All language subtitles for on Ashes and Diamonds.eng

Ashes and Diamonds,

Andrzej Wajda's next film afterKanal,

that I personally consider
to be the best one,

certainly one of the three
best Polish films to date.

Ashes and Diamonds is a story
about the last days of the war.

But the Germans have gone,
the war continues somewhere far away,

and here in this town,
far behind the front line,

there's a celebration,

a party celebrating
the last day of the war.

But there was a difference
between the last day of the war

in America, France,
or even the Soviet Union,

and that in Poland.

In those three countries I mentioned,
it was a day of victory

and joy that it was finally over.

“Our sacrifices and casualties
made sense.

Now we can breathe in peace.”

tn Poland it was the opposite,

because, on the one hand,
the German occupier retreated,

but on the other hand,
the Russian occupier,

about whom we didn't yet know much,
was approaching.

But we strongly suspected
that the worst was yet to come.

The difference in atmosphere

between the last days of the war
here and there

made clear that we had
something to say to the world,

something new and different,

that could only happen here,
on this soil,

something impossible to transfer
to an American context.

Ashes and Diamonds
is an adaptation

of à very popular book
by Jerzy Andrzejewski

published right after the war.

I didn't even read this book
when it was published,

because it was
required reading for students,

and I have to say
I wasn't interested in it.

1 think Tadeusz Janczar
got me interested in it.

I was especially interested
in what he told me.

He said, “There's this
fantastic scene at the end.

It's dawn, and everybody is
still dancing even as they leave.

Like in The Wedding,
by Wyspianski.”

That stimulated my imagination,

and I began to take
an interest in the book.

When I read the novel, I realized
there was only one solution:

to film it such that
everything happens

over the course
of one day and one night.

The first thing was to condense
everything into the night of May 9th,

when Poland
and the entire communist bloc

were celebrating victory.

The war is ending,
but it still haunts all the characters:

left-wing communists
and resistance fighters

entering this new reality,

carrying the baggage
of everything that happened before.

The screenplay was approved —

But this was an easier case,

because the book
was recognized as a revelation,

and it was very well received
by the authorities,

because for them the most important
character was the party secretary,

whom they believed
to be à positive hero.

Of course, they didn't suspect that —

They didn't realize
the film version would be

decidedly different from the book.

I eliminated a few
story lines from the book

and concentrated
on Maciek Chelmicki,

who became the main character
of the movie,

whereas the main character in the book
had been à communist named Szczuka.

Maciek Chelmicki had been
fust one of the characters.

Andrzejewski liked that idea,

and that was the key
to the future success of the film.

Because nobody was interested
in an old communist,

but they were interested
in a young resistance fighter

who confronts the new reality —
which ends up Killing him —

and who has obligations

not only to his superiors,
but also to the oath he took.

So this choice was a decisive factor
in the film's success.

Later, Jerzy Andrzejewski
wrote some new scenes and dialogue.

He added a lot of things,

because we recognized that
the communist in the book...

wasn't colorful enough
to use in the film.

So we added his son,
whom he wants to rescue.

The son is on one side.
The father on the other.

The son is still in the forest
with resistance fighters,

the young men who wouldn't
leave the forest

because they thought
WWIII could start at any moment.

And on the other side
is this old prewar communist

who wants to build à new reality.

I decided to create a Spanish past
for this old communist,

meaning he was a communist
who had fought in the Spanish war.

1 came up with this entire
made-up scene.

Our first days in Spain.

Grabowski died in the forest,

and Rubacki in France in 1944.

You remember
there were 36 of us at first?

And who's left now?

Those were good times.

And these will be good times too.

Those communists
who had gone to fight in Spain

were judged
differently in Poland,

because they had gone to Spain
to fight for somebody else's freedom.

This was an old Polish tradition.

We didn't have freedom ourselves,
so we fought for the freedom of others.

And in a moral sense, this group was
better received by society

than those who had come
from the Soviet Union.

Stalin dealt with that group later,
and quite bloodily, for the most part.

So all those
who had managed to survive

not only Spain
but also Stalin's repression

were a kind of rarity.

I would call them
ideological communists.

This was a very
important point for me.

That personal plot about his son,
and the fact that he had fought in Spain,

cast him in a different light
for the audience.

1! wanted his character
to counterbalance

this young resistance fighter,
Maciek Chelmicki, played by Cybulski.

When the screenplay was ready,

we realized —
especially Andrzej, of course —

that the film's success,
its victory, so to speak,

would depend greatly
on how we cast the lead role.

