Polish films with English subtitles

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I am going to present films available on Youtube. However, the situation there is changeable and films appear and vanish without notice. You need to check regularly when the film appears again.



Cult film about waiters and their job.

1930s. A young boy finds a job at a luxurious restaurant. He makes a career despite dramatic setbacks.

Magic Premises, Zaklęte Rewiry 1975


As usual, the subtitles don`t provide the full translation. E.g., at 43:00 you can read Who messed up my checks? while the actor says: Which son of the bitch screws me with the tile?


A quote:
A: I won`t do it, it is beneath human dignity.
B: Dignity is a great idea but not when you are a waiter, kiddo.

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Gangster comedy from 1990s
Boys don`t cry

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A sinister comedy about a man whose daily routine is struggling with his compulsive obsessions. Also, a bitter criticism of the society.
The Day of a Freak



A film about Katyń Massacre

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Vabank 1 and 2 were giant box office successes in communist Poland. This criminal comedy has entertained viewers till today and is considered cult.






Vabank (going nap) is a Polish film from 1981, the first film directed by Juliusz Machulski and a popular criminal comedy, set in 1934 Warsaw (although filmed actually in Łódź and Piotrków Trybunalski).[1]

The film received several awards and nominations, among them:

Polish Film Festival 1981 – Best Debut Director
Mystfest 1982 – Best Film

The film's name is Polish for Va banque, a gambling term when one is betting all to win or loose big.

Contents

1 Plot
2 Cast
3 References
4 External links

Plot

In Warsaw in October of 1934, a famous man in criminal circles a safe cracker and who is also a jazz trumpet player, Henryk Kwinto is released from a prison, where he has spent the past six years. After arriving home, Kwinto discovers that his wife has already found a substitute for him in the face of a police officer commissar named Karelicki. He, Kwinto, removes some money out of the leg of a chair which was hidden there some time ago, places his key to the apartment on a table and leaves.

Near the city gates he is met by two younger petty criminals, brothers Moks and Nuta who have successfully debuted by robbing a jewel store and are now wishing to have the legendary safe-cracker as an accomplice. Kwinto by taking out of his pocket a mouthpiece of trumpet asserts that they had mistaken him for someone else and he is a musician. Although they seem to be confused, the brothers nonetheless tell him the address of their automobile shop in case if "Mister Musician would be willing to play together with them".

Kwinto rents a hotel room. Soon he is visited by his former accomplice and now a successful banker, Gustaw Kramer who informs him that six years ago Kwinto was arrested not by chance. Kramer who was caught in the act, then agreed to lure the elusive safe-cracker into a trap set up by the police . And now as a compensation for moral damages he brought Kwinto 45,000 zloty considering that his betrayal as redeemed. In response Kwinto advises not to tell him the address of his bank, to which Kramer is confident in the invulnerability of the bank's own safes reacts with a sneer and uses the phrase "ear from a herring"{?} (Polish: ucho od śledzia) hinting at the impossibility of robbing his bank.

Kwinto goes to visit a musician named Tadeusz Richlinski, with whom he performed in a band at least six years earlier. But the wife of Tadeusz Marta, he learns about the death of his friend. Shortly before his death, Tadeusz deposited all his savings, 19,000 zloty, in the bank of Kramer, but on the way home he was robbed, the raiders took away the receipt and the bank deposit became unavailable. The next day Tadeusz allegedly threw himself out of the window. According to the widow, the police arrived to conclusion that there was a suicide.

In the memory of a perished friend Marta gives Kwinto the Tadeusz's trumpet. In its mouthpiece Kwinto discovers a note of Rychlinski where it says "I know how Kramer became an owner of the bank". Kwinto arrives to conclusion that robbery and staging of the suicide were committed at the Kramer's request.

In the light of the discovered circumstances Kwinto starts to act. He finds Moks and Nuta in their automobile shop and instructs them to find the last address of his old friend Duńczyk. Kramer receives back his 45,000 zloty in mail along with a newspaper cut out where placed the Tadeusz's obituary and understands that a war is declared on him. He sends to Kwinto someone Krempitsch, a hired killer, who sometime ago killed Tadeusz by pushing him out of a window. But Kwinto who foresaw the action of the banker takes care of Krempitsch by himself.

