The Peasants (2023) User Reviews

Absolutely beautiful.

[ilikelickingeyeballs · 9/10 · 7 November 2023]

Let me start of with the fact that the visuals are absolutely stunning. Im still shoked that a movie was made with oil paintings and to know its a polish movie fills my heart with pride. The breathteaking views of polish conutryside really filled my heart with joy and nostalgia. The lighting, colors, and placement of everything in each scene was extremely nicely done and helped deliver the movie through visuals. Accompanied by dynamic, imaginative music it was quite the pleasure to watch.

It was such a raw movie, showing off so much polish culture unfiltered. The beautiful and the ugly. Dancing, music, ordinary life with lingering judgment, envy and hate. I have not personally read the original book so i cannot judge this movie in regards to it but im sure its a really good adaptration and ill definitely give the book a read.

Watching the movie you wonder whose in the right and eventually realize that its no one. All characters are flawed in different ways, and thats whats so beautiful and real about this.

Why didnt i give it 10/10? Well as much as i loved it i dont think i fully connected with its story on a personal level, and at moments i couldn't really wrap my head around the plot.

I'm however really confident about this movie going to the Oscars.

Incredible

[Jithindurden · 9/10 · 12 December 2023]

An adaptation of a Nobel prize-winning novel from the makers of Loving Vincent using the same rotoscoped oil painting animation style, that's enough to be interested in this. But with the experience from Loving Vincent, they set out to make it even better. With dynamic camera movements that are meant to give an experience rooted in Polish culture and village life, this movie does an incredible job of immersing the viewers in this world. Kamila Urzedowska is incredible as Jagna, the village beauty, whose life is decided by others at every step yet can't take away her free-spiritedness, even with all the shackles. Even though, the story is a classic European village tragedy, the music and animation take it to another level. That ending sequence is just so incredibly shot and animated that it's impossible to not be moved after watching this. Much of the film would've been a lot harder to watch if it was live-action, even though it is quite hard even in this rotoscoped animated style.

Sometimes you can appreciate the artistry involved in process of filmmaking, but not fully enjoy the experience of watching the actual movie.

[j-madej · 8/10 · 30 December 2023]

Sometimes you can appreciate the artistry involved in process of filmmaking, but not fully enjoy the experience of watching the actual movie.

This is precisely how I feel after watching the official submission of Poland for the 'Best International Feature Film' category of the 96th Academy Awards in 2024 titled: 'THE PEASANTS' ('Chlopi').

Synopsis: "Jagna is a young woman determined to forge her own path in a late 19th century Polish village - a hotbed of gossip and on-going feuds, held together, rich and poor, by adherence to colorful traditions and deep-rooted patriarchy."

Back in 2017 another Dutch -Polish production 'Loving Vincent' (story of Vincent Van Gogh) was made, with similar painting technique, roughly by the same Polish team. Which encouraged them to create Polish based story. 'Loving Vincent' received a huge amount of good critiques and was admired for its artistry. With this type of technique comes tremendous amount of paint work as each film frame (in PAL system 24 frames per second) needed to be painted over film footage. The reason why this technique worked in this Dutch production is that the subject of the film was about famous, tragic painter, so stylistically and subject wise there was a artistic coherence.

After watching'THE PEASANTS' I was wondering if this painting technique was not too much of a distraction and couldn't help to wonder if without it this film wasn't better off just having a standard color correction.

To be fully immersed in the story and appreciate the actual acting performances, we watch micro body expressions of the actors, judging quality of their characterization by how well the non verbal cues mix with what they say, so that every micro expression specially on their face and eyes, tells us subconsciously what actor in character things.

In 'THE PEASANTS' as camera moves around the whole picture constantly vibrates, just as it happens during psychedelic trip the colors morph and vibrate. The beauty of psychedelic trip is that they are relatively short and intense. 'THE PEASANTS' feels like a almost 2 hour psychedelic trip, which might leave the audience little nauseated. Constant movement in the frame, can potentially create an uneasy feeling in the viewer.

As much as I wanted to love this film, by the end I was happy I lasted till the end, having moments where I felt disconnected from the experience.

To be fair, It must be said all the performances are very solid and again this film is full of masterful work and yet the technique used feels little gimmicky and to be honest in the day and age of phone apps, which add cartoon or painting correction to the video footage, it isn't anymore that unique

To conclude 'THE PEASANTS' is a truly potentially tragic and emotional story, which in my opinion, due to painting technique looses what makes this story interesting. The emotionality is getting lost, which is such a pity.

