the Communist regime.


---------------------------------

Here is the movie as I found it on youTube, in two versions: six successive videos and also the whole movie in one long video. None of the versions came with subtitles, but I think the images communicate the whole tension between the two protagonists.

Niewinni Czarodzieje: Part 1/6
(video by elmarcin11)

A young doctor is tired of being sought by women. One night he meets a young girl who all but forces herself into his room where they talk of morals and love. But he loses her when he goes out to see some friends and then rushes madly around the city after her.

(Polish Cinema Database)

Niewinni Czarodzieje: Part 2/6
(video by elmarcin11)

This wry, cynical tale of attraction, desire, and disaffected youth marked the only time that these giants of the Polish School worked together, and the result is this re-discovered masterpiece of Polish Cinema.A handsome but insensitive young doctor spends his evenings playing jazz in a small club, and enjoying the attention of numerous female admirers. Tired of one-night-stands, he is still intrigued by a young girl and invites her to his room. They spend the night together, but do nothing but talk. He looks for her the following day, but she has disappeared—or so it seems.

(Amazon)

Niewinni Czarodzieje: Part 3/6
(video by elmarcin11)

This was the first mainland European film I saw as a teenager in the early 60s. I saw it on late-night television and it knocked me out. Later on I saw Wajda's Generation trilogy and could barely believe that this was the same director. I have subsequently seen it on the big screen a couple of times and it remains a favorite from its era. The reason was simply that the creative force behind Innocent Sorcerers is not Wajda but Jerzy Skolimowski.
You only need to take a look at Walkover to see the same callous and alienated attitude of the central character. However, for me, Innocent Sorcerers is a superior film to Skolimowski's earliest directorial works as, through the character of Pelagia, a much greater warmth and meaning is expressed.
Krystyna Stypulkowska makes a perfect Pelagia - coquettish and flirtatious, but still innocent. The exquisite scene of tossing the matchbox is more erotic than all but a handful of explicit sex scenes from modern cinema.
There are few films from Eastern Europe in the Soviet era that ever make you really care about the characters - this is definitely one.

( Michael Open)

Niewinni Czarodzieje: Part 4/6
(video by elmarcin11)

In this cynical masterpiece of disaffected Polish youth, a world-weary playboy doctor (Tadeusz Lomnicki) tires of his endless parade of one-night stands and seeks more substance in his life. His wish just may come true in the form of Pelagia (Krystyna Stypulkowska), a spirited young girl who challenges his mind and soul. A young Roman Polanski makes an appearance in this wry and witty romance from director Andrzej Wajda.

(Netflix)

Niewinni Czarodzieje: Part 5/6
(video by elmarcin11)

This is a small gem from Andrzej Wajda, whose production boasts of Polish film legends Zbigniew Cybulski and Tadeusz Lomnicki, supporting players Roman Polanski, Jerzy Skolimowski, and soundtrack composer Krzysztof Komeda. The story of a young doctor and one-night encounter with a beautiful girl is told in a witty, stream-of-consciousness style whose story flows along like a meandering, medium-tempo jazz riff. While the film is reminiscent of other classic Polish films of the day like Wajda's Ashes & Diamonds and Polanski's Knife in the Water, it also has an uncanny similarity to films of the French New Wave; interesting that Innocent Sourcerers was made at exactly the same time as Godard's Breathless, because it shares much the same attitude and feel. Fans of groundbreaking classic European film from the 50s and 60s will probably enjoy this one.

(review in Netflix)

Niewinni Czarodzieje: Part 6/6
(video by elmarcin11)

Part I of Dziady, published after Mickiewicz’s emigration to France, was probably written in the early 1820s, although never finished. Meant to be a picture of emotion of the 19th century people, it was immediately given up by the author. It shows a young couple, feeling confused and trying to choose between the sentimental idea of love, adjustment to the society and respect to own nature.

(http://austenetterepository.wordpress.com/tag/dziady/)

the whole movie:

Niewinni Czarodzieje: the whole movie
(video by Tolek81)

(Filmofilia)

Adam Mickiewicz, Dziady

Walenty Wankowicz, Mickiewich na Judahu skale, 1827-1828
(Mickiewicz on the cliff of Judah)
oil on canvas, Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie
(http://neveryetmelted.com/2010/05/26/pan-tadeusz/)

Only a few words here about Dziady (Forefathers' Eve), the Opus Magnum of Adam Mickiewicz. It would deserve much more than just a few words, as it played an important role in keeping the Polish national conscience: in the 19th century, when part of the country was occupied by Czarist Russia (while the rest was under Austrian and Prussian occupation), and then after WWII, when Soviet Russia imposed in Poland the Communist regime. It is not only a masterpiece of Romanticism, it is a monument of Polish history.

