Andrej Wadja's Ashes And Diamonds (1958) is one of those seminal European movies that I have been meaning to see for some time, and an essay in Writer's At The Movies by Deborah Eisenberg was just the thing to get me to see it. It is based on a novel about postwar Poland, but Wadja creates a myriad of cinematic touches that make it a powerful, and compelling piece of art. There a political thriller as the main story with a botched assassination attempt that needs to be corrected. That's not to mention a romance subplot between a world-weary bar maid, Christine (Eva Krzyzewski) and the James Dean-esque younger assassin, Maciek (Zbigniew Cybulski). The cinematography is top notch. There is some excellent framing and had some great set pieces like the one above (that is perhaps a little too obvious in the connection between the characters and Christ). I should like to see other subsequent Wadja films to see where he goes from here.
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