Galicius

I was looking forward to this film to see what a filming of a novel I actually remember quite well even though I read it more than 45 years ago. The reason I remember it so well is that the ending brought tears to my teenage eyes when Marcin finds out that a girl he adores is gone with the family to the vast Russia. I was surprised to hear the girl's father reprimand his family, or perhaps her, not to use Polish language at home. I don't remember that from the novel and I was under the impression that their exile to Russia was a political punishment. A good deal of the film is appropriately enough in Russian language while the novel is entirely in Polish. The student struggle is portrayed well and the oppressive Russian domination. The film focuses on the last years described in the novel.

It's an interesting film with a romance between a minor Polish military officer and a wife of a Russian officer stationed in a huge military base in Poland's Lower Silesia. A daughter is born out of the romance and the mother dies. We only find out in the end how it all happened when she, the daughter, and the widower visit the grave of the dead woman in Poland again after some twenty years. The same Russian actress who plays the mother plays the daughter role. More than half of the film is in Russian. There is fine music included of Ewa Demarczyk sung by the actress perhaps. It's in Polish with an accent with some Russian lyrics added. (We saw Demarczyk sing these songs at the Town Hall, NYC, winter 1987.)

Even with Bergman's star actors, all three or four, it's a question whether the "psychological turmoil" they undergo is interesting enough. It seems like another Bergman drama involving people with deep problems caused by traumatic events in their lives which no doubt is more than anyone can handle yet they involve each other yet it doesn't help anyone because the scars are too deep where they can't help the other damaged person in coming to some kind of a healing but even causes more harm than good. Add to that random cruelties in an isolated area and you have the makings of a Bergman film. Outstanding photography, and beautiful Liv Ulman, and Bibi Andersson in the prime of their careers make it a worthwhile experience.