director Andrzej Wajda
screenplay (based on a short story of the same name by Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz) Zbigniew Kamiński
director of photography Edward Kłosiński
music Karol Szymanowski
with Daniel Olbrychski, Anna Seniuk, Christine Pascal, Maja Komorowska, Stanisława Celińska, Krystyna Zachwatowicz
awards
Academy Award (Oscar) nomination for Best Foreign Language Film, 1980
Jury Special Prize and Individual Prize, Bronze Lions for ‘Best Art Direction’ (Allan Starski, Maria Osiecka-Kuminek) at the 6th Polish Film Festival in Gdańsk, 1979
prize awarded by the Association of Film Distributors for Polish film with the highest attendance during the first year of public release, the Viewer’s Chair awarded at the 6th Polish Film Festival in Gdańsk, 1979
JAROSŁAW IWASZKIEWICZ, MAIDS OF WILKO [PANNY Z WILKA], 1932
And if sometimes an echo of old times returned to Wilko, of the times he in those days could have hardly appreciated, then it was in a smile, a burst of laughter, the shaking or drooping of Tunia’s head which had in them so many of the various poses and movements of Fela’s. Seeing today in Tunia all these expressions and manners which once had been unfolded before him by Fela, he began to understand the meaning of the conversations he had held with the deceased, the sense of the strolls he had taken with her. He was reading it all as a palimpsest, as a confession from beyond the grave, as a revival of the things he had lost.
TERESA RUTKOWSKA, FIVE UNHAPPY WOMEN FROM VENUS AND A TIRED MAN FROM MARS [PIĘĆ NIESZCZĘŚLIWYCH KOBIET Z WENUS I ZMĘCZONY MĘŻCZYZNA Z MARSA], ‘KWARTALNIK FILMOWY’, 1977, NO. 18
A Proustian theme – searching for the lost time or an impossible journey into the past – constitutes the essence of Iwaszkiewicz’s story and Wajda’s film. (…) Wiktor’s sojourn at Wilko, in a symbolic sense, is a description of a fight between Thanatos and Eros for the hero’s soul. (…) Right from the moment Wiktor enters the Wilko manor, its strangeness and difference become self-evident. (…) The women know something which Wiktor does not know and will never know to the end. (…) The sisterly community, the mutual understanding and bonds which unite the maids of Wilko, give them strength and a sense of balance in life; a form of rootedness which Wiktor is lacking. At the same time they all share a longing for love (…) The nostalgia emanating from the images of the lost world has a strong esthetic foundation. The narration is but a carrier of this nostalgic aura. The conflict between the women and the man develops in a subdued manner, with no dramatic counterpoints involved. The struggle of Thanatos and Eros remains unresolved.
history periods
