In 1961, Stanislaw Rozewicz created the novella film "Birth Certificate" in cooperation with his brother, Taduesz Rozewicz as screenwriter. Such brother tandems are rare in the history of film but aside from family ties, Stanislaw (born in 1924) and Taduesz (born in 1921) were mutually bound by their love for the cinema. They were born and grew up in Radomsk, a small town which had "its madmen and its saints" and most importanly, the "Kinema" cinema, as Stanislaw recalls: for him cinema is "heaven, the whole world, enchantment". Tadeusz says he considers cinema both a charming market stall and a mysterious temple. "All this savage land has always attracted and fascinated me," he says. "I am devoured by cinema and I devour cinema; I'm a cinema eater." But Taduesz Rozewicz, an eminent writer, admits this unique form of cooperation was a problem to him: "It is the presence of the other person not only in the process of writing, but at its very core, which is inserperable for me from absolute solitude." Some scenes the brothers wrote together; others were created by the writer himself, following discussions with the director. But from the perspective of time, it is "Birth Certificate", rather than "Echo" or "The Wicked Gate", that Taduesz describes as his most intimate film. This is understandable. The tradgey from September 1939 in Poland was for the Rozewicz brothers their personal "birth certificate". When working on the film, the director said "This time it is all about shaking off, getting rid of the psychological burden which the war was for all of us. ... Cooperation with my brother was in this case easier, as we share many war memories. We wanted to show to adult viewers a picture of war as seen by a child. ... In reality, it is the adults who created the real world of massacres. Children beheld the horrors coming back to life, exhumed from underneath the ground, overwhelming the earth."
The principle of composition of "Birth Certificate" is not obvious. When watching a novella film, we tend to think in terms of traditional theatre. We expect that a miniature story will finish with a sharp point; the three film novellas in Rozewicz's work lack this feature. We do not know what will be happen to the boy making his alone through the forest towards the end of "On the Road". We do not know whether in "Letter from the Camp", the help offered by the small heroes to a Soviet prisoner will rescue him from the unknown fate of his compatriots. The fate of the Jewish girl from "Drop of Blood" is also unclear. Will she keep her new impersonation as "Marysia Malinowska"? Or will the Nazis make her into a representative of the "Nordic race"? Those questions were asked by the director for a reason. He preceived war as chaos and perdition, and not as linear history that could be reflected in a plot. Although "Birth Certificate" is saturated with moral content, it does not aim to be a morality play. But with the immense pressure of reality, no varient of fate should be excluded. This approached can be compared wth Krzysztof Kieslowski's "Blind Chance" 25 years later, which pictured dramatic choices of a different era.
The film novella "On the Road" has a very sparing plot, but it drew special attention of the reviewers. The ominating overtone of the war films created by the Polish Film School at that time should be kept in mind. Mainly owing to Wajda, those films dealt with romantic heritage. They were permeated with pathos, bitterness, and irony. Rozewicz is an extraordinary artist. When narrating a story about a boy lost in a war zone, carrying some documents from the regiment office as if they were a treasure, the narrator in "On the Road" discovers rough prose where one should find poetry. And suddenly, the irrational touches this rather tame world. The boy, who until that moment resembled a Polish version of the Good Soldier Schweik, sets off, like Don Quixote, for his first and last battle. A critic described it as "an absurd gesture and someone else could surely use it to criticise the Polish style of dying. ... But the Rozewicz brothers do no accuse: they only compose an elegy for the picturesque peasant-soldier, probably the most important veteran of the Polish war of 1939-1945." "Birth Certificate" is not a lofty statement about national imponderabilia. The film reveals a plebeian perspective which Aleksander Jackieqicz once contrasted with those "lyrical lamentations" inherent in the Kordian tradition. However, a historical overview of Rozewicz's work shows that the distinctive style does not signify a fundamental difference in illustrating the Polish September. Just as the memorable scene from Wajda's "Lotna" was in fact an expression of desperation and distress, the same emotions permeate the final scene of "Birth Certificate". These are not ideological concepts, though once described as such and fervently debated, but rather psychological creations. In this specific case, observes Witold Zalewski, it is not about manifesting knightly pride, but about a gesture of a simple man who does not agree to be enslaved.
The novella "Drop of Blood" is, with Aleksander Ford's "Border Street", one of the first narrations of the fate of the Polish Jews during the Nazi occupation. The story about a girl literally looking for her place on earth has a dramatic dimension. Especially in the age of today's journalistic disputes, often manipulative, lacking in empathy and imbued with bad will, Rozewicz's story from the past shocks with its authenticity. The small herione of the story is the only one who survives a German raid on her family home. Physical survial does not, however, mean a return to normality. Her frightened departure from the rubbish dump that was her hideout lead her to a ruined apartment. Her walk around it is painful because still fresh signs of life are mixed with evidence of annihilation. Help is needed, but Mirka does not know anyone in the outside world. Her subsequent attempts express the state of the fugitive's spirits - from hope and faith, moving to doubt, a sense of oppression, and thickening fear, and finally to despair.
