Ashes and Diamonds
A young academy soldier, Maciek Chelmicki, is ordered to shoot the secretary of the KW PPR. A coincidence causes him to kill someone else. Meeting face to face with his victim, he gets a shock. He faces the necessity of repeating the assassination. He meets Krystyna, a girl working as a barmaid in the restaurant of the "Monopol" hotel. His affection for her makes him even more aware of the senselessness of killing at the end of the war. Loyalty to the oath he took, and thus the obligation to obey the order, tips the scales.
Cast
Zbigniew Cybulski
as Maciek Chełmicki
Ewa Krzyżewska
as Krystyna Rozbicka
Wacław Zastrzeżynski
as Szczuka
Adam Pawlikowski
as Andrzej Kossecki
Bogumił Kobiela
as Drewnowski
Jan Ciecierski
as Porter
Stanisław Milski
as Pieniążek
Artur Młodnicki
as Kotowicz
Halina Kwiatkowska
as Staniewiczowa
Ignacy Machowski
as Waga
Reviews
badelf
There are so many great things about how this movie is made - the directing, the shots, the tonal quality, and the pacing. Probably most brilliant of all is how the total makes the viewer feel claustophobic. I admit, though, it's a tad dated....
badelf
There are so many great things about how this movie is made - the directing, the shots, the tonal quality, and the pacing. Probably most brilliant of all is how the total makes the viewer feel claustrophobic. I admit, though, it's a tad dated....
CinemaSerf
You might have thought that on May 8th, 1945 the population of Poland would have been united in celebrating the defeat of their Nazi invaders. Instead, though, this film quite deftly illustrates a mixture of joy and trepidation as those who had fought together to free their country now found themsel...
hand2a
My first Wajda and I really enjoyed it. I thought that Cybulski's performance was great and I loved the scene in the pub where he's lighting vodka shots, which he plays perfectly. The shots of him through the patterned staircase looked amazing in black and white, and especially because of his sungla...