I do however salute all the filmmakers for the amount of ground breaking work they have done, it's just for my taste, as well as the Academy (sadly 'THE PEASANTS' wasn't chosen to be nominated) seems to agree with my assessment.

I still do highly recommend it due to its artistic value.

The return of peasant mania

[annapavlik · 10/10 · 22 October 2023]

Definitely the best Polish film I've watched this year. I left the cinema in love and i did think about this movie quite a lot. The music rang in my headphones non stop and I replayed the dance scenes in my head probably a thousand times. The costumes, the image of the Polish countryside, references to the Chelmonski's paintings, everything, it just created the most beautiful image that stays with you for a long time. Maybe just i did imagine Jagna to be strong woman, not as tragic, but i like her character as well as the rest. I think the cating was infallible. I highly recommend visiting the cinema for that one! :)

Beautifully Tragic 💔

[dariapaterek · 10/10 · 3 December 2023]

Wow... I did not expect this movie to be as incredible as it was!

As a Pole raised in England, I haven't touched bases with a lot of Polish literature. But this movie (based off of the Nobel Prize nominated book) was a great experience.

Not only is it beautifully made and animated, the story was extremely tragic and real.

All of the characters are greatly developed, the plot is enticing, and the music is just perfect.

I would recommend this movie to everyone, Polish or not. Not only is it insight and commentary on past Poland, but also on masculinity, femininity, class, and community.

10/10.

Amazing picture

[vspgxjnnxj · 10/10 · 5 November 2023]

"Chlopi " (The Peasants) is a cinematic painted masterpiece telling us captivating story about search of love and happiness in 19th century rural area. In this picture music, breathtaking visuals, and dance come together. The soundtrack stirs emotions, the visuals capture rustic beauty, and intricate dance sequences add depth to the story. This film showcases the power of art forms to create an immersive and emotionally resonant experience, transporting the audience to a world where music, visuals, and dance are integral to the characters' lives. A sensory delight that leaves a lasting impression.

a must-see

[renatawalczak · 10/10 · 22 November 2023]

Stunning and heartbreaking, highly reccomended!

Beautiful story about love, jealousy and greed. The movie was brilliantly acted, brilliant music (I still hear it in my ears).

I always loved Reymont's book, TV-series from 2973 was excellent, but this adaptation stole my heart, for sure.

I was afraid whether I would like the painted film, it turned out that it does not interfere with watching it at all, especially that the characters are not as distorted as in Vincent, you can recognize the actors. Btw it was a great pleasure to recognize the paintings woven into the movie, polish painters (Chelmonski, Falat), but also Vermeer, van Gogh, Munch.

THE PEASANTS, OR A WONDERFUL PRISON IN THE OPEN AIR

[filmstormcontact · 10/10 · 1 December 2023]

We invite you to another artistic episode of YouTube channel FilmStorm entitled THE PEASANTS, OR A WONDERFUL PRISON IN THE OPEN AIR in which we analyse The Peasants, the latest adaptation of Wladyslaw Reymont's Nobel-winning novel directed by Hugh and DK Welchman. The film, made in a similar technique as their previous one, Loving Vincent, is a real feast for the senses - it delights with both image and sound. It is nominated to Oscars in two categories - for the best foreign production as well as for music. But, what about the plot? How are the characters presented? Here's what we think about it!

One of the best films of the year

[moviesgamesandvideos · 10/10 · 4 December 2023]

I wasn't expecting the film to be as incredible as it was, it is similar to Across The Spiderverse in that it is unique and really inventive in its presentation. Even with digital intermediates it must have taken a phenomenal amount of manual effort to create. Each frame of the movie is incredible, the oil painting over the top of the live acting really worked fantastically well and the acting, singing, and visuals all combined perfectly to create a captivating and interesting story. The acting is well done and the story has some nice twists and turns to keep it interesting from start to finish.

beautiful but ponderous

[HankCoT · 5/10 · 28 March 2024]

A lot of the shots are framed in a way that compliments nicely the animation style, perfectly looking like moving paintings, tho the editing and pacing made the film's structure lackluster. There's lots of movement around plenty of beautiful sceneries, but all of it just serves the visuals and in no way tends to the narrative, which I found to be really basic, and without any real emotional complexity. Throughout the story there's an increasing pressure choking the life out of the main character, giving weight to her dire situation, except every scene lack subtlety, each with clear goals way too clearly explained to us then restated.

It's a 'burn the witch' type flick that doesn't really go beyond what's on the surface, and with a two-hour runtime its admittedly lush painted style does way too much heavy lifting.

It's not what it seems.

