Afterimage (2016) User Reviews

the last Wajda

[dromasca · 8/10 · 28 October 2016]

It's very difficult to say Farewell. It's very difficult to make a Farewell movie. I do not know if Andrzej Wajda knew that 'Afterimage' was to be his last movie. He undertook and involved himself in this film with the same passion, rigor and attention to the detail, with the same mastering of the art and science of film-making as ever. He also did not abandon the major theme of his cinema - the history of Poland seen as a subset of the history of Europe and of all mankind, and as a collection of the stories of the men who made it.

There is one major difference though. Many of his previous films focused on political characters, they were about men who changed history, about victors at least at the historical scale - Danton, Walesa - even if they sometime paid with their lives. The hero of this film, the avant-garde Polish artist Wladyslaw Strzeminski was defeated by history, and the film is the story of his defeat, of his physical but also moral decay. It's a story quite typical about the manner Communist dictatorships in Eastern Europe treated their artists, and even if I did not know anything about him before this movie, his story was well known to me as the same fate (or worse in some cases) was imposed on artists who did not compromise in Romania where I was born and I lived half of my life. We see him at the beginning admired and valued as a teacher and artist, he also was a companion of modernist artists who were associated with the Russian revolution, but this did not help him either. He was not an anti-Communist, but he valued true art, could not accept enrollment of art as a tool for propaganda and the norms of the dogmatic 'realism', and his refusal to compromise cost him his teaching position, his membership in the artist's union, the very possibility of painting. The humiliating tentative to find a way to survive had no chance, the regime was still in the Stalinist period and crushed all opponents according to the principle 'the one who is not with us is against us'. Even the help and support of a handful of students who stood by their beloved teacher and mentor could not save him.

The lead role is played with a lot of restraint and dignity by Boguslaw Linda, his flame is interior, he shows the artist far from being a flawless person, actually sharing some of the guilt of not being able to maintain his family and especially help his teen daughter (exceptional acting of 14 years old Bronislawa Zamachowska). There are many very well constructed scenes, some of them full with details bringing back to life with controlled anger that dark period of transformation, when Poland and Eastern Europe were postponing hope for a few decades and were transitioning from one nightmare to another. Wajda's last film is not a testament, it's an integral part of his opus of work.

One man against a system

[rubenm · 7/10 · 3 April 2017]

'After Image' shows the struggle of one man against a system. The man is Wladyslaw Strzeminski, a Polish avant garde painter, and the system is postwar communism. Slowly, we see the man being destroyed by the system. Witnesses stand by, but are unable to do anything. That's how powerful totalitarianism is: any opposition, even from a harmless painter, is crushed.

In the very first scene, we see Strzeminski in a beautiful green meadow, teaching his pupils how to paint a landscape. When a new pupil presents herself, he literally rolls down the hillside to meet her - in spite of his disabilities: he misses one leg and one arm. Strzeminski is happy and upbeat. During the film, this proud man slowly transforms into a human wreck. At the end, he is no longer able to stand on his feet, let alone roll down a hillside.

Bit by bit, the communists make his life impossible. In a visually stunning scene, all light in his apartment turns red, because of a giant Stalin banner which is attached over his window. Furious, because he is no longer able to paint in natural daylight, he tears the banner with one of his crutches. It's the start of a fight against the system that turns out to be futile.

Director Andrzej Wajda, who died last year, shows Strzeminski as a man who lives for his art, and for nothing else. Even his teenage daughter is forced to move to an orphanage, because he doesn't seems to be interested in raising her. Wajda shows Strzeminski's weaknesses, but also his opponent's doubts. Many of them somehow sympathize with him, but are unable to show support without risking their own position. An example is the manager of the local museum, who cannot display his paintings, but carefully keeps them in storage.

Parallel with Strzeminski's decline, we witness also Poland's transformation from a proud nation into a Soviet-dominated satellite state, where communist propaganda is everywhere and the quality of life deteriorates rapidly. In one scene, Strzeminski is turned down by a shop selling painting materials, because his membership of the artist's union is withdrawn. He hides his disappointment and takes his daughter to the cinema. But there he finds out he has to watch Soviet propaganda. Disgusted, he leaves the theatre.

'After Image' shows an important episode of Poland's artistic history. At the same time, it is a warning against any totalitarianism, and an ode to artistic freedom.

