Between Dream and Reality: «The Saragossa Manuscript»

Iwona Grodź

1 Polish Cinema of 1964/1965

The Saragossa Manuscript by Wojciech Has was made at the time when a whole sequence of other historical films was produced in Poland. The times of great Polish superproductions of the nineteen-sixties resemble slightly the current fashion for adaptations of great works of Polish literature (Ogniem i mieczem [With Fire and Sword], Pan Tadeusz [Mr Tadeus], Quo vadis, Przedwiośnie [The Spring To Come] et cetera).

This analogy is no longer in effect, however, when one compares the films’ artistic values. It was Aleksander Ford who began the procession of superproductions with Krzyżacy [The Knights of the Cross] according to the novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz (1960). The success of this film exceeded the wildest expectations (ten million spectators). What followed was, less successful, Panienka z okienka [A girl in the window] (1964) on motifs of Deotyma’s novel, directed by Maria Kaniewska, with costumes designed by Jan Marcin Szancer. In the same year in which also Pętla [The Loop]’s author opus came into being, Andrzej Wajda realised Popioły [Ashes] according to the novel of Stefan Żeromski. Right afterwards, Faraon [Pharaoh] (1966) was made by Jerzy Kawalerowicz on the basis of Bolesław Prus’s work.

For a fuller total image it is worth to provide a few more pieces of information from Polish cinema history of the times. In 1965 – besides Has’s film – the following premiered: Późne popołudnie [Late afternoon] by Aleksander Ścibor-Rylski, Pingwin [Penguin] by Jerzy Stefan Stawiński, Rysopis [Description] and Walkower [Walkover] by Jerzy Skolimowski, Salto [Somersault] by Tadeusz Konwicki. On television, Wojna domowa [Civil war] series by Jerzy Gruza also opened in October. Besides, this year the “Warsaw’s Mermaid”, the Polish Film Criticism Prize, was awarded for 1964 to the film Pierwszy dzień wolności [The First Day of Freedom] by Aleksander Ford. Readers of “Film” magazine also awarded the film with the “Golden Duck”. In January 1966, the first issue of monthly “Kino” appeared⁶.

Jan Rybkowski, who was making plans for the production of Lalka [The Doll] in 1964 (eventually W.J. Has made the film in 1968), thus talked about Polish spectacular films: “[A]‌fter the period in which they lightened their burdens by responsibility – analysing films [“Polish film school”] – the cinematography and authors were in an empty place. (…) [S]o it was necessary to turn to the supplies”⁷.

It is difficult, however, to agree with any who claim that the novel by count Potocki was an exceptionally imposing and obvious “supply”.

Krzysztof Teodor Toeplitz justified the attendant coming into existence of many spectacular undertakings also with “the desire for reaching foreign markets”⁸, all enthusiastic about works such as Cleopatra or Ben Hur. When examining the earlier work of Has (particularly ones which were a success in the West, e.g. Jak być kochaną [How to be Loved]) and reading his statements about film production, it is impossible not to notice that this desire was not the main motive inducing the author of Manuscript for the completion of this undertaking.

Numerous historical giants provoked a critical backlash of sharp opinions concerning the films. We are observing a similar situation at present as well. It is surprising that in the attempt to discredit the meaning of superproductions, the reviewers of nineteen-sixties used similar arguments to those writing today. At that time, the fundamental charge was as follows: such productions walk away from the contemporary subject matter and plunge into “archaic and museum-oriented”⁹ issues. The only opinion slightly exotic today is one uttered by Krzysztof Teodor Toeplitz, who ←14 | 15→commented that such projects are safe both for the authors and for “the fearful administrative film apparatus”, since “picking on Prus, Żeromski, or even Potocki (though a count, and cosmopolitan) would be purely absurd”¹⁰.