Farewells

^director Wojciech Jerzy Has
^screenplay (based on the novel of the same name by Stanisław Dygat) Stanisław Dygat, Wojciech Jerzy Has
^{director of photography} Mieczysław Jahoda
^music Lucjan Kaszycki
^with Maria Wachowiak, Tadeusz Janczar, Gustaw Holoubek, Stanisław Jaworski, Stanisław Milski, Zdzisław Mrożewski, Irena Netto
^awards
 FIPRESCI Honorary Commendation for direction at the International Film Festival in Locarno, 1959

[DIALOGUE FROM THE FILM]

Countess: Please, get up, gentlemen. It’s late, time for you to make your beds. (she leaves) Professor: Just think about it: when a few weeks ago I was invited to dinner here, Madame Róża reproached me for carrying a deck-chair into the garden with my own hands. Damn it! Master: What’s that, Professor? You’re cursing? You, educator of youth? Professor: Recently, it was the youth that were educating me. On my way to Pruszków, a very young man with a death’s head on his hat was educating me in the art of marching in a line. (…) Countess: No water in the tank. If you, gentlemen, want to wash, you’ll have to pump up some water. And, by the way, please, tidy up the bathroom, it’s again drenched all over. Professor: Believe me, it’s not my doing. Master: You could at least keep the remnants of your self-respect. Professor: No way. In her presence I turn into a schoolboy. And you’re reminding me of being an educator. Former educator. Just like you are a former master and everything around is former, especially our landlady who will by no means recognise this past time.

STANISŁAW GRZELECKI, DRAMA WITHOUT SUFFERING [DRAMAT BEZ CIERPIENIA], ‘ŻYCIE WARSZAWY’, 1958, NO. 248

Thematically, ‘Farewells’ is deeply rooted in the reality of historical events. It describes the end of a world of forms, conventions and human relations but all the events of great significance happen off the screen here; all we see are trivialities. (…) And yet this world of decline and farewells absorbs you and you enter it without opposition. The realism in portraying situations and human types goes together with the ironic deformation of the climate of the upper-middle-class, intelligentsia, bourgeois environment. (…) The credit goes to the heroes of ‘Farewells’, the actors Maria Wachowiak and Tadeusz Janczar.