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Aug. 27th, 2006 02:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kiwisueWe've just returned home after an afternoon and evening at Chez Quarf, watching Polish movies, eating Polish sausage and drinking Polish beer (well, Czech in my case, the local doesn't stock many international brands) and Bison vodka.
Quarf recently obtained copies of the trilogy Ogniem i mieczem (With Fire and Sword), Potop (The Deluge) and Pan Wolodyjowski (Colonel Wolodyjowski) with English subtitles. The three films span a 20 year period from 1648, at the end of the 30 years War, to 1668 and the Ottoman invasion. Potop is 5 hours long and Ogniem i mieczem 3 hours, so we didn't get to the third. They are all wonderful, sweeping historical sagas - engrossing almost all the time, despite their length. Larger than life characters, great costumes and action. Think Three Musketeers in fur hats with added gore. And Winged Hussars!
I enjoyed the villain in Ogniem i mieczem; he was mad & bad in a very sexy way. Here's the actor's site, linked to a page of stills from the movie: http://www.domogarov.ru/photo/movie21.htm.
Oooh, I just found a Polish film page for Ogniem i mieczem with many great pictures, movies stills plus location shots: http://www.filmpolski.pl/fp/index.php/157180
Try this "between takes" one, although the effect is slightly spoiled by the bloke reading a paper!
http://www.filmpolski.pl/fp/index.php/167180_107
Quarf recently obtained copies of the trilogy Ogniem i mieczem (With Fire and Sword), Potop (The Deluge) and Pan Wolodyjowski (Colonel Wolodyjowski) with English subtitles. The three films span a 20 year period from 1648, at the end of the 30 years War, to 1668 and the Ottoman invasion. Potop is 5 hours long and Ogniem i mieczem 3 hours, so we didn't get to the third. They are all wonderful, sweeping historical sagas - engrossing almost all the time, despite their length. Larger than life characters, great costumes and action. Think Three Musketeers in fur hats with added gore. And Winged Hussars!
I enjoyed the villain in Ogniem i mieczem; he was mad & bad in a very sexy way. Here's the actor's site, linked to a page of stills from the movie: http://www.domogarov.ru/photo/movie21.htm.
Oooh, I just found a Polish film page for Ogniem i mieczem with many great pictures, movies stills plus location shots: http://www.filmpolski.pl/fp/index.php/157180
Try this "between takes" one, although the effect is slightly spoiled by the bloke reading a paper!
http://www.filmpolski.pl/fp/index.php/167180_107
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Date: 2006-08-26 05:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-26 11:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-27 05:46 am (UTC)There are different heroes and villains in each, but 2 recurring characters: Jan Onufry Zagłoba (a Porthos/Falstaff type with a huge appetite for food and drink) and Michał Wołodyjowski, a smallish man who is nonetheless the finest swordsman in the land.
Apparently Ogniem i mieczem took a long time to make because the book was very anti-Chmielnicki and therefore politically sensitive. What they came up with makes Chmielnicki a reasonably balanced character, IMO.
The plot within the broader story is a love triangle between the fictional characters: the hero, Jan Skrzetuski (Polish); the villain, Jurko Bohun (Cossack) and the woman they both desire. Lots of abductions, fleeings, woundings and other elements of the finest OTT historical romance (talking Sabatini here, not Heyer). There's also quite a lot of slashy subtext for those who like to look *g*.
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Date: 2006-08-27 03:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-28 02:24 pm (UTC)