This was another impressive restoration at the close of
this year’s Kinoteka Film Festival a digital restoration combining two
incomplete copies that has produced a complex two-hour film that was probably
even longer. Given that only some 5% of Polish silent films survive, we should
be grateful.
Call of the Sea
(Zew Morza) was presented in partnership with the Polish Cultural Institute
in London to a packed house in the Barbican’s cinema. Directed by Henryk Szaro
based on a novel by Stefan Kiedrzyński which occasionally threatens to bog down
a mostly sprightly narrative. Szaro is a skilled silent director and is
inventive in joining the dots of the source material, a toy family from the
orient is used to show how both one of the character’s is spoilt but also that
she misses a mother whilst the same character has a pet parrot that only tells
the truth and, strange as it may seem in a silent film, the audience knows it
just as much as the inadequate man who strives to be its owner’s suitor…
Szaro also show us some stunning location shoots of old
Gdansk and Gdynia medieval relics still on show before the destruction began a
decade later. Excitingly he also shows us a car chase, warships and a combined
aerial and naval sea hunt. Officers of the Polish Navy and Maritime Squadron
took part in the filming in Puck using two torpedo boats ORP Kujawiak and ORP
General Sosnkowski as well as a seaplane LeO H-13 from the Maritime Squadron in
Puck. Stanisław Hryniewiecki, for example, was actually the torpedo captain of ORP Kujawiak and here he plays
himself.
 |
| Now we're in the air! |
It makes for a great advert for the armed forces as well
as a thrilling final race to save lives and vital secrets: a real crowd
pleaser; a Polish blockbuster!
Szaro also develops his characters well despite a
populous cast with a lot of sub-plot. Then as now the key was to cast actors of
character and this works very well with the remarkably modern Nora Ney who
plays the exotic Jola, daughter of a shipping magnet and owner of the
above-mentioned articulate avian who is a wild child with great fashion sense and
a decent heart. Less successful perhaps is the casting of the gurning Mariusz
Maszyński as Lord Karol Skarski, a kind of Boris Johnson figure, who is
desperate to marry the hero’s love with only a vast fortune and a face that
could sink a thousand ships to offer.
 |
| Nora being exotic... those three toy figures will also feature as a motif. |
That hero is Stach who we see initially as a seven-year
old boy (played by Tadeusz Fijewski who went on to become a huge star in Poland
after the war) who is obsessed with stories from the sea as well as the
daughter of the local landowner, Hanka (Krysia Długołęcka). He reads heroic stories
of seafaring heroism and the actors who are to play the grown-up versions of Stach
and Hanka, Jerzy Marr and Maria Malicka, first make their appearance as a
prince and queen in one of these stories – pretty smart eh?
Stach’s dreaming ways displease Hanka’s English governess
Miss Phlipps (Izabella Kalitowicz) and there’s a great standoff as she towers
over him and he is viewed through the space formed by her angry folded elbow.
The boy copies her body language and she ends up breaking his toy boat, her
only response to his defiance.
 |
| Lord Ha-Ha (not Boris) |
Eventually it’s too much and Stach leaves for a life on
the ocean wave. Working his way up from cabin boy to midshipman and beyond,
Stach earns his keep on the merchant vessels of Van Loos (Antoni Bednarczyk)
and is well liked by the crew with the single exception of the boatswain Rudolf
Minke (Stefan Szwarc) a “bosch” who also has a fancy for jazzy Jola. Van Loos
offers Stach a partnership and his daughter’s hand in marriage then Minke turns
up with more than the hand in mind… Dismissed after attempting to assault Jola the
boat-swine swears revenge on Stach and you know there’ll be trouble.
Stach returns home to announce his success after so many
years away. He finds his parents in their bucolic water mill, father (Antoni
Różański) and mother (Józef Modzelewska) but old love is re-awakened when he is
visited by Hanka… even though he has Jola and Hanka is being pursued by silly Lord
Skarski (whose wealth will solve he father’s cash-flow issues), this thing is
bigger than commerce.
 |
| Queen Maria and Prince Jerzy |
Stach doesn’t even need Van Loos’ company as he has a
true heart and plans that will revolutionise seafaring! He just needs to take
good c are of those plans for German smugglers are on the look out and,
remember the boat-swine?
There’s a tremendously kinetic finale and the film is
satisfyingly dramatic and stylish another example of the strength of Polish
silent cinema!
Pianist and composer Taz Modi (Submotion Orchestra,
Matthew Halsall) lead an ensemble playing his part-improvised score including
the lauded Matthew Bourne on piano, synthesizers and cushions, Duncan Bellamy (Portico
Quartet – is it really ten years on from their splendid Knee-Deep in the North Sea?!) on drums and live sampling, Chris
Hargreaves on sinuous bass and Simon Beddoe on brass; if music speaks a
thousand words his lonesome trumpet picked out some of the most poignant.
 |
| Jerzy Marr and Maria Malicka |
These players have serious chops and the music was a very
modern mix of post-acid jazz eclectic that fans of the above bands, the
Cinematic Orchestra, Nils Frahm and even Max Richter would appreciate. It didn’t
entirely work seamlessly with the narrative though and sometimes it was headed
off on a trajectory which, whilst it would eventually meet the story,
distracted from the film’s own build-up. A little like the race between a car
and a steam train that silent film watchers will be familiar with: the story
follows a winding path, the train on straight lines. There were some lovely moments
and lots of impressive playing but this was a good gig alongside a good film.
That said, I would pay to see both!
All in all though a splendid evening yet again thanks for
playing, screening and programming!
Dziękuję Kinoteka!!
PS In addition to the Portico Quartet, I would also urge
you to check out the Submotion Orchestra and Mr Bourne’s Kraftwerk re-werk Radioland: Radio-Activity Revisited.
.JPG)
No comments:
Post a Comment