And I won't hide the fact
that I was completely involved

and wanted Zbyszek Cybulski
to play it right from the start.

Nevertheless, I met with
a certain resistance on Andrzej's part.

I suggested Zbyszek to him,
of course —

But I wasn't surprised,

because Andrzej
had already made à note —

He had apparentiy envisioned, even
while the screenplay was being written,

that Tadzio Janczar
would play the part,

because he was
so amazing in Kanal

and helped create
such a convincing character.

And that role was
close to this character,

because there, he'd been involved with
the underground and would be so here.

So I believe Andrzej was
completely disposed towards that.

As far as Cybulski was concerned,

my problem lay not only in the fact

that he wanted to act
in his own shoes, pants, jacket,

and dark glasses,
which was totally irrational,

but on top of that, because I knew
very well how those young men looked,

I was afraid he would be
so far removed in his behavior

from those Home Army fighters

that everybody would recognize it,
and nobody would accept him.

I was still representing the audience
from the time of the war.

I didn't realize that a different kind
of audience would come to the theater,

that it was going to be
a young audience,

that they would need
their own hero,

and that he would be
a hero for that audience.

And that's why I hesitated.

However, for me it was very important

that Zbyszek Cybulski should play
the role for a number of reasons.

I won't try to hide the fact that
one of the reasons was very selfish.

We had begun writing
the screenplay of my debut film

Good-bye, Till Tomorrow,

and I knew that if we were
separated for six months —

because we were going
to shoot the film in Wroclaw,

and back then
filming took a long time,

and there were lengthy preparations,

and I knew that if Zbyszek and 1
got separated for à long time,

we wouldn't finish the screenplay.

And so, I attempted to sow some
seeds of uncertainty in Andrzej.

I must admit, I really agonized
over that critical night,

when 1 told Kuba Morgenstern —
who was not only his supporter,

but was trying to explain to me
that I wouldn't find anybody better.

And, of course, he was right.

I held out until the last moment,

because I still thought
somebody better would come along.

But I had also suggested Zbyszek
for Kanal.

We watched
the screen tests together.

And Andizej said,
Listen, I've always believed” —

And rightfully so. I give him that.
“/'ve always believed

that the eyes are crucial
when it comes to actors.

See how Zbyszek looks
without glasses.

He has such tiny eyes, and he loses
the personality of the character.”

Back then, of course, I was working as
Andrzej's assistant for the first time,

and Andrzej convinced me —

In fact, Tadzio Janczar
did a fantastic job with the part,

and it was a success.

But this time
I tried to convince Andrzej,

and Andrzej agreed that Zbyszek
could come for a screen test.

Slowly, gradually,
he got me used to the idea

that I didn't have any other choice.

That this was it,
and that fate wanted it that way.

So we did some rehearsals,

because Andrzej would only come by
when we had something concrete.

There was à scene
that was later staged in the bathroom

where Zbyszek is standing
and swinging on the door.

And Andizej was so convinced
and liked Zbyszek so much after aí,

that we saw
1 hadn't just found an ally.

He had his heart set
on Zbyszek playing the part,

and, of course,
he made the decision.

Cybulski as Maciek Chelmicki.

Here a problem arose.

What did those young men look like?
Who were they?

I knew that very well, because,
for one thing, I had been one of them,

and second,
I knew how they dressed.

Cybulski wanted nothing to do
with how they had dressed.

I remember when he categorically
refused to put on a costume.

He thought he should wear
what he normally wore.

His shoes, his pants, his jacket.

He had seen
during the screen test

that you could play that role in glasses
and jeans, carrying that kind of sack.

He was so convinced by this character.

I have to say that
from a distance,

from the perspective
of almost 40 years later,

when I watch Ashes and Diamonds,

I think that was the moment
when I became a real director.

Namely, I was able to not direct
what didn't need to be directed.

I was mature enough...

to let others make
their own contributions to the film.

Before, I wouldn't have allowed it.
I would have told him to change.

I would have taken his glasses off,

because he didn't look like
the young men of that time.

So I encouraged him to play it
the way he wanted.

1 liked it,

and he could feel I accepted him
from behind the camera,

that he could do even more,
be even bolder.

Nobody in Poland acted like he did.

We understood each other
very quickly,

because a few months before we started
shooting Ashes and Diamonds,

Cybulski had gone to Paris.

He was working there,
and he saw some movies.

I asked if he saw Rebel Without
a Cause, with James Dean.

He said, “Yes, I did.”

I said, “So what more can I say?
That's what I like.”

That film made
a great impression on me.

