#Jerzy Andrzejewski

[residentshrike]

reading polish queer literature and thinking about tomgreg

quote: jerzy andrzejewski, miazga (1979)

[ougigi]

Cenizas y diamantes

Película polaca, estrenada en 1958 y dirigida por Andrzej Wajda , basada en la novela de 1948 del mismo nombre de  Jerzy Andrzejewski .

Muy a menudo, eres una antorcha en llamas

Que vuelan alrededor como trapos encendidos;

No sabes si las llamas traerán libertad o muerte.

¿Consumirán todo lo que debes amar si quedaran solo cenizas y confusión?,

Qué pasa en el abismo de la tormenta?

- AhíLa ceniza sujeta la gloria de un diamante,

Estrella Matutina del triunfo eterno ...

[byneddiedingo]

Ewa Krzyzewska and Zbigniew Cybulski in Ashes and Diamonds (Andrzej Wajda, 1958) Cast: Zbigniew Cybulski, Ewa Krzyzewska, Waclaw Zaztrzezynski, Adam Pawlikowski, Bogumil Kobiela, Jan Ciecierski. Screenplay: Jerzy Andrzejewski, Andrzej Wajda, based on a novel by Jerzy Andrzejewski. Cinematography: Jerzy Wójcik. Production design: Roman Mann. Film editing: Halina Nawrocka. Music: Filip Nowak. The plot of Ashes and Diamonds is simple: A group of men carry out an ambush on a road in the countryside only to discover that their intended target was not among the men they killed. So they return to town to plot another way of assassinating the man. The youngest, most volatile member of the group discovers that the man has taken the room next door in the hotel, but while waiting for his opportunity, his flirtation with a pretty young woman turns serious -- they begin to fall in love. Still, renouncing that chance at happiness, he follows through with his mission: He kills the man, but before he can make his escape from the town he is gunned down. It could have been -- probably has been -- the plot of a Western, a gangster film, a spy thriller, or a war movie. But because it's a film made in Poland during the Cold War, and the story it tells is set on the very day in 1945 when the Germans surrendered, it's an intensely political film, not just in what's on the screen but also in what went on while it was being made and released. I mention this because while I want to think about movies in purely aesthetic terms -- i.e., assessing the quality of acting, writing, direction, camerawork, etc. -- it's  almost impossible to approach a film like Ashes and Diamonds without taking so-called "external" factors like politics and history into consideration. If you try to watch it without knowing anything about the political situation in Poland in 1945, with the Germans retreating, the Soviets advancing, you'll miss half of the motivation of the characters and most of the intensity of the conflict. And if you disregard the fact that Poland in 1958 was a communist country, you can't understand why the plot to kill a communist leader was such a touchy subject for Andrzej Wajda to handle in a film -- and why the way he handled it was so audacious. It's a film that asks you to do your homework. On as pure an aesthetic level as I can get in thinking about the film, it's visually fascinating, with some splendid deep-focus cinematography by Jerzy Wójcik that pays homage to Gregg Toland's work on Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941). Wajda was quite open about the influence of Welles on his filmmaking -- like Welles, Wajda wanted sets to have ceilings -- but he also expressed a love of American gangster movies and film noir, citing Scarface (Howard Hawks, 1932) and The Asphalt Jungle (John Huston, 1950) among his inspirations for Ashes and Diamonds. The American influence is probably most felt by viewers today in the performance of Zbigniew Cybulski in the role of Maciek, the young assassin. It's a showy, jittery, almost over-the-top performance that validates Cybulski's reputation as "the Polish James Dean." Wajda initially resisted casting Cybulski, wanting a more traditional actor for the role, but once Jerzy Andrzejewski, his co-screenwriter and author of the novel on which the film was based, persuaded him to hire Cybulski, Wajda realized that the handsome young star would attract the younger audience the film not only needed to succeed, but also to educate this audience about their country's past. He even gave in to Cybulski's demand that he be allowed to supply his own wardrobe -- not at all the kind of clothes that a young Polish partisan would have worn in 1945 -- including his signature sunglasses. (A line was inserted to explain that Maciek wore them because he had damaged his eyesight by spending too much time in the sewers of Warsaw during the uprising of 1944.) But Wajda added some idiosyncratic touches of his own to the film, including the bullets setting fire to the jacket of one of the unintended victims of the ambush, and some ventures into symbolism like the upside-down crucifix that looms over Maciek and Krystyna (Ewa Krzyzewska) when they visit a ruined church and the white horse that wanders the streets of the town near the film's end. Maciek is shot in a field where white sheets are drying on clotheslines, and when he clutches one of the sheets to himself, his blood shows through -- even though the film is in black and white, this is a reminder that the colors of the Polish flag, like the one the hotel keeper takes out to wave at the film's end, are white and red. Wajda also delighted in the ambiguity of Maciek's death scene, one of Cybulski's most extravagant moments, which takes place on a garbage heap. For the communist censors, he observed, this could be interpreted as the fate of rebels against their rule, while young would-be rebels could see it as the state treating them as garbage.