[teharatats · 10/10 · 6 January 2024]

My take is not yet another "tale of young woman breaking bonds and social..." thing. The "young woman" narrative is a red herring, in my opinion. It misses the point. Every charactet in this amazing feat of acting, art, and production is us. We are all "peasants", more or less. That reflects the soul of the early 20th century book by Raymont. From the snarling biddies, to the destructive frustrated son of the rich landowner, to Jagna, all are laboring under the peasant burden of delusion and superstition. Some do so nobly, others make their mission that of violently curating and exorcising a scapegoat.

An instant classic masterpiece

[silvereke · 10/10 · 29 January 2024]

Yes, this film does not come with a lot of inventions or present day elaborations, but it doesn't have to, cause this film is capturing the essance of a different time through a lence of beauty. It's an expertly crafted classic story of love in a time where true love is not prioritised in the social society - a theme which to me is ever relevant. This story and film is magically edited, painted, acted and comes with a score that is hauntingly raw and captivating, perfectly depicting the beauty, jealousy and tragedy of a time in the peasant society. It is sparking of creativity in every field. To me it's a masterpiece.

/Aramis.

Work of art!

[Irena_Spa · 8/10 · 8 February 2024]

This film is worth watching primarily for the artistic work. I believe that it would not have been so attractive if it had been made using ordinary techniques. It should be said that the film is Polish, as far as the cast and authors are concerned, but as far as the work on animation and drawing is concerned, it is absolutely Serbian and a lot of people worked on it. Maybe I'm wrong, but that's what I've been told. Anyway, it deserves to be awarded in every sense, because the idea is fantastic! The topic is always relevant, anywhere, whether in the village or at the court, at that time, and even now.

Chlopi (The Peasants) is a masterpiece magnificent marvelous international film of this year! Better than Dune PART ll

[kmkevinn-64733 · 10/10 · 3 March 2024]

An adaptation of a Nobel prize-winning novel from the makers of Loving Vincent using the same rotoscoped oil painting animation style, that's enough to be interested in this. But with the experience from Loving Vincent, they set out to make it even better. With dynamic camera movements that are meant to give an experience rooted in Polish culture and village life, this movie does an incredible job of immersing the viewers in this world. Kamila Urzedowska is incredible as Jagna, the village beauty, whose life is decided by others at every step yet can't take away her free-spiritedness, even with all the shackles. Even though, the story is a classic European village tragedy, the music and animation take it to another level. That ending sequence is just so incredibly shot and animated that it's impossible to not be moved after watching this. Much of the film would've been a lot harder to watch if it was live-action, even though it is quite hard even in this rotoscoped animated style. Artstyle is unique and helps with narrative, it allows viewers to better immerse into the story set in XIX century Poland. The actors did an amazing job and together with the costumes looked like real peasants did. There are many elements of polish folk culture. Throughout the movie, your feelings toward different characters go through their whole spectrum. Music is on another level, simply perfect for this setting. Dune part 1 & 2 makes absolutely no sense, story and script was ridiculous, acting was not so good, character development is mediocre, beginning to end is unwatchable PG13 that does not have a good story. Chlopi has a better story, animation was beautifully done, character development was top notch, story and script was done beautifully. Every scene from Chlopi makes sense and me personally it's one of the best films of this year so far and we're already in March so let's pray for Winnie-the-Pooh Blood and Honey 2 to be magnificent as it can be.

"Every man is a pig. Always ready to put his snout in a new trough."

[Blue-Grotto · 9/10 · 3 December 2023]

Every man IS a pig, and every woman too, in this adaptation of Wladyslaw Reymont's Nobel Prize-winning novel about life in a 19th Century village. A young woman, Jagna, digs for gold when she marries a wealthy and much older widower. When she continues seeing the man's son on the side, she gets in trouble with both father and son. Jagna tries to chart her own path. "I don't need help from men," she says "I've had enough of their help already."

This resplendent and heart rending live-action film was created with 40,000 frames of oil paintings. It features revamped Polish folk songs, compelling dialogue, and raucous, energetic dance sequences. The detailed artwork adds contrast, light, color, and emotion to the performances of the actors. It was tough for the actors who had to perform before green screens sometimes, but they persevered.

The husband-and-wife team of directors were present for the world premiere screening at the Toronto International Film Festival. DK dedicated the film to her father who supported her, and to "all the women who are making difficult choices and standing for who they are." The directors explored the use of artificial intelligence but thought it lacked human touch, sensibility, and the element of surprise. The composer who did an incredible job of adapting Polish folk music to fit the film's format, jokingly told the directors, "I spent more time with you than with my wife, so sorry if she doesn't talk to you anymore." The film took four years to make.