That ambivalence
in movement and behavior,

his behavior and screen presence

were so unexpected
and unpredictable.

James Dean gave us wings.

Now we knew
you could act like that,

that you could approach
that level of truth.

And Zbyszek realized
his potential in this movie,

because nobody imposed
anything on him.

I didn't fashion him after those
young resistance fighters.

If I had dressed him in knee-high boots
and short pants, like those young men,

he would have looked funny.

Because he was
clumsy and awkward.

If I had dressed him in a jacket —

and they all wore
those homespun jackets back then —

he would have been a funny character,
and a historical character.

But thanks to his clothes
and the dark glasses he wore,

he was à young man of “today,”
of 1956, not 1945.

And that's why he was immediately
accepted by the audience.

As far as other actors
were concerned,

there was a problem about who
would play the principal female role.

It wasn't easy to find an actress
with a strong presence,

who was beautiful

and who could also act.

First, not that many movies
were being made.

Television didn't exist.

Secondly, acting schools
were accepting actors

who were to play
factory workers and peasants,

so they were looking
for totally different types.

I received instructions from Andrzej

to go look in all the acting schools,

because it needed
to be a young, cool girl,

one who would be
a personification, let us say,

of a girl from the Home Army
who took part in the uprising.

1 went, among other places,
to the school in Kraków,

where I looked at all the girls,

and I asked Ewa Krzyzewska
to come for à screen test.

Ewa Krzyzewska definitely
looked beautiful on screen.

Maybe she wasn't as spirited
as I would have liked,

probabiy because there was
so much life in Zbyszek?

But after many years,
it turned out she was accepted

a lot more by others
than I had accepted her as a director,

that her role had some kind
of mystery to it, a melancholy,

that I couldn't see
and wanted to root out.

But it turned out to be good.

It created in that character
something mysterious, unsaid,

something feminine.

Ewa Krzyzewska received

a Crystal Star Award
for her creation.

Not Cybulski, but her.

And she went to accept that award.

René Clair presents her
with the award and falks with her.

There's à picture of her
with Bergman.

She was traveling with the film,
and I couldn't get a passport.

1 was sitting at home,
and she was representing our film.

Because we had to send
someone to accept this award,

but it couldn't be the director.

They wanted
to punish me in à way.

1t's worth mentioning what's
most typical of Wajda in this film.

That Wajda,

who also studied to become a painter
at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków,

was very fond
of purely visual effects.

Jurek Wójcik,
the cinematographer on the film,

suddenty began to work
differently from Jerzy Lipman.

Our ideal was no longer
Italian neorealism.

Our ideal was American film noir,
gangster films.

We liked The Asphalt Jungle,

and movies like Scarface.

Those movies were exciting,
and Wójcik was shooting like that.

Hyper-expressive shots,
in high contrast, intense.

Everything that takes place
in the film was shot in a studio.

The entire hotel was built
in a studio and artificially lit.

At dawn, when a light is cast
over the people dancing —

1t's impossible to find that
in a natural environment.

Impossible.

The most important fact was that
working under such perfect conditions —

because everything
was shot in a studio —

we could rehearse a scene first,
like in theater.

Often we would rehearse in the evening,
because we lived in that studio.

It was a hotel and studio
rolled into one.

So we would basically
spend all day on the movie.

For example,
1! remember à scene in à church.

There was à scene
with Zbyszek and Ewa Krzyzewska,

the scene where this Christ
was hanging with his head down.

Everyone remembered that.

It's just one image in the film,
but it signifies.

The meaning is not contained in words,

but in the image,
and that's what people remember.

Or, in a hotel courtyard, suddenty

àa white horse enters the frame,
as à symbol.

There are many such symbols
in Wajda's films.

Some people don't like this,

saying it's disassociation
and excessive embellishment,

but it's characteristic
of Wajda's style.

And it can, through various shots
and images devoid of dialogue,

contain certain profound messages.

But our inspiration was
an American film

with very expressive images.

There is a beautiful scene
in Asphalt Jungle where he's dying,

and those horses bend over him.

lt's an unforgettable scene
that leaves a lump in your throat.

But in other movies too, this intense
expressiveness of American film —

that was what we liked.

Of course, prior to that we had seen
a masterpiece of American cinema,

Citizen Kane, by Orson Welles.

I call it our gospel.

So we followed
in the direction of that intensity.

And those hyper-expressive scenes
appeared in Ashes and Diamonds:

the scene with the burning glasses,
created by Janusz Morgenstern.