At the same time, the Jewish girl's search for refuge resembles the state of Polish society. The appearance of Mirka results in confusion, and later, trouble. This was already signalled by Rozewicz in an exceptional scene from "Letter from the Camp" in which the boy's neighbour, seeing a fugitive Russian soldier, retreats immediately, admitting that "Now, people worry only about themselves." Such embarassing excuses mask fear. During the occupation, no one feels safe. Neither social status not the aegis of a charity organisation protects against repression. We see the potential guardians of Mirka passing her back and forth among themselves. These are friendly hands but they cannot offer strong support. The story takes place on that thin line between solidarity and heroism. Solidarity arises spontaneously, but only some are capable of heroism. Help for the girl does not always result from compassion; sometimes it is based on past relations and personal ties (a neighbour of the doctor takes in the fugitive for a few days because of past friendship). Rozewicz portrays all of this in a subtle way; even the smallest gesture has significance. Take, for example, the conversation with a stranger on the train: short, as if jotted down on the margin, but so full of tension. And earlier, a peculiar examination of Polishness: the "Holy Father" prayer forced on Mirka by the village boys to check that she is not a Jew. Would not rising to the challenge mean a death sentance?
Viewed after many years, "Birth Certificate" discloses yet another quality that is not present in the works of the Polish School, but is prominent in later B-class war films. This is the picture of everyday life during the war and occupation outlined in the three novellas. It harmonises with the logic of speaking about "life after life". Small heroes of Rozewicz suddenly enter the reality of war, with no experience or scale with which to compare it. For them, the present is a natural extension of and at the same time a complete negation of the past. Consider the sleey small-town marketplace, through which armoured columns will shortly pass. Or meet the German motorcyclists, who look like aliens from outer space - a picture taken from an autopsy because this is how Stanislaw and Taduesz perceived the first Germans they ever met. Note the blurred silhouettes of people against a white wall who are being shot - at first they are shocking, but soon they will probably become a part of the grim landscape. In the city centre stands a prisoner camp on a sodden bog ("People perish likes flies; the bodies are transported during the night"); in the street the childern are running after a coal wagon to collect some precious pieces of fuel. There's a bustle around some food (a boy reproaches his younger brother's actions by singing: "The warrant officer's son is begging in front of the church? I'm going to tell mother!"); and the kitchen, which one evening becomes the proscenium of a real drama. And there are the symbols: a bar of chocolate forced upon a boy by a Wehrmacht soldier ("On the Road"); a pair of shoes belonging to Zbyszek's father which the boy spontaneously gives to a Russian fugitive; a priceless slice of bread, ground under the heel of a policeman in the guter ("Letters from the Camp"). As the director put it: "In every film, I communicate my own vision of the world and of the people. Only then the style follows, the defined way of experiencing things." In Birth Certificate, he adds, his approach was driven by the subject: "I attempted to create not only the texture of the document but also to add some poetic element. I know it is risky but as for the merger of documentation and poety, often hidden very deep, if only it manages to make its way onto the screen, it results in what can referred to as 'art'."
After 1945, there were numerous films created in Europe that dealt with war and children, including "Somewhere in Europe" ("Valahol Europaban", 1947 by Geza Radvanyi), "Shoeshine" ("Sciescia", 1946 by Vittorio de Sica), and "Childhood of Ivan" ("Iwanowo dietstwo" by Andriej Tarkowski). Yet there were fewer than one would expect. Pursuing a subject so imbued with sentimentalism requires stylistic disipline and a special ability to manage child actors. The author of "Birth Certificate" mastered both - and it was not by chance. Stanislaw Rozewicz was always the beneficent spirit of the film milieu; he could unite people around a common goal. He emanated peace and sensitivity, which flowed to his co-workers and pupils. A film, being a group work, necessitates some form of empathy - tuning in with others.
In a biographical documentary about Stanislaw Rozewicz entitled "Walking, Meeting" (1999 by Antoni Krauze), there is a beautiful scene when the director, after a few decades, meets Beata Barszczewska, who plays Mireczka in the novella "Drops of Blood". The woman falls into the arms of the elderly man. They are both moved. He wonders how many years have passed. She answers: "A few years. Not too many." And Rozewicz, with his characteristic smile says: "It is true. We spent this entire time together."