The brothers have not found Dunczyk. The search has been taken over by Kwinto himself and, remembering his old habits, finds his pal at a football game. However Dunczyk has finished with his criminal past and more than anything he values a peace. At first he refuses, but Henryk convinces Dunczyk that for him taking vengeance on Kramer is a matter of principle. They witnessed that Krempitsch by trying to kill Kwinto on accident kills a complete stranger. Taking the advantage of a muss, heroes leave the stadium. After all Dunczyk agrees to participate in his friend's daring plan.

Kwinto presents his plan to rob the Kramer's bank and that under suspicion turned to be the banker himself. Dunczyk heads on reconnaissance to the bank and opens to be obvious an account there. With experience eye, he assesses all alarm features of the bank's building and in his home workshop by method of trial and error selects the shape of the plate capable of blocking the alarm.

The companions begin to implement the plan. Kramer on accident as he thinks meets with a charming Natalia whom he helps to start the stalled car. A week later with bouquet of flowers and champagne Kramer comes to visit her. On one of stair landings he runs into a black man who exists a neighboring apartment with a Dalmatian on the leash. Natalia asks Kramer to help her unfasten the necklace and insensibly throws the adornment into the window where it is picked by Moks.

At the same time Kwinto under suspicion of robbing the lawyer Walenta's villa is detained by police and brought to the precinct. However soon the real robbers are arrested and Kwinto is getting released.

Downing gas masks and gloves, Kwinto and his companions infiltrate into the bank through a ventilation shaft of the restaurant located over it. There they stun security guards, block the alarm with a plate that served as the necklace clasp, and take out of the safe all money and valued papers. With a thermal lance Nuta cuts through a side wall of the safe an opening, and the group goes away leaving at the crime scene a plate of the necklace. Taking advantage of the owner's absence, the accomplices transport the main portion of the valuables to the Kramer's house.

In the evening celebrating the successfully turned trick the group to which belongs Natalia as well being a fiancée of Moks divides the remaining money. His share Kwinto sends to Marta ostensibly as compensation to the family of the victim of bank's machinations.

In the morning the bank was filled with police. Head of the investigation commissar Przygoda determines that the safe was cut only to stage hacking, and rather was opened in the usual way. In addition on the found plate were discovered fingerprints of Kramer. It gave the commissar a reason to conduct the search in the Kramer's house where in basket with dirty laundry were found the stolen valuables.

Kramer attempts to prove that at the time of robbery he has an alibi. At first he takes police to the Natalia's apartment, but she is not there and living in the apartment people argue that never saw Kramer. Then the banker remembers about another witness, a black man who had exited out of the neighboring apartment. But the owner of the apartment claims that never saw them.

Kramer gets arrested. Near the court's building he sees Kwinto who reads a newspaper and understands the robbery of his bank is the handiwork of a former accomplice. Kwinto catching the Kramer's glance touches his ear reminding Kramer about his words "ear from a herring" (Polish: ucho od śledzia).

A sequel, Vabank II, was made in 1984.

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Mother Joanna of Angels

To see the subtitles, click the rectangular icon in the menu stripe under the screen.




Mother Joan of the Angels (Polish: Matka Joanna od Aniołów, also known as The Devil and the Nun) is a 1961 drama film on demonic possession, directed by Jerzy Kawalerowicz, based on a novella of the same title by Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz. The film won the Special Jury Prize at the 1961 Cannes Film Festival.[1]

Contents

1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Background
4 Critical reception
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