[daughterofhecata]

I did both @batmanisagatewaydrug‘s and @macrolit‘s Reading Bingos this year - was aiming for blackouts on both, didn‘t manage it for macrolit’s, but I did get a couple bingos.

Titles for each under the cut, full reading list here.

batmanisagatewaydrug:

translated book: Jonathan L. Howard: Johannes Cabal #1. Seelenfänger. [org. title: Johannes Cabal the Necromancer]

graphic novel: Vincent Burmeister, David Schraven: Unter Krähen. Aus dem Inneren der Republik. [no english title]

nonfiction: Anna Mirga-Kruszelnicka, Jekatyerina Dunajeva: Re-Thinking Roma Resistance throughout History: Recounting Stories of Strength and Bravery.

sequel: Luke Arnold: Fetch Phillips Archives #3. One Foot in the Fade.

poetry collection: Rainer Maria Rilke: Gedichte [herausgegeben vom Hamburger Lesehefte Verlag]

published before 2010: Faye Kellerman: Die Schwingen des Todes [org. title: Stone Kiss]

memoir: Theodor Michael: Deutsch Sein und Schwarz Dazu. Erinnerungen eines Afro-Deutschen. [engl. title: Black German. An Afro-German Life in the Twentieth Century.]

oldest on TBR: Anne Frank: Tagebuch der Anne Frank. 14. Juni 1942 bis 1. August 1944. [org. title: Het Achterhuis/engl. title: The Diary of a Young Girl]

author from a different country: Alexander Wolkow: Zauberland-Reihe #1. Der Zauberer der Smaragdenstadt. [org. title: Волшебник изумрудного города/engl. title: The Wizard of the Emerald City]

romance: Iny Lorentz: Die Feuerbraut [no english title i could find]

essay collection: Scaachi Koul: One Day We‘ll All Be Dead And None Of This Will Matter.

fantasy: Austin Chant: Peter Darling

novella: Maria Konopnicka: Der Danziger Mendel [org. title: Mendel Gdański/no english title]

debut author: Xiran Jay Zhao: Iron Widow

ghosts or monsters: Jennifer Giesbrecht: The Monster of Elendhaven

short stories: Hendrik Buchna, Marco Sonnleitner, u.a.: Die Drei ??? und der Zeitgeist [no english title; collection of short stories in the german continuation of Robert Arthur’s Three Investigators stories]

banned book: Harper Lee: To Kill a Mockingbird

one word title: K. Ancrum: Darling

published before 2000: Josef Bor: Theresienstädter Requiem [org. title: Terezínské Rekviem/engl. title: The Terezín Requiem]

2022 release: Jonathan Kellerman: City of the Dead. An Alex Delaware Novel.

literary fiction: Sylvia Plath: The Bell Jar / Jack Kerouac: On The Road (I’m pretty sure at least one of them qualifies)

YA: Jonathan Stroud: Bartimäus #1. Das Amulett von Samarkand. [org. title: The Bartimaeus Trilogy #1. The Amulet of Samarkand.]

reread: Franz Kafka: Das Urteil [engl. title: The Judgement]

400+ pages: James Ellroy: L.A. Confidential. Stadt der Teufel. [org. title: L.A. Confidential]

macrolit:

Classic Author A/B/C: -

Gothic Fiction: -

Fan Fiction: [no specific work]

published between 1960-1990: Václav Havel: Vernissage [org. title: Vernisáž/engl. title: Unveilling]

Classic Author P/Q/R: Sylvia Plath: The Bell Jar

Biography or Non-Fiction: Justin Fenton: We Own This City. A True Story of Crime, Cops, and Corruption.

Classic Author S/T/U: -

Young Adult: Christina Henry: Lost Boy

Classic Author G/H/I: -

Detective, Horror or Suspense: Tess Gerritsen: Die Chirurgin. [org. title: The Surgeon]

Philosophy or Literary Criticism: Judith Butler: Gender Trouble. Feminism and the Subversion of Identity.

Classic Author M/N/O: -

Harlem Renaissance: -

Published between 1990-2022: Ocean Vuong: On Earth We‘re Briefly Gorgeous

Book of Short Stories:  Don Winslow: Broken

published between 1920-1960: Jerzy Andrzejewski: Warschauer Karwoche [org. title: Wielki tydzień/engl. title: Holy Week]

Classic Author D/E/F: Leslie Feinberg: Stone Butch Blues

Children‘s Literature: [any one of the twenty Three Investigator‘s books I read this year]

Poetry or Play: Bożena Keff: Ein Stück über Mutter und Vaterland [org. title: Utwór o Matce i Ojczyźnie/engl. title: A Piece about Mother and Fatherland]

Graphic Novel: Elfriede Jelinek, Nicolas Mahler: Der fremde! störenfried der ruhe eines sommerabends der ruhe eines friedhofs. [no english title]

Classic Author J/K/L: Jack Kerouac: On The Road

Essays or Satire: Scaachi Koul: One Day We‘ll All Be Dead And None Of This Will Matter.

