"Sweet Rush"** 1\2 (out of ****)
After what I felt was an uproarious start to the Chicago International Film Festival with Andre Techine's "The Girl on the Train" (2009), which I think is one of the year's best films, how disappointing it was for me to see Andrzej Wajda's latest film "Sweet Rush" (2009).
I had high hopes for Wajda's film. I am a great admirer of his films, I have reviewed several of them on this site. He is one of the most discussed filmmakers on here. "Sweet Rush" is one of the 6 films I bought tickets to see at the festival where over a 140 films will be screened. With so many films competing for my money and time it says something that I selected Wajda's film. So clearly I was interested. That just makes it all the more disappointing that the film didn't work on me.
I'm often accused of reviewing the director not the film. By that people mean, if a great director is behind a film I will automatically like the film because of my respect for the director. This is simply not true. I understand great filmmakers sometimes strike out. They are only people. But, because they are great filmmakers they usually have a higher batting average. They make more films which work than don't. That ladies and gentlemen is what makes them great directors. "Sweet Rush" is a weak film by a great director.
"Sweet Rush" is a film which plays around with some interesting concepts. Themes including fantasy vs reality, past vs present, elements of life imitating art. You can tell the film was a very personal one for the director and the leading lady, Krystyna Janda. But good intentions don't equal a good film.
The film was dedicated to Edward Klosinski, one of Wajda's longtime cinematographers, he worked on "Man of Iron" (1981) and "The Promised Land" (1975), both of which I have reviewed. And he was the husband of Krystyna Janda. He passed away during the making of this film. The film, in many ways, is a tribute to his spirit and Janda's memories of him.
The film starts off with Janda playing herself. She awakes from a bad dream, stands in the middle of her room and starts to go into a monologue about dealing with her husband's death and working on Wajda's film, "Sweet Rush". After her monologue we see the actors, Janda included, going over the script with Wajda. And then we see the film they are working on. The film within the film will break away to Janda's monologue at moments and go back to the film.
"Sweet Rush" wants to be a sentimental, nostalgic film. The viewer should get swept up in emotion. We should feel sorry for Janda and come out appreciating life a bit more. I didn't feel that way. I felt emotionally distant. The film actually needed more sentimentally. I know that's a dirty word to American audiences, but, that was I feel the objective of the film. To be sentimental. It doesn't tug at my heartstrings enough. I can tell it means a lot to Janda, but, she doesn't seem as inviting as she could be.
The film within the film is about Marta (Janda) who is dying, only she doesn't know it. Her husband (Jan Englert) is a doctor and believes she won't live past the summer. He refuses to tell her. They have had enough heartache in their life. They lost their son. But one day Marta happens to see a young man, Bogus (Pawel Szajda) who reminds her of her son. They become very close though Bogus doesn't know the reason behind this.
We can see the parallels between real life and fiction, the idea of a loved one dying. The couple lost their son, the husband is going to lose his wife and Janda really did lose her husband. We get it, we just don't care enough. And what exactly was that ending about?
Janda's monologue was written by her and the film was based on a short story written by Hungarian novelist Sandor Marai. And even here we begin to question the lines between fiction and reality. How much was taken from Marai's story? How much of Janda's monologue is based on her actual experience? And how did Wajda get the idea to combine these two plots?
There is a lot of nostalgia at play here. Though I couldn't quite tell what time frame we are suppose to be in. There is talk of the war being over and of an uprising, which is when Marta's son died. They would make the film take place some time into the 1950s. But even with the talk of war and uprising the film doesn't feel like one of Wajda's typically films. Wajda's films usually deal with Poland's history. His films are a document of his country's history. He usually deals with stories revolving around workers and workers' rights. "Sweet Rush" isn't up to his usually standard and masterpieces like "Man of Marble" (1977), "Danton" (1983) and "Kanal" (1957), which I have to put in my "Masterpiece Film Series". There is one scene here where Bogus goes to Marta asking for a good book to read. She hands him a copy of "Ashes & Diamonds". The audience I saw the film with laughed, as did I. We were clearly schooled in Wajda's films and know "Ashes & Diamonds" was the final film in Wajda's WW2 trilogy, which put him on the map. The problem with this is, by invoking the past so much Wajda is making us think of his past films and those are simply better than this.
It was special seeing Krystyna Janda on-screen. She made her debut in one of Wajda's films, "Man of Marble". Most people are critical of her acting but I think she is a good actress and in "Sweet Rush" she proves she still has it. She still has that beautiful golden blond hair. She doesn't seem to have that sparkle in her gorgeous blue eyes anymore and her skin doesn't look as white as milk anymore, but, she has retained much of her beauty. She can still make a young man look her way. She has aged gracefully. She seems dignified now. She has more reserve. Her acting has gotten better from those days when she was in "Man of Marble" or "The Conductor" (1980).
Will "Sweet Rush" get distributed in America? I'm not sure. It is a Polish film after all, and unless a movie is French American audiences aren't that interested to see a foreign film. It might get a straight to DVD release, despite the fact that his "Katyn" (2009) was released earlier this year. But that was probably because it was nominated for an Oscar. I don't think "Sweet Rush" will have such luck. Though the film was nominated for the top prize at the Berlin Film Festival.
"Sweet Rush" has no more scheduled viewings at the festival, I saw the last viewing tonight.
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