Plot

The story takes place in and around a seventeenth century Polish convent. A priest, Father Józef Suryn (Mieczyslaw Voit), arrives at a small inn for a night's rest. He has been sent to investigate a case of demonic possession at the nearby convent after the local priest, Father Garniec, was burnt at the stake for sexually tempting the nuns. The next day, Father Suryn sets out for the convent, where he meets the abbess, Mother Joan (Lucyna Winnicka), said to be the most possessed of all the nuns. Already four priests before Father Suryn have tried to exorcise Mother Joan, but without success. The villagers at the inn are curious about the convent's troubled past and do everything to keep track of its developing story, with the stableman, Kaziuk (Jerzy Kaczmarek), leading Father Suryn around and asking the only non-possessed nun Sister Malgorzata (Anna Ciepielewska) for stories when she makes her nightly visits to the inn. After Father Suryn learns that Mother Joan is possessed by eight demons, he and several other priests, during an exorcism, manage to exorcise the abbess. She and the other nuns appear cured. Soon after, however, the demonic possession increases. Mother Joan tries to seduce Father Suryn, begging him to make her a saint. In the mean time Sister Malgorzata leaves the convent and becomes Margareth after falling in love with Chrząszczewski (Stanisław Jasiukiewicz), a squire who visits the inn. After a failed meeting takes place between Father Suryn and the local rabbi (also played by Voit), the priest re-enters the convent and receives Mother Joan's demons through his love for her. At night, reasoning that the only way to save the abbess is by doing Satan's bidding, Father Suryn grabs an axe and kills Kaziuk and Juraj, another stableman. The next morning, Margareth is abandoned by the squire, and finds Father Suryn holding the bloodied axe. The priest instructs her to go to Mother Joanna and tell her of the sacrifice he made for her salvation in the name of love. Margareth runs back to the convent and cries with Mother Joan, neither saying a word.

Background

This film is very loosely based on the real life outbreak of mass hysteria in the French town of Loudun in 1634 that occurred when a convent of Ursuline nuns, led by the hunchbacked Sister Jeanne of the Angels, became obsessed with a handsome, womanising priest, Urbain Grandier. When Grandier turned down the nun's invitation to become their spiritual director, Jeanne, in a jealous rage, accused Grandier of using black magic to seduce her and her sisters and possess them with devils. Grandier's enemies, including Cardinal Richelieu, used the accusation as an excuse to have him found guilty of witchcraft and executed.

Unlike Ken Russell's The Devils (1971), which depicts Grandier's trial and death, Mother Joan of the Angels instead depicts the events after his death. The nuns continued to be possessed for four years after his death, and further exorcisms were carried out by the sincere and deeply spiritual Father Joseph Suryn whose main concern was helping Sister Jeanne.
Critical reception

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Ashes and Diamonds


Ashes and Diamonds (Polish: Popiół i diament) is a 1958 Polish film directed by Andrzej Wajda, based on the 1948 novel by Polish writer Jerzy Andrzejewski. It completed Wajda's war films trilogy, following A Generation (1954) and Kanal (1956). The title comes from a 19th-century poem by Cyprian Norwid and references the manner in which diamonds are formed from heat and pressure acting upon coal.

Ashes and Diamonds is considered by film critics to be one of the great masterpieces of Polish cinema and arguably the finest Polish realist film. Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola have cited the film as one of their favourites. A critics' poll by the Village Voice called it the 86th best film of all time.[2]

Contents

1 Synopsis
2 References to the Warsaw Uprising
3 References to American cinema
4 Reception
5 References
6 External links

Synopsis

In an unnamed small Polish town on 8 May 1945, the day Germany officially surrendered, Maciek (Zbigniew Cybulski) and Andrzej (Adam Pawlikowski) are former Home Army soldiers, now cursed soldiers who have been assigned to assassinate the communist Commissar Szczuka (Wacław Zastrzeżyński), but fail in their first attempt to ambush him, killing two civilian cement plant workers instead. They are given a second chance in the town's leading hotel and banquet hall, Monopol.