Found it very intriguing.

[subxerogravity · 7/10 · 3 June 2017]

Fascinating movie. Stalinist tenets were preventing a renowned avant-garde polish painter who teaches art at a school he help to create form living up to his full capable potential, because of his radical ideals and writings that go against the government. To me what sucks more was that this dude was a war vet who literally gave an arm and a leg for country, which I feel gives him the right to be truthful about what he sees around him.

It was crazy how they used the system to basically suppress him as the qualifications to work in his country were ridiculously and being crippled met that he did not meet enough standards to receive a stamp on his work Visa that said he could work as an artist. The art store would not even sell him paint if he did not have his work ID. So this guy wanted to work and was more than capable of being an artist despite his limitations, but they would not simply because his thoughts went against what was popular at the moment.

I find it interesting that movies about the events around World War II seem to be popping up a lot. My first thought was that people are getting tired of movies about Iraq or Afghanistan like possibly people got tired of the constant references of Vietnam in every 1980s TV show, but I'm starting to think that's not the case. Even though life in the present is no where near as hard as what they went through back then, I'm noticing some trends from yesteryear coming back into fashion and these movies are used to keep in are minds fresh the idea that those who do not know history are doom to repeat it.

I don't know if this story is based on truth, but it's definitely inspired by things that did happen, which makes it a very educational film, but at the same time it was very entertaining, with great acting and very good visuals. The relationship between the painter and his students was very colorful. Afterimage does a great job at hinting at things without hitting you over the head with it, which I liked.

Not what I was expecting when going to the theater, but well worth watching.

http://cinemagardens.com

Heart Touching Story of a Great Artist.

[SameirAli · 9/10 · 15 December 2016]

13th Dubai International Film Festival, 14 December 2016.

The last movie of Andrzej Wajda tells the story of one of the best artists of the 20th Century, Wladyslaw Strzeminski.

The movie states that the situation of a true artist is miserable in spite of the geography, language and culture. Wladyslaw Strzeminski is a great painter, and is suffering due to his personal views, during a great social reformation in Poland. He loose his job, artist license canceled, and ignored in every corner of life. Though his students try to support him, it doesn't make much use. Hungry and sick, a great artist faces the tough realities of life.

The performance of the cast are amazing. Boguslaw Linda as Strzeminski and all the remaining cast have done a wonderful job. Photography and direction is so superb.

I noticed the audience after the movie, they had tears in their eyes. It is so heart touching. Do not miss this movie, if you are a real movie freak!

Wajda as convincing as he was at the of 50!

[rlychowski · 9/10 · 12 October 2016]

Amazing feat: at the age of 90 Andrzej Wajda is as convincing as he was at the age of 50! Exceptional cinematography: Marek Edelman as excellent as ever. Outstanding acting: Bogoslaw Linda a good bet for best acting. A very good script: keeping balance between the inevitably highbrow dialogues on art and unexpected turns of action. And example for this can be the end of a potential "love affair", which does not end on a romantic note but strikes hard with the brutal abducting of a beautiful girl. Who, by the way, is not the central romantic character. On the contrary, the "great love" remains invisible and is only made romantically visible by white flowers that turn blue. What could more lyrically stress the importance of color in life? By the way, that end of the "love story" is not a harsh rejection, as it may seem, but rather proves that the artist was really fond of the young girl and, nobly, would not allow her to wretch her life at his side.

The film is about the cruelty of the Stalinist period and how it intervened and interfered in the private lives of the common citizen and all the more so in the sphere of art, which "had to serve the people and the final victory of socialism". There are no throats being cut, people being shot or hanged. No spanking. Everything takes place in and "orderly way", for strict rules must be followed. Or perhaps only almost always! This reminds us of Kieslowski's film about killing or the thick atmosphere of Arthur Koestler's "Darkness at noon". Little by little art, i.e. the protagonist, is being suffocated. It is like cutting his veins, but not at once, slowly, in slow motion. Let him bleed to death, but "naturally". That was really a very hard time and Andrzej Wajda knows what he is talking about, for he experienced it "on his own skin", as you say in Polish. A symbolic image summarizes the pic: the window in the artist's dwelling is suddenly veiled by a red banner. A painter can somehow bear poverty, but can he survive without light? Brushes, paint? Wajda's choice of the actor (Boguslaw Linda) to embody Wladyslaw Strzeminski, one of the great Polish artists and art professors of that period, was fundamental to the artistic value of the picture. Bearing also in mind the fact that he had to play a cripple, who had lost two limbs, certainly made his acting even more daunting. And the outcome is certainly impressive.