现在这种电影真的是不多见了，难怪斯科塞斯老爷子认为大家应该去看一看。我确实是守旧，这种近乎手艺人的感觉，cult电影的气质，真是太戳我了。说回电影本身，也就是说，这个lowlife，不管怎样，最后他都是piece of shit，因为他没法控制自己的欲望，克服自己的弱点。highborn也不是因为克服得住自己的弱点而成为highborn的，人性中有无法克服的欲望和弱点。社会有运行的规则，拒绝相信有什么命定
直到走出巡回马戏团，进入club，大魔王出场都很好，能展现托罗的技艺和审美。发迹后还是演一遍，解说，接单，还非得循环命运拔高立意。这剧本结构是够复古的然而制片厂时代的悬疑片会结束在反转的最高潮处，不会再留尾巴。有条评论说得就很对，虽然库珀加上两撇胡子是很像以前的大男主，但实在没法让人看他两个半小时（以及自以为很有磁性的泡泡音）
挺好的，有一种今天的美国电影里越来越稀有的、“不为了什么”的好。
本可以拍成一个女性复仇的爽片，却硬要拍成“乡下人的悲歌”，不得不感叹：大导演就是有特权。
跟同年上映的SOHO区惊魂夜犯了同样的错误，节奏过于快了。剧本可堪称完美，但伏笔在电影中展示的太过明显，到后面就差不多能猜到结局了。很喜欢开头对布莱德利的角色的处理，不需一句话的将人物特质呈现出来。多加一星给结尾曲Hoagy Carmichael’s Stardust。
期待一下后传
野心家的得与失？都2022年了，怎么还在拍如此陈词滥调的故事和人物形象啊，哪怕大魔王与库伯角色互换，搞个女版《玉面情魔》都要更好看吧，这样还能看到大魔王与小白兔再次搞姬！
隔了好久终于有时间看了呜呜😭
7/10 The Greatest Showman + …? Still could find one that fits
挺好的剧情框架，但是节奏很奇怪，有时拖沓，看着犯困；有时又贼快。我看完印象最深的还是作为心理医生同时又有点psychopath的cate的人物形象，这也是给这个片上了一星的原因。cate的办公室的置景真的很厉害，精致的道具，视觉上金色为主，显示出主人的社会地位；空间上的设计，比如暗门，存放录音的柜子，以及做心理咨询时候的躺椅，都从空间上对叙事起到了辅助作用。办公室的窗外一直在下雪，主角Stan弑父时也是这样一个季节，也算是剧情上一个环形的伏笔，Stan本人在冬日彻底堕落到谷底；办公室内部虽然有壁炉，烟草和烈酒等有温暖意象的符号，但两人的互动却是与之相对的冰冷和残酷。
还是挺喜欢这个故事的。贪念不满，终其一生都在寻找心中缺失的那一部分。只不过第一幕稍微冗长了一点，应该改一下结构，把第一幕的内容交叉剪辑到主线叙事之中可能会体验更好一点。
其实除了个别人物动机有点模糊之外，每场戏的质感和氛围都还挺好的，而150分钟的时长也不算什么严重的障碍。问题似乎在于，Guillermo del Toro过分沉溺于每个角色和每场戏的得失，反而让整部电影的重心和节奏出现了一点问题。砍掉一些拍得不错却并非必要的戏份虽然有些可惜，但毕竟还是值得的。
感觉配乐换了个风格啊，真的赞，之前的配乐没有Rap还有女声，感觉女声让整个乐曲更加epic了甚至（不针对性别）
魔兔都没什么对手戏，路透照骗得我好惨（是被剪掉了吗？
被低分的作品，德尔托罗的风格依旧犀利，有一点类似于邪恶版的远大前程，乡村小子学了一堆技巧，贪婪的他想要的更多，结果惹了不该惹的人，做了不该做的事情。
京阿尼戒断症发作了，心思过于莫名细腻的家伙看起来还真是烦人…整体相当混乱，最后又是在干嘛？
看文案都说大魔王和小白兔，我还以为是海因斯的新片呢，看啊看啊觉得不对劲，一瞄，果然~~~事实证明我就是和陀螺不对付，没有任何先入为主都对不上号，这骗子和心理医生的对决应该很精彩，可陀螺这黏黏糊糊劲把什么都黏糊没了，加上这三个知名演员真的完全不在一个空间，各说各话，不好看。
缓慢的节奏，如果再慢我得说服自己是在看美剧了。虽然对老版进行了改编但是整部片还是很老派。
视效大片，也是扣人心弦的“骗中骗”迷局。库珀和大魔王的对手戏好看到爆，而鲁妮·玛拉居然又演了一回“小白兔”。陀螺的克苏鲁美学再度上演，一众极具特色的服化道设计，不仅颇为吸睛，而且也营造出令人回味无穷的悬疑感。
布萊德利·庫伯演的陰陽怪氣，身份莫名其妙交代不清；而凱特與魯妮演技沒有發揮，襯托不了布萊德利(應該怪布萊德利的扶不起)，嚴重浪費了兩位珍貴的影后。編劇、導演、演員算是全盤皆墨，三輸。
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