Dzień świra (2002, Marek Koterski)

 The "Day of the Wacko" has cult status in its homeland, but I first heard about it almost 20 years after its publication. I don't often laugh out loudly, while watching a film, but this was one of the few occasions. Dzień świra is definitely not a "knee-slapper". Is it a comedy or maybe rather an absurdist tragedy? 

Adaś, the sad wacko, uses most of his energy to be irritated about his neighbors, actually everybody who crosses his OCD routines. His egoism could be enough for a minor village. While his relations with other people is -hm - problematic, he tries to relate to his son, who is not very intellectually gifted (fragment from their review of the English language: "To be, fuck it, or not to be").  Although he tries intensely to avoid disturbances, there seems to be a secret conspiration to make his day as bad as possible.

This film would lose when the plot would be retold. It would sound rather flat. It has to be seen as a whole, with every  joke and hilarious idea. And what a firework it is. People outside Poland may not catch every allusion, but I enjoyed it thoroughly. Marek Kondrat's deadpan acting is superb, the soundtrack - especially the distorted Chopin  is brilliant. And the titles inform, that no dog was kicked during the making of the film. Essential viewing.

9/10

A boring day in the neighbourhood

TV informs about important affairs

Mom's tomato soup is universal medicine

Advertisements for several unusual products

Evening Prayer

Ida (2013) - Pawel Pawlikkowski --- strong but unsatisfying

Ida is an exceptional film, also an unusual one. It's in black and white, has an old 4:3 ratio, has barely any  camera movcement.
The Holocaust is the background of this story, yet it is  a movie without yelling nazis and concentration camps. It is a film about identities -- and a very Polish one.
Poland in the 1960's. Anna is novice in a nunnery and about to take the vows. Her family perished during the Holocaust, but then an aunt announces herself and informs that Anna is actually a Jew and that her real name is Ida.
This aunt and Ida embark on a travel to find the burial place of Ida's parents. This aunt used to be a high-ranked communist and persecuted "enemies of the people". Now she is a heavy drinker, a bitter woman, having casual sex with whoever pleases her. The aunt makes attempts to talk Ida from taking the vows. Her argument is that she must know what she is renouncing before taking the vow. After they have found the mortal remains of her parents, Ida returns to the convent, but doesn't perform the ritual.
The aunt commits suicide; Ida tries the life style of her aunt, but returns finally to the convent.

In my view there are different issues with this film:
The identity conflict is not between Catholic and Jewish spirituality, between Christianity and Communism. In the 1960s it not surprising that Ida chooses the convent, as totalitarianism had nothing to offer. The fact that Ida is a Jew is actually pointless in the context of this film.
Ida is played like with angelic innocence by Agata Trzebuchowska. Every development, if any, is hidden behind the beatific appearance. I wished the script had given Ida an extra dimension. The life she is offered is definitely empty compared to her experiences in the convent. As her one-time lover announces what the future is going to be: "Don't know. Just life." This is, as we see, definitely not enough for Ida. But still, why can't Ida be more complex?

Musician Lis (Dawid Ogrodnik) offers Ida 'just life'.

And to me it is very problematic that this film is made in 2013.and still presents the Catholic Church as a place of refuge. This is true from a historical POV, but NOW the church in Poland has herself become a suppressor in s democracy. An institution that shamelessly uses  laws against blasphemy to promote her own reactionary agenda.
Nevertheless, this is still a great film, radical in its barren ascetic, proving that there are  many more than 50 shades of grey.
6/10.

Ida is finding her own way.