Another factor that helps sooth the dreariness of the artist's predicaments is the strong presence of the teenager actress (Bronislawa Zamachowska) who plays his daughter. Her seemingly matter of fact reactions to reality and only rare expressions of deeper feelings function as a balance between the drama we witness and the everyday chores or the mere sipping of tea. "There are holes in my shoes" or "You smoke too much". His adoring students, on the other hand, may represent what was left of hope in those days. Their solidarity with the aging, crippled professor was an omen of better times to come, for who can defeat youth? And who can defeat art? The material shabbiness of those times, when "all were equal, but some were more equal than others", with food rationing, very poor dwellings etc. is shown in detail. Some viewers used to cinematic tangibility may not appreciate some of Wajda's discreet, very subtle hints and symbolic images, but, no doubt, in artistic terms this pic is a comeback to his heydays.

Rio Film Festival 8th October, 2016 Tomasz Lychowski

The Mark of a Masterful Director

[Blue-Grotto · 8/10 · 20 March 2017]

A person sees only what they are aware of. This is the afterimage. For Wladyslaw Strzeminski, a real-life artist and professor in post- World War II Poland, the knife of awareness cuts both ways. A model communist citizen before it was fashionable to be so, Strzeminski finds himself at odds with indifferent, hollow politicians and struggles to maintain his integrity, after the war. Despite the artist's modest lifestyle, efficiency apartment, the loss of his legs in the war and desire just to paint, teach and take pleasure in such simple things as rolling in a meadow, he is slowly crushed by these unfeeling bureaucrats. He is even banned from buying art supplies. Beloved by his students, Strzeminski encourages their individual forms of expression and urges them to keep the boundary between art and politics.

The film scenes are precise and the transitions between them are remarkably fluid, scary good! The acting is exemplary. The actors are cast perfectly, especially the main actor and the young woman who portrays his long-suffering daughter. Such wonders are the marks of a masterful director. Wajda died just after the completion of the film. Wajda was the trusting sort, said a friend of his, just before the film began. Such trust in his crew paid dividends. Seen at the Miami International Film Festival.

Bleak

[MikeyB1793 · 5/10 · 26 August 2020]

Unrelenting bleakness pervades the entire film.

One of the goals would be to project the destructiveness of the Soviet Regime and how it enforces conformity. But this is something that most of us are aware of.

For the central subject of the artist (Wladyslaw Strzeminsk) being persecuted I felt very little empathy for. I couldn't appreciate his art nor his lectures which just seemed overly academic and impersonal. In short his art presentations resembled those espoused by the Soviet authorities - cold and dry without emotion.

There is no wrap-up at the end. What happened to his daughter that he was indifferent to and took for granted? Was Wladyslaw Strzeminsk reputation ever restored?. We never know what made him tick. His country endured a vicious war and occupation by the Nazis - we learn nothing of this. His abstract art works had little to do with anything that had happened and were happening around him.

A Magnificent Swansong As Good As Anything Wajda Ever Made

[richardchatten · 9/10 · 26 March 2017]

For what proved his cinematic swansong, the 90 year-old Andrzej Wajda came full circle, returning to the generation who provided the subject (and title) for the film that first made his name over 60 years ago. Wajda would have been the same age as the adoring students gathered around the avant-garde artist Władysław Strzemiński (1893-1952) at the art school at Łódź he had co-founded in 1945; but as a one-man awkward squad he was soon drawing the fire of the postwar communist authorities.

The sustained official campaign of death by a thousand cuts inflicted on Strzemiński strongly recalls that depicted in Wajda's earlier 'Rough Treatment' (1978), to which 'Afterimage' often feels like a prequel. The earlier film, however, was an angry, brutally contemporary film, while 'Afterimage' - while vividly conveying the Orwellian nightmare that was Stalinist Poland - is a much mellower piece recalling the far-off days of Wajda's youth with a grace and energy wholly belying his astonishing age; and Andrzej Mularczyk's script gleams throughout with flashes of wry black humour. The film has few out and out villains, with most of Strzemiński's persecutors sympathetic but powerless to resist.