And the scene when Maciek Chelmicki
fires at Szczuka, the communist.

Normally, when someone
gels hit here, he falls on his back.

And that's what we're used to.

But here, the thing was to create
a certain metaphor.

tn my view, it's one of the most
important scenes in the movie.

He not only falls into Zbyszek's arms,
which is very meaningful,

but he's also helpless, and there's
the whole drama of that generation,

the drama of the uprising,
precisely in that one scene.

And in addition, we added
the flares. 1t was the end of the war.

1t was the moment
when everything in fact ended.

That's one of the most beautiful
scenes thought up by Zbyszek Cybulski.

The one carrying out
this death sentence,

who seems so close
to leading a normal life,

is attacked by soldiers.

There's a beautiful scene,
when he's caught under fire and is hit

against the backdrop of a clothesline,
like in some Italian films.

He hides behind à sheet,
holding the sheet against him,

and the blood flowing out of him
appears on this sheet.

Andrei Tarkovsky,
the famous Soviet director,

who said he owed a lot to Wajda,

discerns a symbolism
in the colors here,

even though the film
is black and white.

The blood is, of course, red,
and the sheet is white,

and these are
the national colors of Poland.

For me, collaborating with Andrzej Wajda
on these three consecutive films —

first Kanal, then Ashes
and Diamonds and Lotna —

was extremely significant,
impossible to overestimate.

For me it had an impact on:

how à scene was constructed,

the dramatic structure
Within a single scene,

so that we wouldn't be thinking
only in terms of the entire film.

But to create à certain tension,

certain emotions,
a certain expression,

even in à single composition
or within à single scene.

So that this would become
not just some dialogue,

not a drama for TV, but cinema.
Above all, cinema!

So we made the film.

And of course,
at the end there was the problem

of what would happen with the film.

But everything turned out all right,

because the political thaw
that began in October of 1956

still had momentum.

There was no indication of
what would happen in a few years.

Of course, it wasn t insignificant

that Jerzy Andrzejewski carried
a communist party 1D card.

It was also important that
his friends had party ID's as well.

As a result, what happened then
never happened again.

Namely, the first screening was held
for Andrzejewski, as the author,

and for his writer friends.

Nobody had expected,

given this novel
by Jerzy Andrzejewski,

seen as having
been made to order

for the government, the party,

that a different character would become
the main character in the movie.

And I have to admit
that all those writers who came

and accompanied Andrzejewski,
who had the same IIID's as him,

unanimously accepted the film.

So it was difficult for the party
to judge it and stop that process.

So later,
it never happened like this again.

As soon as a film was made,
one had to turn it over.

Who was watching it, where,
who was judging it, we did not know.

When the decision was made
to release the film,

1! knew then that that decision
could not be taken back,

because it was the authorities' decision.
They had signed off on it.

1! remember à phone call
1 received from à censor,

the same day before noon,

telling me to cut the last scene out,

the one where he dies
on the garbage heap.

He told me to go to the theater
and cut it out of the print copy.

But I was already
so confident and insolent

that I knew one thing:

If we survive this evening,
the film will be fine.

If the movie is released
with this scene,

it means the scene will be left in,
whether the authorities like it or not,

because they've already
signed off on it.

So I didn't go to the theater
and didn't cut out the scene,

and that's how the film
got to its premiere —

by the way, ironically,
in a theater called "The Moscow.”

From then on,
there was only one problem left:

whether this film could
represent us anywhere.

Of course, people in party circles
and political circles

spoke up and said that
the film was deeply troublesome,

that it was politically suspect

that someone else
had become the main character,

that it should have been Szczuka,

that he had been pushed aside
to play a secondary role,

and that the main character
was a resistance fighter.

And on top of that,
he dies on a garbage heap.

Interestingly, we were often asked,

“How come your films
were released

if they were looked upon
unfavorably by the authorities?”

Polish cinema, the Polish School,
always won out

whenever it created images
instead of dialogue.

Because it's easy
to censor words.

Certain words, certain phrases,
were forbidden.

The most important thing was not to say
anything against the Soviet Union.

So any allusions to that effect
were cut right away.

One couldn't say anything
against Marxist ideology

because it would be cut right away.

But the last scene in Ashes
and Diamonds is ambiguous,

because a young man

who had raised his fist
at the people's government

and killed the party secretary, dies.

So where is his place?

On the garbage heap of history.

But the audience who came (fo see it
looked at it in a different way.

The audience who came
to the theater said,

“What kind of authority is this
who murders our boy,

who kills him on a garbage heap?”

