A sweeping historical epic, (2h20):three nations (Kaschubians , Poles, Germans) feud to control Kaschubia -northern Poland -
over four decades from the dawn of the twentieth century to 1945 .It's a part of history which is not well known by the non-Pole audience whom I urge to read about it before viewing this long story , dealing with a complex situation.
The melodramatic plot , the low-born Kaschubian orphan Mateuz who grows up in an aristocratic family Von Krauss,and falls for the castle's girl ,Marita, is only a bend in a large river ;in parallel , the region is subject to disruption , according to the historical events : the Treaty of Versailles ,in favor of the Kashubian ,represented by Mateusz's godfather,Miotke, weakens the Von Krauss 's infience and power ,but it does increase hatred and hostility among the three nations ;when WW2 breaks out,the massacre in the Pianisca forest would be the first genocide by Nazis ,which Mateusz ,hidden in the bushes , watches with horror; with the coming of the Russians,in 1945 , WW2 is over. But the dictatorship begins .
This sprawling epic may seem overlong , but it includes memorable scenes:
- the way they treat Mateusz in the place where he does not really belong and his love for his adoptive mother ,whic will persist till the last sequence ( he refuses to follow Marita to stand by Gerda); Kurt , the true son of this noble family cannot accept his love affair with his sister and Mateusz would be lynched on the beach if it weren't for Marita's intervention .Kurt 's character is underwritten ;it seems he represents the faded star of the aristocracy :he vomits after seeing his father making love to a servant in the stable. Afterward ,he would join the Sturmabteilung (SA).
Mateusz is denied higher education although he has a remarkable gift for music and piano ; he will be "the butler" (check the title),par excellence the servant .
The cinematography is often spendid,with panoramics of the Von Krauss 's lands , the beach and the forest after the genocide ; a dazzling shot shows Miotke's chariot on fire ,belting in the night;the death in slow motion was more questionable ,since this trick was frequently used in the seventies and seems passé today ,though the spectacles will remind you of Eisenstein's "Bronenosez Potemkine" (1925)
The final scenes redeem it : the Russian soldier,forcing the old lady to dance ,and the desperate denouement. The makeshift height gauge , the only trace of bygone days.
An equivalent of Bertolucci 's "Novecento" (1976).
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