The jagged widescreen photography of Pawel Edelman and design by Marek Warszewski simultaneously evoke the monochromatic drabness of life under communism while often looking vaguely expressionistic, with odd flashes of colour skilfully deployed. (A particular visual highlight is the priceless scene early on in which his studio is saturated with red light from a banner of Stalin erected directly outside his window, to which his already characteristic response is guaranteed to get him into trouble.)

Bogusław Linda's performance as Strzemiński would be impressive enough even without the remarkable technical feat he accomplishes of nipping about on crutches minus his left arm and left leg, while Bronislawa Zamachowska is tremendous as his equally resilient and bloody-minded daughter Nika; truly a chip off the old block.

Independent artist ruined by government's tyranny

[maurice_yacowar · 9/10 · 3 February 2017]

Andrzej Wajda's Afterimage was released in 2016, just after he died at 90. It's a moving valedictory.

This is Wajda's last will and testament. He bequeaths the legacy of the independent artist who pursues a personal vision and style in the face of reactionary and political dictates.

Wajda is arguably Poland's most important director, with his searing anatomies of Polish history and politics. He made A Generation in 1955(!) — followed by Kanal and Ashes and Diamonds two and three years later. Leap ahead 60 years and he still has that fire in his belly.

His last hero is the modernist painter Wladyslaw Strzeminski, who worked with Chagall and Malevich and introduced abstraction and modernity to Polish art. Strzeminski lost an arm and a leg in the first world war. As he limps and fumbles through the film he becomes an emblem of director Wajda himself — an old man, weakened by age and debility, but persisting in the art of his vision.

The depressing narrative traces Strzeminski's steady loss of authority, respectability and comfort. Such is the price of an artist's independence and integrity. The Stalinist government punishes him for ignoring their prescription of Social Realism. This artist refuses to serve the state so the state punishes him to the end. He loses his job, his students, his marriage, his status, his living. Without the artist ID card he can't buy paint, leave alone hold down even a job as an illustrator, far beneath his abilities. But this artist holds true to his vision.

A huge red banner of Stalin cuts off the artist's light. So he slashes it open — incurring his arrest and the ultimatum either to conform or to disappear.

The title refers to the artist's lecture on the physiological basis of vision. The eye retains an afterimage of what it has viewed. It is never an exact duplication of the physical reality — such as Social Realism purports to be — but inflected by the artist's character and emotions. Hence the importance of this artist's memory of blue, his lost wife's eyes, the white flowers he dues blue to bring to her snowy grave.

An artist's canon is another form of Afterimage, the vision that survives him. Hence the film's upbeat conclusion, where the bright colours of this abstractionist's work erupt over the end titles, superseding the dismal colours which record his affliction. That last bright palette validates the artist's suffering and loss.

The film also records the human cost of tyranny. This artist's students and friends remain faithful to him as ling as they can — at a cost. They have to give him up to establish their own careers. Aiding him leaves them vulnerable to arrest or even "disappearance" — as befalls the student who loves him and types out his theories on art.

If the film addresses Wajda's imminent departure, it is also a rallying call against the creeping spread of right wing governments in Europe, Defending the individual vision against a proscriptive government is very much a statement for our time.

about present

[Kirpianuscus · 24 July 2017]

this is the basic feeling. it is a film about present. not only for remind the Communist regime profound traces in every day life. but for the dictatorship of bureaucracy. for the desire of unanimity. for the role of person as tool. and for the politically correctness who is not real far by the Communist dictatorship. it is , in same measure, a significant last word of Wajda. not only as legacy. but as remember of his themes, message, precise exposure of the action of the evil, crash of the artist, forms of freedom out of political rules. a film about present, maybe, only from the perspective of an Easter European.

The last film from this great director

[Red-125 · 10/10 · 8 November 2017]

The Polish film Powidoki was released in the United States with the translated title Afterimage (2016). It was directed by the late Andrzej Wajda. (Wadja lived long enough to see the film completed, but he died before it was released.) I think that it's more than a coincidence that Wajda chose as his final film the story of a great artist who died without ever losing his dedication to art.