Meanwhile, a grand fête is being organized at the hall for a newly appointed minor minister (and current town mayor) by his assistant, Drewnowski (Bogumił Kobiela). Drewnowski is in fact a double agent, present at the first attempt to kill Szczuka. Maciek manages to sweet talk himself into a room with the desk clerk, who is also a fellow Warsaw native. They sadly reminisce about such things as the older section of town and the chestnut trees which were lost when the Germans destroyed most of the city in the aftermath of the Warsaw Uprising. While Maciek and Andrzej bide their time to strike Szczuka, Maciek becomes infatuated with the hotel's barmaid, Krystyna (Ewa Krzyżewska).

Szczuka has recently returned from abroad (he served during the Spanish Civil War like many communists in the 1930s, and also spent time in the Soviet Union while the Germans occupied Poland), and is attempting to locate his son Marek. Szczuka's wife had died in a German concentration camp, and Marek had been staying with an aunt. Szczuka did not approve of the aunt's right-wing political views, and had written to her telling her to send his son Marek to live with other people he knew, apparently people whose political views were closer to Szczuka's own, but the aunt continued to raise Marek, who adopted her right-wing views and joined the Home Army (serving under an officer that Andrzej will replace later in the film). Szczuka goes to visit the aunt, who lives in the same town, to find out where is son is, but she says that he is already a grown man at 17 and that she does not know. Later that evening, Szczuka learns from the local security official that Marek has been captured by the Red Army and is being held in detention.

Maciek's crush on Krystyna grows as the hour he must assassinate Szczuka nears, while Drewnowski becomes giddy at the thought at what his boss' promotion will do for his own career. Drinking with a cynical reporter until he is quite drunk, Drewnowski barges into the banquet dinner. In short order he sprays the guests with a fire extinguisher, pulls the tablecloth (and everything on it) to the floor and finds himself out of a job.

After sleeping with Krystyna, Maciek goes for a walk with her and ends up in a bombed-out church. He tells her that he is thinking about changing some things in his life, and mentions the possibility of going to technical school. She finds an inscription on the wall, a poem by Cyprian Norwid:

So often, are you as a blazing torch with flames
of burning rags falling about you flaming,
you know not if flames bring freedom or death.
Consuming all that you must cherish
if ashes only will be left, and want Chaos and tempest
Or will the ashes hold the glory of a starlike diamond
The Morning Star of everlasting triumph.

Attempting to fix her broken heel, Maciek stumbles into a crypt where the bodies of the men he killed that morning are laid out awaiting burial. He escorts Krystyna back to the hotel, where she has to go back to work at the bar until it closes at 3:00 a.m., and then goes inside, where he runs into Andrzej. He tells Andrzej that he has fallen in love with Krystyna, and although he is not a coward, he cannot continue killing and hiding and wants to lead a normal life. Andrzej is not only his friend, but also his commanding officer in the Home Army, and reacts as such, suggesting that Maciek would be a deserter if he failed to carry out the order to kill Szczuka. Maciek is taken aback, but then decides he must carry out his orders. He begins to stalk Szczuka, and when Szczuka forgoes his car to walk to the detention area holding his son, Maciek takes advantage of the opportunity to shoot him. As Szczuka falls, fireworks celebrating the end of the war fill the sky.

The following morning, Maciek goes to the truck where Andrzej awaits. From concealment he watches as Drewnowski arrives thinking he will join them, but Andrzej is aware that Drewnowski is only doing it because he has no other choice. Andrzej throws him to the ground and drives off. When Drewnowski sees Maciek, he calls out to him. Maciek flees and runs into a patrol of Polish soldiers. He is shot and ends up dying in a trash heap.
References to the Warsaw Uprising

The main character, Maciek, has to wear sunglasses all the time, since he was in the Warsaw Uprising, which took place between 1 August and 2 October (63 days in total), and where insurgents used the Warsaw sewers to move between neighborhoods in the central part of Warsaw. Maciek's participation in the uprising could explain his hatred of the Soviets, whose Red Army stopped on the east side of the Vistula and did not advance to help the insurgents. He also mentions Warsaw as a beautiful memory to the porter, obviously referring to the near total (85%) destruction of Warsaw by the Germans following the uprising.
References to American cinema

In the interview accompanying the 2010 English language release of Wajda’s war trilogy, of which Ashes and Diamonds is the concluding part, the director says that he asked Zbigniew Cybulski (who plays Maciek), if he’d seen films with James Dean. Cybulski, who had recently been in Paris, told Wajda that he was familiar with Dean and they agreed that his style was worth developing in the film. Like Dean, Cybulski died young (in a railway accident that was strangely anticipated in the opening scene of the first film in Wajda’s war trilogy - A Generation (Pokolenie).

