Watchable again. My opinion stays the same so I'm only adding what else I noticed and what I heard in the Q&A with the movie makers and actors.
This time I realized that the little girl in the movie at who her father shouts: "Co to jest rzeczownik! Bo nie będzie kolacji!" ("What's a noun! Or there'll be no supper!") was the director's daughter.
Meticulously recreated 1953 includes dirt roads in Warsaw - long gone in reality.
The informer, Filak, thinks he's got no literary talent but lies so well I bet he could invent stories as a writer.
We hear that "Kisielewski" visits him - a reference to a famous Polish writer and publicist.
The masked woman crawling next to the cord fuse looks as if she had nails painted in a very modern way - one nail in a different colour - which I thought was meant to be revolutionary. But the makers thought it obvious that the person was Bierut because his portrait exhibited one nail blackened. The person also has a signet ring just like in the portrait. I hadn't noticed that in the film myself.
Costume design started with shoes but then they appeared only about twice on the screen. The main protagonist's shoes are always polished as opposed to the wellies covered in mud seen on the scaffolding behind his window.
Computer post-production was heavily relied on. Green screens were used too but also lots of scenography was built to look like from the 50s, e.g. the bar - shot in Dzik restaurant - which was made over so that the actors felt like transported to the 50s. The whole world was created the way movies are made in the US, rarely in Poland.
Paweł Wilczak tried to get rid of himself in the role, because "less is more".
In the Atlantic cinema the movie enjoyed more viewers than recent "Star Wars".
Sebastian Stankiewicz says that in most film duets there are Don Quixote and Sancho Pansa. Antique tragedy, Shakespeare and archetypes sell. He loves the fact stories are passed on from one person or one movie to another. While shooting, it often turns out that the lines don't sound natural and the scenes are rewritten together with actors. The actor likes slow movies, with master shots instead of jump cuts. He reckons we have the same system now as writers had in communist times - some people get funds for movies, others don't.
Even prof. Balcerowicz makes a cameo in the film - as a retired professor of philosophy.
Fedorowicz has had an eye operation and feels relieved not to have to wear glasses any more. The costume designer made him wear specs for the role.
The movie contains quotes from Polish writers like Herbert, Lem and others. Also from Tuwim's "Wylękniony bluźnierca".
Actress Maria Sobocińska had daily phone calls with the director for 2 years. She likes Paweł Wilczak so it was easy for her to act with him.
A few scenes are almost repeated. Apparently it consists of 3 parts: the first in his head, his second entry with the suitcase is the present time and the ending takes us back in time. However the chronology is not clear to me and other viewers.
MATTHIAS & MAXIME
Watchable. Overtalked. Overchattered in fact. A misfired attempt to imitate "Moonlight": drug users instead of dealers, tacit gay love. Xavier Dolan acts fine as Maxime. But the way he directed and cut his movie looks as if he had been high on drugs himself. The pathological mother is a vivid character but brings little to the story and is more distinct than the two lead protagonists. Both guys, especially Matthias, are so troubled they'd be unable to form a healthy relationship anyway. Only the fragments with music, with either singing or no words spoken, make the watching bearable.
WSZYSTKO DLA MOJEJ MATKI (ALL FOR MY MOTHER)
Recommended. Harrowing and depressing. Very realistic, consulted psychiatrically by sexologist specialising in teenagers Wiesław Sokoluk. Hard-hitting through the extent of neglect and violence, mostly sexual, by men who were meant to protect the girls: caretakers in the correctional institution or temporary foster family and the police and by women: mothers, the abusive father figure's wife, institutional personnel who prefer to turn a blind eye. It's the Polish equivalent of "Systemsprenger" ("System Crasher"). It's heart-wrenching how the longing for their mothers is stronger than the need of safety.
MONOS
Watchable. A child soldier variation of "Lord of the Flies". After an uninspiring beginning, it develops into a full-blown adventure. Quite brutal. The doctor's character transformation and the children's complete depravity are hard-hitting but appear realistic too.
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