Published before 1920: Maria Konopnicka: Der Danziger Mendel [org. title: Mendel Gdański/no english title]

Classic Author V/W/X/Y/Z: Jiří Weil: Leben mit dem Stern [org. title: Život s hvězdou/engl. title: Life With A Star]

[mine-haha]

Ho capito allora che la sofferenza è l'ombra di ogni amore: non si può non amare, ma se si ama, l'amore si sdoppia in amore e in sofferenza.

Jerzy Andrzejewski, Le porte del paradiso

[yourdailyqueer]

Jerzy Andrzejewski (deceased)

Gender: Male

Sexuality: Bisexual

DOB: 19 August 1909  

RIP: 19 April 1983

Ethnicity: White - Polish

Occupation: Writer

[helloksiazkowecytaty]

Miłość jest jak mydło, ubywa jej przy używaniu.

Jerzy Andrzejewski - Miazga

[clearthesilence]

"Sam powiedz, po diabła się dręczyć? Komu to potrzebne? Nie trzeba tego wszystkiego brać zbyt serio. Przepchać się poprostu przez tę cała hecę. Nie dać sie nabrać. I co więcej?"

Popiół i diament, Jerzy Andrzejewski

[schizografia]

...Non la menzogna, ma la verità uccide la speranza, e mentre lo pensava fu buio in lui e su di lui... Alessio disse, sentendo la mano di Jacopo tremare: se lo ordini, cammineremo tutta la notte, andiamo - disse Jacopo. E camminarono tutta la notte.

Jerzy Andrzejewski, Le porte del paradiso

[jutroprzyjdzielato]

"drugi człowiek jest tylko ciemną tajemnicą, trudno go pokochać, ale jeśli nie ma w nim nic z tajemnicy, równie kochać go niepodobna, ponieważ miłość jest poszukiwaniem i odkrywaniem, dążeniem i niepewnością, pośpiechem i oczekiwaniem, niecierpliwym, ale zawsze oczekiwaniem, jest owym szczególnym i jedynym stanem pragnień i pożądań, czystych i mrocznych, szczególnym i jedynym stanem pragnień i pożądań, które dążąc do zaspokojenia domagają się  nieprzekroczenia ostatecznej granicy ostatecznego zaspokojenia, bowiem miłość, cała z racji swej natury będąc gwałtowną potrzebą zaspokojenia, nie jest nim, nie jest zaspokojeniem, i nigdy nim stać się  nie może, gdybym cię  znał, nie mógłbym złożyć w tobie moich pragnień, ponieważ one żądają dla siebie niewiadomej miary, ale gdybym nic o tobie nie wiedział i nic nie potrafiłbym sobie o tobie dopowiedzieć, równie cofnąłbym się przed tobą jak przed zdradziecką przepaścią w górach albo przed gwałtownym wirem rzeki, miłość jest wołaniem i poszukiwaniami, jest zaborcza, ale wszelkie zaspokojenie pragnień zabija ją, jest bezustannie spragniona, ale wszelkie zaspokojenie pragnień uśmierca ją, jest rozpaczą pomiędzy sprzecznymi żywiołami, jest samotnością pomiędzy sprzecznymi żywiołami, ale jest także nadzieją, ciągle nadzieją pomiędzy sprzecznymi  żywiołami".

Jerzy Andrzejewski, “Bramy raju”

[alfabetas]

Las puertas del paraíso

Por Briseida Alcalá

Lo divino es la careta de lo mundano, cuando el amor de los hombres suplanta al de los Dioses en las puertas del paraíso de Jerzy Andrzejewski.

Seguir leyendo. 

[2nd-rate-film-school]

“Will there remain among the ashes a star-like diamond, the dawn of eternal victory?”

Ashes and Diamonds (1958) dir. Andrzej Wajda

[wswiecieslow]

Każdy na ziemi ma takie niebo, czyściec i piekło, na jakie zasługuje.

Jerzy Andrzejewski

[ptolemywaswrong]

I've seen men who thought they were brave turn out to be shameful cowards. Other people, who thought they were capable of the utmost self-sacrifice, proved to be hardened egotists. And the opposite, too - cowards doing things which needed toughness and unusual courage..... What does it all boil down to in the end? One must judge a man by what he does, and not by what he thinks he would do. Until a man faces the test, he can deceive himself endlessly.

[mariocki]

Popiól I Diament (Ashes And Diamonds, 1958)

“…or will the ashes hold the glory of a starlike diamond… The Morning Star of everlasting triumph… ”

[hysieme]

MDZS Language Fest - Day 6: purple, romance, steady and unsteady

Tylko miłość potrafi każdą rzecz, nawet najskromniejszą, uczynić piękną

- a Polish quote by Jerzy Andrzejewski