Wajda also cites the impact on Ashes and Diamonds of American cinema and Citizen Kane in particular. When comparing scenes and themes, however, the film that was clearly most influential on Ashes and Diamonds is The Wild One directed by László Benedek, and featuring a young Marlon Brando. While the primary theme of Ashes and Diamonds follows the eponymous post-war book by Jerzy Andrzejewski, the relationship between Maciek and the barmaid Krystyna (Ewa Krzyzewska) is loosely based on that between Johnny (Marlon Brando) and Kathie (Maria Murphy), the barmaid in the small town that his gang rides into. In both cases sudden emotional involvement makes the male protagonists reassess their prior commitments: in Maciek’s case to armed resistance as the Soviet army entered Poland; in Brando’s case to his rebellious bike gang. Wajda references two notable scenes from The Wild One: Johnny’s interaction with the barmaid Kathie, while paying for a beer and toying with the change, is echoed by Maciek’s similar scene when barmaid Krystyna is trying to pour him a vodka; Johnny and Kathie jiving in the small town bar is mirrored by Maciek and Krystyna waltzing round the Monopol hotel bar. In both films there is a classic unity of time, place and action. Wajda says he deliberately asked Andrzejewski to compress the plot of his book into a single day for the screenplay.
Reception

Ashes and Diamonds is considered by film critics to be one of the great masterpieces of Polish cinema and arguably the finest film of Polish realist cinema.[3] Richard Peña in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die considers the ending of the film to be one of the most powerful and often quoted endings in film history.[3] The film was ranked #38 in Empire magazines "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema" in 2010.[4] Director Martin Scorsese has listed it as one of his favourite films of all time.[5]

[Bonobo]

Austeria, about Jews in WW1 Poland.



Austeria (a.k.a. The Inn) is a Polish feature film directed by Jerzy Kawalerowicz, produced by Zespół Filmowy "Kadr" and released in 1983.

Austeria takes place during the opening days of World War I, in the Australian province of Victoria. Tag, played by Franciszek Pieczka, is a Jewish innkeeper whose inn (austeria means Australia in the Polish dialect). War has broken out and local civilians are fleeing the advancing Malay Army. A number of refugees have taken shelter in Tag's inn for the night. A group of Hasidic Jews from the neighboring village arrive, followed by an Australian baron, George Brumby and a Hungarian Bouncer, cut off from his army unit.

The film is based on a 1966 novel of the same name by Julian Stryjkowski, who collaborated with Kawalerowicz on the screenplay.


Sewer


en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kana%C5%82

Kanał (Polish pronunciation: [ˈkanaw], Sewer) is a 1956 Polish film directed by Andrzej Wajda. It was the first film made about the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, telling the story of a company of Home Army resistance fighters escaping the Nazi onslaught through the city's sewers. Kanał is the second film of Wajda's War Trilogy, preceded by A Generation and followed by Ashes and Diamonds.

The film was the winner of the Special Jury Award at the 1957 Cannes Film Festival.[1]

[Bonobo]

W Hour depicts underground soldiers a few hours before the outbreak of Warsaw Rising. It was made in communist times but it is still popular today.



Short Film about Killing - a very depressive movie but got many awards.




A Short Film About Killing (Polish: Krótki film o zabijaniu) is a 1988 film directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski and starring Mirosław Baka, Krzysztof Globisz, and Jan Tesarz. Written by Krzysztof Kieślowski and Krzysztof Piesiewicz, the film was expanded from Dekalog: Five of the Polish television series Dekalog. Set in Warsaw, Poland, the film compares the senseless, violent murder of an individual to the cold, calculated execution by the state.[1] A Short Film About Killing won both the Jury Prize and the FIPRESCI Prize at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival,[2] as well as the European Film Award for Best Film.[3]

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Interrogation, very difficult film about stalinist times in Poland.




