Wesele (The Wedding) is a 1972 Polish film directed by Andrzej Wajda. It was adapted from the 1901 play by the same name by Stanisław Wyspiański.
The plot is set at the wedding of a member of Kraków intelligentsia (the Bridegroom, played by Daniel Olbrychski), and his peasant Bride (played by Ewa Ziętek). Their class-blurring union follows a fashionable trend among friends of the playwright from the modernist Young Poland movement. The play by Wyspiański was based on a real-life event: the wedding of Lucjan Rydel at the St. Mary's Basilica in Kraków and his wedding reception in the village of Bronowice. It was inspired in part also by the modernist painting of Jacek Malczewski and Maksymilian Gierymski. Wajda also directed Wesele for the theatre.
Contents
Plot
A poet marries a peasant girl in Kraków. Their wedding reception follows. The celebration of the new marriage moves on from the city to the villager's house. In the rooms adjoining that of the wedding party, guests continually burst into arguments, make love, or simply rest from their merriment, dancing and feasting. Interspersed with the real guests are the well-known figures of Polish history and culture, who represent the guilty consciences of the characters. The two groups gradually begin a series of dialogues. The Poet (played by Andrzej Łapicki) is visited successively by the Black Knight, a symbol of the nation's past military glory; the Journalist (played by Wojciech Pszoniak), then by the court jester and conservative political sage Stańczyk; and the Ghost of Wernyhora (Marek Walczewski), a paradigm of leadership for Poland. Wernyhora presents the Host with a golden horn symbolizing the national mission, and calls the Polish people to a revolt. One of the farm hands is dispatched to sound the horn at each corner of Poland, but he loses the horn soon after.
Wajda's hallucinatory direction adds a layer of complexity to a text already rippling marvelously with tonal shifts. Tragic, farcical, satiric, sacred, sarcastic, noble, challenging, and studded with arresting verse, The Wedding stands as a towering landmark in the history of Polish cinema.
Cast
Daniel Olbrychski, groom (Lucjan Rydel)
Ewa Ziętek, bride
Andrzej Łapicki, poet (Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer)
Wojciech Pszoniak - journalist (Rudolf Starzewski) and jester Stańczyk
Franciszek Pieczka – Czepiec, gmina scribe (real person: Błażej Czepiec)
Marek Walczewski, host (Włodzimierz Tetmajer)
Izabella Olszewska, hostess
Maja Komorowska – Rachel
Marek Perepeczko – Jasiek
Gabriela Kownacka – Zosia
Olgierd Łukaszewicz - ghost (Ludwik de Laveaux (painter))
Bożena Dykiel – Kasia
Janusz Bukowski – Kasper
Artur Młodnicki – ghost of Wernyhora
Wirgiliusz Gryń - vampire in the image of Jakub Szela
Leszek Piskorz – Staszek
Czesław Wołłejko – Hetman (Franciszek Ksawery Branicki)
Mieczysław Voit – Jew, father of Rachel
Hanna Skarżanka – Klimina
Małgorzata Lorentowicz – Councilwoman (Antonina Domańska)
Awards
Silver Seashell Award at the San Sebastián International Film Festival.