And those involved with
Ashes and Diamonds

knew they had made a mistake,

that this film
shouldn't have been made,

that this ambiguity was benefiting
not those who had ordered the film

but those watching it.

Zbyszek Cybulski's performance
was so captivating.

He was the embodiment
of the youth who had died,

thousands of them, maybe even
tens of thousands, or more.

He became their symbol.

Everybody was rooting for him,
not for the communist he killed.

So what did the authorities
decide to do?

Well, the film has been released.
They can't retreat.

The public is seeing it in theaters.

But it mustn't be shown abroad.

After the success of Kanal
at Cannes,

the management at Cannes,
knowing that this film was being made,

said they were very eager to see it.

But the Communist authorities
wouldn't allow it

and didn't send the film to Cannes,

where it could have had
a great chance of winning.

However, there was
a rather independent-thinking

film commission manager.

He wasn't very influential —
because by then,

artists had more power than
a manager appointed by the party.

But still, Mr. Lewinski
took a chance,

saying that the next most important
festival was the one in Venice,

the oldest of all,
and he took the film to Venice.

It couldn't be shown in competition,

since it wasn t officially entered,

but it was shown out of competition.

Everybody loved it, and it received
the only award it could,

from FIPRESCHYI, the award of the
International Federation of Film Critics,

because the federation
wasn't concerned

with whether the film
was shown in or out of competition

and granted it an award.

And thanks to that, the film became
known around the world.

But Mr. Lewinski paid for this
by losing his job.

He was seen as disobedient to the party

and as having exceeded his authority.

The famous Polish pianist
Artur Rubinstein,

who spent most of his life
in the United States,

was not in Venice by accident.

He had learned that
a Polish film was being shown

that nobody knew anything about,

because it had only just
been released in Poland.

He went to see this film —
it was Ashes and Diamonds —

shown in some small theater
with other out-of-competition films.

When he saw it, he recognized
that it was an important event.

And because Artur Rubinstein
knew everybody,

and was friends with everybody,
and everybody loved him,

including myself,

he asked René Clair
to see the film with him.

So René Clair went with him,

and Artur Rubinstein
watched it a second time.

And after seeing it,
René Clair told everybody,

“Listen, this is a fantastic film.

It's being shown out of competition,
but it's a big deal. You have to see it.”

So René Clair,
through his recommendation,

opened the door
for Ashes and Diamonds.

So my film was
not only shown in Venice

but also recognized
with David Selznik's award,

which I still have
in my collection to this day.

So that's how the history
of Ashes and Diamonds began.

And I have to mention
something important.

Back then, the situation
for European films

was totally different.

1t wasn't like movies were shown —

American film distribution hadn't yet
imposed itself on the whole world.

It hadn't even dominated
its own theaters yet.

Therefore, Kanal
and Ashes and Diamonds

could be shown in theaters
in New York.

Not only in New York,
but also in Los Angeles.

At the time when I was making
Ashes and Diamonds,

this film still had a chance
to be shown to an audience.

So European cinema
existed back then,

and anything thought to be interesting
was shown in movie theaters

and was accessible
to à wide audience.

And then it was gradually
released elsewhere,

fast of of all in the Soviet Union.

Ten years after its premiere,

it was shown in a few theaters
in the Soviet Union.

However, it was
never shown in Cuba.

1 don't recall the premiere.

But I do remember
what happened later,

how the myth around
Zbyszek Cybulski grew,

how he became
a universal hero for all times,

an idol, and that there was
no one like him ever again.

He was admired
by everyone, by multitudes.

Maciek Chelmicki, the main character
played by Zbyszek Cybulski,

became not only a key role
for Cybulski —

a great actor who, sadily,
died before his time —

but also made him
an idol for his generation,

similar to James Dean in America.

Zbyszek posed, to some extent,

as a young man who had
seen some action during the war,

which was absolutely not true.

He hadn't, and that's why
his performance was so captivating.

And 1! think Cybulski acted
so beautifully in this film

because he imagined
those young men in his mind.

He wasn't copying them
or imitating them.

Instead, he created
the character of à young man,

and the audience felt
he brought something more to il.

The secret of our war films

was that with those films,
we augmented our biographies.

I didn't participate
in the Warsaw Uprising,

but Tt made Kanal.

1 didn't find myself
in situations like Cybulski

or Maciek Chelmicki in 1945.

But l made Ashes and Diamonds.

1 didn't participate
in the kind of operations

depicted in A Generation,

or in the kind of bravado
portrayed in the film Lotna.

So these films became
a substitute for parts of my life.