- The story of Adam Mickiewicz’s youthful love for Maryla Wereszczakówna. A holiday trip takes the 22-year-old poet to an idyllic manor house near Nowogródek. Tomasz Zan, Adam’s friend from the Philomath Society, often visits here, unhappily in love with Maryla, the owner’s daughter. Maryla remains insensitive to Zan’s advances, but quickly pays attention to the newcomer. Adam reciprocates the interest, but tries to hold back, for the sake of his friend. The feeling between the young people grows with every moment.
- “Uncertainty: Mickiewicz in Love” in cinemas from September 13th. Watch the movie trailer.
The marketing school of film titling suggests: refer to a hit, and the number of viewers will immediately increase. In the case of “Uncertainties: Mickiewicz in Love” However, the producers could not have made a bigger mistake. Why am I writing about the mistake?
The audience will probably be intrigued. For many “Shakespeare in Love” it is still, despite the passing of years, a very nice, romantic cinema. Viewers will shout in a hurry: I’m checking! They will come to the screening with a lot of expectations. About the fact that “Shakespeare in Love” is the bar is set very, very highI guess there’s no need to convince. Suffice it to say: seven Oscars, Joseph Fiennes, Gwyneth Paltrow, a budget of 25 million dollars and a sensational pop-culture script that treats facts freely, gives priority to fantasy, but has a grain of “something more” in it, some aura of the times, and above all hectoliters of endorphins. And “Mickiewicz in Love”?
Mickiewicz could compete with Shakespeare. Even if the latter is a global bard, the former is no less than him. His life story is colorful, he lived in “interesting” (tragic) times, without a shadow of a doubt with great potential for film stories, sometimes even with a spark of love, war, nobility. You can follow many directions here, almost any of which, presented with an idea, can intrigue: be a moving, intimate romance, a wonderful lesson in the history of Poland and Europe, a story that disenchants romantic myths or deconstructs their birth (by the way, such cinema is badly needed!).
The authors of “Uncertainty. Mickiewicz in Love”, however, chose a different approach. Directed by Waldemar Szarekwhich he wrote the script together with Zuzanna Szarek and Paweł Jurek, his collaborator from the sets of “Barwy szczęścia” and “M jak miłość” (the creators have been involved in these productions for almost two decades), builds a monument of bronze. And the film was created, like this heavy, huge bronze (almost two hours). It requires much more patience and trust than many titles from the New Horizons competition. But it is not innovative, experimental slow cinemadifficult to read, but ultimately satisfying. It is rather a classic school academy, maybe a high school poetry competition. At a high level, with a beautiful, careful setting, but no more.
This is how the dialogues sound, in which phrases taken from the poet’s works are constantly repeated. It’s not even about acting – Nikodem Rozbicki (as Mickiewicz) and Aleksandra Piotrowska (as the artist’s youthful love – Maryla Wereszczakówna) – they have limited possibilities. Their recitations could win the competition – they are melodic, romantic, diction does not disappoint, there is a spark in the eye, they themselves are young, beautiful, with hearts in their hands. This manner is unbearable thougha convention imposed on them from above.
These are also photos: perfect in themselves. Bartosz Piotrowski and his team took care of the colors, sharpness, lighting, transitions, close-ups, and general shots. The shots of the underwater kiss are simply impressive (like from a music video). However, once again, the academy, the “zero style cinema” (as Mirosław Przylipiak wrote about this style years ago) comes to the forefront, not some “claw”. Beautiful pictures of meadows, storks flying in the blue sky, mists over meadows, the play of light and shadow in the wilderness (where under the cover of night, important matters for the country are discussed). The cameraman was given such a task and he fulfilled it flawlessly. He probably could not have offered more here.
The scenography and costumes are also exemplary.Magda Widelska-Władyka and Marta Grudzińska created a beautiful manor house, gave the actors elegant period costumes. But what good is it if there is no life among these interiors? A credible passion. All this is overwhelming instead of absorbing.. Poems here, “Pan Tadeusz” there, in the background Polish history, priest Robak, the Tsar, a Polish manor house in Lithuania, the Philomats and Filaretes, Vilnius, polonaises and subtle impressions of the composer Andrzej Jagodziński on the theme of Mozart, Beethoven.
Many people put a lot of work into creating this Mickiewicz world (there are plenty of crew names in the end credits). It is not an intimate production, even if it sometimes gives that impression. If I abandon the harsh, I know, comparisons with a school academy, I could describe “Uncertainty. Mickiewicz in Love” as a film impression, a tender declaration of love by the creator, a proposal for people looking for sentimental and nostalgic solace on the screen, tinged with a patriotic note, taking place in the picturesque surroundings of a manor house, butterflies, on the “eve” of the release of “Ballads and Romances”. And maybe this premiere should have been titled as such, don’t tempt with something that isn’t there and probably wasn’t supposed to be there… There would be no disappointment. It is not my poetics, not my convention. Definitely not.
However, I am really looking forward to a film about Mickiewicz – a man of great talent, flesh and blood, making specific decisions in a specific historical time. Let it be about his loves, or political involvement, or the realities of artistic bohemia. I “take” everything. It really is possible, the best example of which are the premieres of the last few months, very different in style, but all with vigor: “White Courage”, “Blackbird”, “Dangerous Gentlemen”. My appeal to filmmakers is: let us finally allow Mickiewicz, Norwid, Słowacki and others to be people, not monuments and readings. Please.
4/10
“Uncertainty: Mickiewicz in Love” in, dir. Waldemar Szarek, Poland 2024, distributor: Dystrybucja kina TVP, cinema premiere: September 13, 2024.