The title of this poetic drama comes from a ancient Slavic feast celebrated for the souls of the dead: for the Forefathers. It has pre-Christian origins and it was included by the Church in its ritual, like so many pagan traditions that proved too strong to get rid of. The ancient name of the feast is Dziady, and it is still named so in Belarus: they hold it several times along the year. One of the dates is on the last Saturday before St. Dmitry's day, the Dźmitreuskija dziady. In Poland Dziady became Zaduszki: on All Souls' Day people go to the cemeteries and light candles at the graves. The celebration is observed also in Lithuania, where the name is Vėlinės. And actually this kind of remembrance of the dead is observed in a similar way in all Eastern Europe. I know it well as it is part of Romanian traditions: Mosii (literally The Old Ones), hold several times along the year (Mosii de Iarna, Mosii de Vara, Mosii de Toamna).

I looked for the meaning of word dziady in contemporary Polish. It has slightly shifted. If you go to a Polish-English dictionary you can get beggars as translation. It looked weird for me at the beginning, then I realized: the feast of Dziady was celebrated by gathering poor people around a table full of dishes and drinks, and invoking the spirits of the forefathers to come and join the table.

The title of the drama was rendered in English as Forefathers' Eve, which is a perfect rendering, I think, as it encompasses the full meaning of the feast. In Romanian the title was rendered as Strabunii (The Forefathers), which I think is incomplete. Maybe a better Romanian rendering would have been Priveghi pentru Strabuni (Forefathers' Eve), or Pomenirea Strabunilor (Forefathers' Remembrance). Well, it's just for the sake of discussion, it doesn't matter. It was rendered as Strabunii and so it'll remain.

A note here also about the German rendering of Dziady: it's Totenfeier (Funeral Rites) - the title seems a bit too Romantic for my modern sensibility, to be honest - what I would like to say is that the poem inspired Gustav Mahler who composed a symphonic poem, that later would become the first movement of his Second Symphony. Here is a fragment:

Totenfeier at Kinhaven 08
(video by lusoformosa)

Now let's talk a little about Dziady, the poem. It has four parts, very loosely related, each one created by Mickiewics in a different period of life. I will mention each part very briefly and dryly, as I think one needs to read them to be rewarded with their beauty.

The first part, written seemingly in 1821 and left unfinished (it would be published much later), depicts a young couple confusedly boggling between contradictory paths: idealistic love, pursuit of society's ways, simple response to what nature teaches. Mickiewicz will come also in the other parts to this: recognition of love, response to love, are conditions in the act of redemption: redemption of the individual, and built on it, redemption of the nation.

The second part, written in 1821-1822 is the one that gives the title of the whole poem. It depicts a Forefathers' Eve, where the spirits of the dead are summoned to come. They are ghosts who haven't been allowed to heaven and are damned to eternal wandering. It is actually a symbolic way to meditate at what is needed in the act of redemption: individual and national redemption. It's love and suffering. Among the ghosts, two kids who had died before encountering the cruelty of life: suffering, viewed by Mickiewicz as necessary in the act of redemption, martyrdom viewed as a necessary path in Polish destiny. The ghost of a young shepherdess, also not allowed to heaven: while on earth, she had failed to respond to her duty to love, to see the love of the other and to respond to it; the Romantic vision of earthly love as image of the sacred (and not only Romantic, of course).

The third part was written in 1832, after Czarist Russia crushed the Polish patriots who had rebelled against their occupier and had fought for the independence of their country. For Mickiewics, Poland was the Christ of Europe: through their suffering and sacrifice they were to release all persecuted nationalities, as Christ brought salvation for the whole mankind.

The fourth part was written in 1821-1822. It is a love poem, and it is believed to parallel the story of the great love in the life of Mickiewicz. His Beatrice was Maryla Wereszczakówna, and their love was unhappy. The poet converted his despair into this fourth part of Dziady: a superb manifesto of love.

Though the four parts are very different in thematic, there is a subtle unity. For Mickiewics, all that happened in the history of Poland has a sense, a purpose, it is inscribed in a divine plan. He looks in the individual souls, to understand the soul of the nation. He looks in the mythology of the Slavic universe, to find the same lessons that he finds in history. He speaks about love and about suffering, as he tries to understand their place in Polish redemption. Dziady is a poem about the Polish ethos, to build on it a vision for the Polish destiny: the mission God has for Poland. That is how Mickiewicz understands the meaning of Forefathers' Remembrance, communion between now and then, between us and them, between here and beyond, and ultimately as moment in eternal life (and here a splendid liturgical treaty authored by Father Alexander Schmemann comes to my mind: The Eucharist - Sacrament of the Kingdom; in one of the chapters you will find a profound explanation for the liturgical sense of remembrance).

And Dziady brought its share in the most difficult moments of Polish history. It was banned by Czarist Russia, and possessing the book could lead to deportation in Siberia. And then, during the Communist regime there were periods when Dziady was censored and allowed only in a politically correct frame, and there were other periods when it was simply banned. The events of 1968 started as a response for banning a theatrical representation of Dziady.



(A Life in Books)