I was fortunate enough to be able to see this film in Berlin, with director/co-writer Lech Majewski present. As a fan of "Basquiat" it was interesting to compare the chaos of Wojaczek's life to Basquiat's. This is a dark story, filmed appropriately in black and white about a Polish poet and his love/hate relationship with his life and the people in it.
2 Reviews
Conventional story-telling would be great for this film
Rodrigo_Amaro15 March 2011
Reading a summary of this film somewhere in the internet I found it that this could be a great and interesting film about a real person that I wasn't much familiar, the Polish poet Rafal Wojaczek (1945-1971). The summary talked about a tragic poet and his fight against the repressed political regime in his country, that were the main cause for his angered and almost crazy rebellion. What I did saw was an unconventional film with a weird story-telling that left me bored, confused and with no sympathy for the main character except in some bit parts.
Lech Majewski's "Wojaczek" tells the story of the depressed Wojaczek (played by the real poet Krzysztof Siwczyk, he's not an actor but impresses a lot with his unusual performance), and some of his suicide attempts, trying to kill his pain of living in an obscure and worrying world where his only ways of passing through life is writing poems, drink vodka, some bizarre friendships with another poets and relationship with a nurse. Wojaczek's suffering wasn't so notorious, wasn't explained at all, we have to figure out what is the cause of it in the middle of strange and incomprehensible scenes that goes on and off out of nowhere, with no explanation; also, there's some of his poems and the ones they've chosen to be in the film says nothing at all, doesn't reveal his true soul nor his brilliance as a poet.
I paused the film for a while and checked some of his words and he has some interesting and beautiful things written, nothing so pretentious as many poets tend to do (check out "Cross" or "I speak softly to you", some of his translated poems). I thank the film for presenting me this extraordinary character, it made me want to know more about him but the film as a cine biography doesn't help him at all.
The best things here are the black and white cinematography, which I loved it, it evokes the period lived by the poet during the Communist regime, and the performance of Krzysztof Siwczyk (in his only film so far), which is something very rare, portraying a real figure in absurd moments (being the most interesting his drunken striptease in the bar, and being the most scary moment when he jumps out of a window, trying to kill himself) and he seems totally committed with a difficult character to be played. He's a good looking actor, resembles a little with the real Wojaczek.
If "Wojaczek" was conducted in a more ordinary way rather than the odd and slow pace that was presented in a confusing story where few things makes sense and others doesn't make any, this could be a great film, or even a good film. But it gets lost somewhere, and it's just makes you bored, confused and with a desperate desire to end with the film right away. 4/10
Lech Majewski's "Wojaczek" tells the story of the depressed Wojaczek (played by the real poet Krzysztof Siwczyk, he's not an actor but impresses a lot with his unusual performance), and some of his suicide attempts, trying to kill his pain of living in an obscure and worrying world where his only ways of passing through life is writing poems, drink vodka, some bizarre friendships with another poets and relationship with a nurse. Wojaczek's suffering wasn't so notorious, wasn't explained at all, we have to figure out what is the cause of it in the middle of strange and incomprehensible scenes that goes on and off out of nowhere, with no explanation; also, there's some of his poems and the ones they've chosen to be in the film says nothing at all, doesn't reveal his true soul nor his brilliance as a poet.
I paused the film for a while and checked some of his words and he has some interesting and beautiful things written, nothing so pretentious as many poets tend to do (check out "Cross" or "I speak softly to you", some of his translated poems). I thank the film for presenting me this extraordinary character, it made me want to know more about him but the film as a cine biography doesn't help him at all.
The best things here are the black and white cinematography, which I loved it, it evokes the period lived by the poet during the Communist regime, and the performance of Krzysztof Siwczyk (in his only film so far), which is something very rare, portraying a real figure in absurd moments (being the most interesting his drunken striptease in the bar, and being the most scary moment when he jumps out of a window, trying to kill himself) and he seems totally committed with a difficult character to be played. He's a good looking actor, resembles a little with the real Wojaczek.
If "Wojaczek" was conducted in a more ordinary way rather than the odd and slow pace that was presented in a confusing story where few things makes sense and others doesn't make any, this could be a great film, or even a good film. But it gets lost somewhere, and it's just makes you bored, confused and with a desperate desire to end with the film right away. 4/10
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