Synopsis:
Andrzej Wajda's adaptation of Stanislawa Wyspianski's 19th-century play, a seminal work of Polish culture, is set at the wedding of the Bridegroom (Daniel Olbrychski), a member of the...
Andrzej Wajda's adaptation of Stanislawa Wyspianski's 19th-century play, a seminal work of Polish culture, is set at the wedding of the Bridegroom (Daniel Olbrychski), a member of the intelligentsia, and the Bride (Ewa Zietek), a peasant (the class-blurring union of a kind that was fashionable among friends of the playwright). In the room adjoining that of the wedding celebration, guests continually burst in to argue, make love, or simply rest from their revelry. Interspersed with the real guests are well-known figures of Polish history and culture, representing the guilty consciences of the characters, and the two groups gradually begin a series of dialogues. The Poet (Andrzej Lanpicki) is visited by the Black Knight, emblem of the nation's past military glory; the Journalist (Wojciech Psoniak) by court jester and conservative political sage Stanczyk; and the Host (Marek Walczewski) by Wernyhora, a paradigm of leadership for Poland who presents the Host with a golden horn symbolizing the national mission. Wajda's hallucinatory direction adds a layer of complexity to a text already rippling marvelously with tonal shifts. Tragic, farcical, satiric, sacred, sarcastic, noble, challenging, and studded with arresting verse, THE WEDDING stands as a towering landmark in the history of Polish cinema.
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