The avant-garde Polish artist Wladyslaw Strzeminski was highly regarded in art circles all over the world. However, when Poland was dominated by the Soviet Union, he was forced out of his teaching post. Ultimately, he could not find work, and his lack of funds caused him to die in poverty from tuberculosis in 1952.

This is a hard film to watch. We see Strzeminski forced from his role as professor, forced to separate from his students, and forced out of the artist's guild. He's told that in Communist Poland, only those who work get to eat. The problem is that the government won't let him work, so basically he is sentenced to death, although he was never charged with a crime.

Boguslaw Linda portrays Strzeminski, and his acting is superb. He's an experienced Polish actor, who has worked with Wadja before. A movie like this will stand or fall on the merits of the star. Linda makes us believe in the character. We see him continually making choices. He himself sees no choices--he lives for his art and he dies for it.

We watched this movie in Rochester's wonderful Dryden Theatre at the George Eastman Museum. It will work well on the small screen. Afterimage was shown at the Grand Opening of part two the outstanding 2017 Rochester Polish Film Festival.

Earlier this year, the Dryden screened A Generation. That was Wajda's first film, and this was his last. What an opportunity to follow the development of a talented director from the beginning to the end of his career.

Really bad movie

[gphgrm01 · 1/10 · 11 April 2024]

I understand that good reviews for this movie have been placed mostly because people expect to see something very nasty and cruel about communist regimes during cold war in Europe. But everything in this movie is dramatically overdone, overemphasized, and very badly done. We just watched some completely ridiculous scenes - everybody hates some poor Polish artist in Poland, who has no one leg and one arm, just because he said something like "the art is autonomous", nobody has a pity for him, even a woman who cooks for him or a woman who sells food, or a man who sells the paint, etc. For instance, there are some scenes where a woman who cooks for him for years denies him a plate of food, because he has no some small change to pay. Well, this is sadly typical for liberal capitalism, not for communist countries. Also, the fact that authorities threw him out of the university does not mean that immediately every cleaning lady will hate him, and leave him without food. Also it does not mean that nobody will give him any work, and nobody will make any effort to improve his situations. But in this film it is all about the misfortune of this man, it is just a straight line to poverty, and there is no any "higher meaning", or auto-reflection or catharsis in the movie. And at some point somebody says "he who does not work, does not eat in communism". Where did they hear that? This was not a communist parole at all. Communist parole was "everybody gets according to their needs", whatever it meant. But, its something completely different.

I don't understand why Wajda made this black and white unintelligent and embarrassing movie, with nothing but an anti-communist propaganda pamphlet in it. Communism was a totalitarian system with its bad doctrines and flows, but, in general, artists, writers and intellectuals were better kept and better treated in such systems than in capitalism. They had social benefits of state socialist system that did not exist in capitalist countries. They were often banned from working, that is true, but even then, they were not thrown to the streets or left without basic existence, because this is not how communist states work. They may have been imprisoned, but still, they were not left to die of starvation at the streets, beggars or homeless people were not a "thing" in communist countries. Starving when you have no work - this is typical for western capitalism, not for communist countries. So this film brings a lot of tendentious, bleak, monotonous propaganda against Poland of 1950s, and it even shows Polish people as dull, cruel, merciless, insensitive and horrible people. Really bad and offensive film without any philosophical depth (and I am not even a Polish, but was hard for me to watch).

Far from the madding crowd

[ilovesaturdays · 9/10 · 24 September 2021]

This great movie by Andrzej Wajda tells the story of a gifted Polish painter, Wladyslaw Strzeminski. This disabled professor of art history lives his life with a panache and is a happy & content intellectual who is systematically destroyed until he is devoid of all hope. I particularly liked 2 scenes: one at the beginning of the movie & one at the end. The scene at the beginning being the one where the protagonist rolls down the hill to meet a new student, & the scene at the end being the one where he dyes the white flowers (a consistent article in the film) blue to pay respect to his dead wife. After all what is a painter to do if he doesn't have the desired blue flowers? Color the white flowers that he does have at hand, of course! Besides these, one other scene deserves special mention: the one where he rejects the love of the young student who is smitten by him. It takes a brilliant director to make such a scene feel like the kindness that it was meant to be towards the young lady even though at the face it appears to be a very brutal rejection. So, even if our protagonist is far from perfect when it comes to providing for his family, he's still a decent man.