Absolutely mesmerizing from first to final frame

[Karamakate · 10/10 · 29 January 2024]

Attended this screening at Gothenburg Film Festival. After watching Loving Vincent that I love very much I just had to watch this one from the same team.

I didn't even watch any trailers to not be spoiled of the art technique and oh boy was I blown away from the very first second. I had goosebumps for almost the whole time which is very rare.

I don't understand the Academy Award Jury for not nominating this. It's a masterpiece in every sense.

Most of the cast is new to me although I've seen many Polish films. Kamila Urzedowska is extraordinary and could be Margot Robbie's sister. It was a delight to see Miroslav Baka who was phenomenal in A Short Film About Killing from 1988.

Visually and emotionally captivating

[whheee · 9/10 · 19 March 2024]

I've participated in the Claude Monet Immersive Experience when it visited Orlando, You sit at a table while famous pieces of art, greatly oversized, pull you into their frame. That's the best way I can describe it. You enter gardens, watch water lilies float, experience wheat fields bowing to the wind in famous paintings by Monet, Renior and other artists of the era. The Peasants, the new film from the creators of the Academy Award Nominated Loving Vincent, has an identical feel, and with advances in oil painting animation techniques, this film takes their unique art to a higher level of texturization.

The best way to describe this animation is that it breathes. Colors flow and melt together. Edges are roughened, smudged. It's multi-dimensional. One early sequence is striking. A woman sits at a table, crafting with paper and scissors, while you can see her reflection in the mirror to her left. It's small touches like this that infuse The Peasants.

For the story: Jagna, the village blonde-haired beauty, had no use for a husband. She's content with her life, creating beautiful things, living with her family, flirting innocently with the neighborhood boys. Though she does exchange not-so-fleeting glances with the handsome Antek, who is currently living with his wife, children and his father, Maciej Boryna. Everyone resents everyone in the Boryna home. The father, Boryna, is a rich widower, who resents son Antek for being young and handsome, but keeps him land-poor. Boryna's late wife had land that was supposed to go to their children, but instead, it's been consolidated into Boryna's own holdings. And his son resents him immensely for that slight. Boryna eventually throws Antek, his wife and their children, out of his home.

Meanwhile Boryna's friends, neighborhood busybodies, are trying to marry him off, telling him it's in his best interest. They run through the list of possibilities, eventually stopping on Jagna, the beauty who is more than half his age. Ah, even in the world of animation, some things never change. You can see the leering grin on his face as he contemplates the idea. They run into each other at the local market. Boryna flirts, gives Jagna an expensive gift, which she accepts even while rebuffing his advances.

A song, 20 minutes in, foreshadows what's to come. Two young people, hunger, passion. A local leader comes to Jagna's home to pitch for Boryna, and Jagna still refuses. Her mother, on the other hand, is very interested in selling off her daughter to the town's richest man, in exchange for land. Eventually Jagna gives in to her mother's wishes. Though she is miserable, wanting only the forbidden Antek.

And that sets the stage for what will, eventually, bring misery, violence and shame upon the townspeople in this 19th century Polish village. The film itself is divided into four seasons, moving the Lipce villagers from Autumn, through Winter and Spring to the following Summer. Over one year, Jagna and Antek come together, fight, separate, but still long only for each other.

Mud, dirt, muck, rain and snow. Even Mother Nature is given a feature role in this outstanding film-as-art treatment, based on Wladyslaw Reymont's Nobel-prize winning novel of the same name.

A Masterpiece In Visuals And Emotions

[cutie7 · 9/10 · 5 March 2024]

From the makers of "Loving Vincent" comes another masterpiece: "Peasants." This Polish film mesmerizes with its incredible and innovative visuals, all crafted through the medium of oil paintings. Set in rural Poland in the 19th century, "Peasants" delivers a raw and brutal portrayal of life, showcasing the harsh realities faced by its characters.

The film immerses viewers in a tragic narrative, weaving together the struggles of the peasants against a backdrop of societal and economic challenges. Each stroke of the brush brings to life the hardship and resilience of the characters, making their experiences palpable and deeply affecting.

"Peasants" is more than just a movie; it's a work of art. The attention to detail in every frame is breathtaking, capturing the essence of rural Poland with remarkable authenticity. The cinematography, if it can be called that, is unlike anything I've seen before, as each scene unfolds like a living painting.

Despite the bleakness of its subject matter, "Peasants" is a must-see for anyone who appreciates cinema as an art form. The emotional depth and richness of the storytelling leave a lasting impact, making "Peasants" one of the standout films of the year, a gripping drama that transcends language and culture to touch the hearts of audiences worldwide. It's a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and a reminder of the enduring power of storytelling.