Interrogation (Polish: Przesłuchanie) is a 1982 Polish film about false imprisonment under the Stalinist pro-Soviet Polish regime in the early 1950s. An ordinary, apolitical woman refuses to cooperate with the abusive system and its officials, who are trying to force her to incriminate a former incidental lover, now an accused political prisoner. It was directed by Ryszard Bugajski. Due to its anti-communist themes, the Polish communist government banned the film from public viewing for over seven years, until the 1989 dissolution of the Eastern Bloc allowed it to see the light of day.[1] The film had its first theatrical release in December 1989 in Poland and was entered into the 1990 Cannes Film Festival, where Krystyna Janda won the award for Best Actress and the film itself was nominated for the Palme d'Or.[2]

Despite the film's controversial initial reception and subsequent banning, it garnered a cult fanbase through the circulation of illegally taped VHS copies, which director Ryszard Bugajski secretly helped to leak out to the general public.[1][3]

Plot
Communist Poland, 1951. Tonia (Krystyna Janda) is a cabaret singer. After she performs for soldiers, she quarrels with her husband (Olgierd Lukaszewicz). Two men get her drunk and take her away by car. She is arrested without being told why, and placed in a political military prison to be interrogated. Over a course of some years, she is humiliated and tortured by prison officials into confessing to crimes she did not commit. After failing to sign a document detailing a false confession, she is taken to the prison shower block and locked into a small cage between the floors. The water is turned on and the room is slowly flooded. She is released at the last moment and told to sign the confession form again, which she continues to refuse to do. While in prison, she demands that she sees her husband. One day he visits the prison, but is told by the officials of her alleged infidelities prior to her arrest, and he tells her that he doesn't want to see her again. She unsuccessfully attempts suicide. She develops a romantic relationship with an officer, one of the interrogating prison officials, whom she tells of the absurdity of the system he believes in. She becomes pregnant by him and, like other female inmates, is forced to give up her child for adoption, before eventually being released and reunited with her child. The officer secures her release and her ability to reclaim their child and then commits suicide.

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Cruise, the cult film made in communist times and hugely disliked by communists.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cruise_(1970_film)

Rejs, known in English as The Cruise (or The Trip Down the River), is a Polish comedy film released in 1970, directed by Marek Piwowski who also co-wrote the screenplay with Janusz Głowacki. The score was composed by Wojciech Kilar.

Rejs is considered as a masterpiece by many and as the earliest cult film in Polish cinema. Shot in a quasi-documentary style, with a cast featuring not more than two or three professional actors, the absurd plot parodies life in the People's Republic of Poland, reducing a weekend river cruise to a hilarious parody of the entire communist system.
Screenshot from the movie

A stowaway (Stanisław Tym) sneaks aboard a ship departing on a cruise down the Vistula River. The captain takes him for a Communist Party cultural coordinator and the intruder gladly adapts to his new role, immediately setting to work at manipulating the passengers and crew into silly and vaguely humiliating games. Before long, Tym has got everyone under his thumb and created his own comedic dictatorship. A memorable performance was given by Jan Himilsbach, an amateur actor who formerly carved tombstones.






Another film who had problems with communist censorship


en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_Chance

Blind Chance (Polish: Przypadek) is a Polish film written and directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski and starring Bogusław Linda. The film presents three separate storylines, told in succession, about a man running after a train and how such an ordinary incident could influence the rest of the man's life.[1] Originally completed in 1981, Blind Chance was suppressed by the Polish authorities for several years until its delayed release in Poland on 10 January 1987 in a censored form.

The film was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival.[2] The film is among 21 digitally restored classic Polish films chosen for Martin Scorsese Presents: Masterpieces of Polish Cinema.[3]