1972 ‘Diabeł’ Directed by Andrzej Żuławski
During the Prussian army's invasion to Poland in 1793, a young Polish nobleman Jakub is saved from the imprisonment by a stranger who wants in return to obtain a list of Jakub's fellow conspirators. Following his mysterious saviour across the country, Jakub sees the overall chaos and moral corruption including his father's death and his girlfriend's betrayal. Being apparently demented by what he has seen, he commits a number of seemingly motiveless and gory killings.
My tastes clearly veer toward the strange, artsy, and dramatic. I put this on as a palate-cleanser, and that says something about me. I know Zulawski is a strange, intense, and stylistically impressive filmmaker, and I know his films require insight and effort to engage in effectively. That I thought this was the right thing to wash the taste of the worst of stoner bullshit out of my mind suggests something twisted in my mind. That i was right suggests something twisted in my soul.
Zulawski's The Devil (its Polish title Diabel has a nice ring to it in my mind) is actually a fairly direct metaphor for oppression and violence in 1960s/70s Poland, especially compared to the fever dreams…
I reveled in every second of this maniacal masterwork from the crazy-ass Andrzej Zulawski. Set in 1793 during the Prussian invasion of Poland, our protagonist Jakub is freed from imprisonment by a mysterious character who seeks a 'list' of his co-conspirators (allegory is at play, and likely why the film was banned in Poland upon release) as the price for his rescue, and let us just say a Faustian type pact is made, turning Jakub into a crazed mass-murderer armed with a straight razor. The hysteria dial is turned up to maximum, where every character acts as if they are devil possessed - Fucking brilliant and my fave Zulawski film thus far!
Robert Beksinski's #2 Film Selection for Edgar
First think of Goethe's Faust.
Zulawski's poetic piece of exploitative sensory overload acts as a tragedy. Plotwise, the historical setting never matters, which takes place during the Prussian army's invasion of Poland in 1793. During the invasion, a man (Jakub) who was imprisoned because of an assassination plot against the King is saved by a stranger. In exchange, the stranger asks him the list of Jakub's fellow conspirators. It is a bargain. Maybe implicitly, Jakub sold his life to this stranger, following him across the country as he progressively becomes more insane each time at the sight of the rotten state of an impoverished and decaying nation. As the plot outline sells, he…
Polish master Andrzej Zulawski's second greatest film is an orgy of death, blood, madness and sperm. A masterpiece.
Transgressieve film over een politiek gevangene die vrijgelaten wordt door de duivel om in zijn voormalige omgeving dood en vernieling te zaaien.
Opgenomen in de herfst en in de winter op het Poolse (neem ik aan) platteland, met een zware korrel, wat zorgt voor prachtige lelijke beelden. De sfeer is heel beknellend, de scenes sterk en de acteurs lijken een gezelschap. Ik weet niet of er meer verhaal is dan ik begrepen heb, maar dat hoef je niet persé mee te hebben.
Goede film.
Polish master Andrzej Zulawski's second greatest film is an orgy of death, blood, madness and sperm. A masterpiece.
Totally madness althrough the movie, if you liked Possession by the same director you NEED to watch this one!
مرة اخرى فشلت في تلقي هذا الفيلم ، السبب بكل بساطة أن الفيلم ( مُلغم ) بالرمزية بدايةً من العنوان حتى المشهد الاخير . لا أقصد هنا الرمزية الناتجة عن رؤية فلسفية بحته لمخرج/كاتب الفيلم. بالعكس هذا النوع محبب عندي ليس لأني اجيد فك الرموز بل لأن الفيلم يمكن عكسه على رؤيتك وفلسفتك الخاصة وغالباً ماتخرج بفهم مختلف عن الآخرين ومن ضمنهم مخرج/كاتب الفيلم
الفيلم يصور حدث تاريخي ( عهد الدولة البروسية ) بالتحديد نهاية القرن الثامن عشر وماحدث في تلك الفترة اثناء تقسيم بولندا والخيانات والثورات المصاحبة. ما اعتقد ان الرمزية في الفيلم صعبة التفكيك خصوصا للمتلقي المطلع على احداث تلك الفترة والاطراف المعنيين
Zulawski is a filmmaker who I find very interesting and compelling. I find him to be incredibly bothersome, occasionlly annoying and nonsensical, but also very impressive and intriguing, as there is something about him that continuously lures me back for more torture. This is my third film from him now, and I have been meaning to see it for a while as his two films POSSESSION and ON THE SILVER GLOBE have left a huge impression on me. The latter had me incredibly impressed with its cinematography, sets, costuming, acting, but I found a lot of it very annoying. The former, I think is a masterpiece and I was completely on board with it. This film is somewhere in the…
74/100
Just like the famed Possession (1981), Żuławski's Diabel is a sensory overload from start to finish. His inventive sound design, which very well might be the most fascinating aspect of his filmmaking, carries forward this demented tale of a man trapped between good and evil ― who's gradually stripped of his soul by the devil himself. Together with the crazy score and crazier camera pans, Żuławski's filmmaking carries an air of rabid madness that's almost infectious.
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