What I also loved about this movie is that even though it is supposed to be the story of a single man, it has a universal appeal because this is the story of every man who has ever tried to make a stand against any regime. It has happened in the past & it will continue to happen in the future. On some small level, almost every person has felt the desperation that accompanies when one has to take an independent stand against any collective. Makes one wonder why must the collective/regime be so insecure that it feels threatened by a single dissenter. In fact, so great is this insecurity that they feel compelled to totally annihilate the lone dissenter. Shouldn't a regime/collective that believes itself to be fair & rational be confident that a single person isn't going to be able to do any serious damage? After all, in a just society everybody has a right to live; even the dissenters!

A Triumph from Poland's Genius Director

[LeonardKniffel · 10/10 · 4 May 2020]

"Afterimage" was a hit at the 2017 Chicago International Film Festival. Directed by Andrzej Wajda, it is the great Polish director's final film; he died suddenly October 9, 2016, at the age of 90. Set in post-World War II communist Poland, "Afterimage" recreates the atmosphere of Wajdoa's early acclaimed films such as "Ashes and Diamonds" and "Kanal." Based on the life of world renowned artist Wladyslaw Strzeminski, the film shows how his life and career were destroyed by the Stalinist government.

A great Weida's movie

[besherat · 9/10 · 27 June 2018]

"Illusions "are the latest film by famous Polish director . An extraordinary film achievement that has rounded its imposing opus. The film deals with a topic that is current at all times, that is, how to remain consistent and how to confront the region of a totalitarian and captured state. We all know this well, because from this form we did not move even for inch. If you have not approved it, if you are not applauding, if you are not similar, if you have your own opinion, the state will endeavor to show you its power to bring you under the livelihood line, as director magnificently presented in this biographical film about Polish painter . Extremely strong frames that plasticize all the misery of human life. Film for each recommendation.

A worthy lasting afterimage of Wadja's career

[gortx · 28 May 2017]

When Director Andrzej Wadja passed away last fall, his career wasn't give the notice his extraordinary career merited. His post-war trilogy (A GENERATION, KANAL and ASHES AND DIAMONDS) is one the finest in World Cinema. Over two decades later his MAN OF MARBLE and MAN OF IRON (contextualizing the rise of the Lech Walesa and the Solidarity movement) comprise one of the greatest double features I have ever seen. If he had only made those five films, Wadja's place in the history of European cinema would be secure. But, he made a number of other superb films including DANTON and A LOVE IN Germany.

AFTERIMAGE isn't at that level, but, it's a good solid work, and a fitting epitaph to his career. It's a biography of Russian-Polish artist Władysław Strzemiński who struggled during the rise of communism in post-war Poland. It's a fittingly symbolic end for Wadja's filmography, for the Director's first feature (A GENERATION) was made only a couple of years after Strzemiński's death. And, like the artist in AFTERIMAGE, Wadja's own work inspired a 'generation' of Polish Directors to come such as Polanski and Skolominski. In AFTERIMAGE it is explained that the term means the image in one own's eye that remains after one views a work of art. So too, for me, and for other's inspired by Wadja's art, this movie serves as a lasting afterimage of his work.

Totality

[jirimoucka · 9/10 · 24 November 2018]

Totalitarian power mesmerizes all in person. tearing his strength, makes you stupid, it spreads like a plague. freedom sounds hollow, the dignity disappears. movies by andrzej wajda are simple stories thoroughly processed. used the music of one of the most spiritual Polish composer andrzej panufnik.

Democracy and freedom, a sigh.

[g-89622 · 8/10 · 18 December 2021]

Legacy of Wajda. Poland... The world is drunk and I wake up alone, or the world is drunk and I wake up alone, a grass people... a sigh... Everything that happens now is a gust of wind in history, and will always return to calm. The art of anti-tyranny naturally becomes an integral part of tyranny. Sigh again.

To feel that we are not alone and the only

[uurcauur · 9/10 · 1 February 2018]

I do not want to write critic about the movie itself, but story. If you live in a country where democratic rules are not well established, you might find the story really familiar. You might see that similar things happen in different times, in different places. But the worst the movie doesn't finish with a happy end. Maybe the important one is showing a reaction.