It was very nice of the producers and the director of the film “Insurgent 1863” that they shot a 115-minute long music video for the song “Na grave knight”. Really, from the visual side, this project is very aesthetic and picturesquely shot, although it draws attention to the fact that most of the plans here are close (maybe to save on decorations and costumes?). This and the general lack of logic in the plot, the basically negative agency of the title character who is more an object than a subject of action, dialogues straight from a school play, and the too good film music, lead to the obvious conclusion that in the case of this film we have we are dealing with a serious case of style over substance. And this is to the detriment of the form itself. I really feel sorry for the hard work of the cast, cameramen, technicians, etc., because it was completely wasted.
“Insurgent 1863” is a meme film
This is certainly the fault of director Tadeusz Syka, because he is also the screenwriter of this project. What is striking is the fact that by writing subsequent senseless scenes, he wanted to satisfy his historical and political fantasies about the fight for Polish independence, noble priests, brave noblemen and bad Russians who absolutely need to be beaten because they are cruel, evil, mean, venal people, sadistic, deceitful and generally devoid of honor. Of course, all this in a pathetic and Godly homeland sauce.
The words used here are sublime and grand, but the problem is that they are terribly empty and completely unsupported by any action on the part of the film’s characters. What’s worse, when reading the script, no one noticed that something wasn’t quite right, because the cast was good. These are professional actors who fully fulfilled the tasks entrusted to them. Cezary Pazura played the Russian prince Cherkasssky quite decently (he was evil and demonic, but not exaggerated). Ksawery Szlenkier as Sergeant Wilczyński also got everything out of what was written in the text, and even more. Olgierd Łukaszewicz, of course, of the classical school, looked dignified even with a funny false beard. I will even say that Vyachesław Boguszewski, who played the role of the no-good Major Maniukin, looks like a potential new Bohun to me – a phenomenal man. I feel sorry, I really feel sorry for Karolina Szymczak, Marcin Kwaśny and Mariusz Drężek, because their effort was wasted.
What’s worse, he legitimizes all this with his peasant aura and it’s really not his fault that all scenes without his participation would like to be at least half as badass as he is in at least one of his dialogues. But the actor, due to his family traditions, allowed himself to be tricked by the director: – When Tadeusz Syka, the director and producer of the film “Insurgent 1863”, asked me to play in a film about the January Uprising, I thought it was my family obligation. . I grew up at home in the legend of my mother’s grandfather, i.e. my great-grandfather, who fought in a unit in Podlasie, so I suppose that there was no other important commander than the hero of our film there. He came from Drohiczyn, 30 kilometers from Sokołów, where Father Brzóska was hanged. I am very curious about this film and I shyly dedicate this role to my great-grandfather – he explained why he decided to play in the production. Well, his scenes are the best, but I’m sorry to say that the viewer won’t learn much about the main character or the January Uprising.
Too much YouTube in the cinema
The gigantic problem is that the project terribly falters at the level of creative vision, and if it was supposed to celebrate the courage of the insurgents, it failed in this field. I also have an irresistible impression that the director either did not explain to Sebastian Fabijański what he was supposed to play, or was unable to control him, or told him to play what was in the script (which says nothing except that Father Brzóska is noble and suffers) because his character is acharismatic. Fabijański, who has shown in several films that he can act well, here most of the time makes faces as if something hurts or itches him very much. If I were to compare this performance to something, the most appropriate one would be the case when the actor parodied the Romantic Psycho persona created by rapper Quebonafide. This is what it looked like then:
Only in this film Mr. Sebastian makes more stupid faces and it is not clear why he does them. Before the premiere, the actor himself explained his idea as follows: – For me, it was very important that this role had a spiritual aspect. (…) Clerics from Father Maciej Majek’s seminary gave me a room where I lived for a few days. I followed in the footsteps of priest Stanisław Brzóska and absorbed a lot of knowledge. I really wanted to strip this role of the externals, the expressive fireworks that I had accustomed the audience to, I wanted to reduce a lot of my artistic risk or even bravado, which I love, but in this case I wanted to hide inside myself, in this hope, in this spirit. , faith and love – reports his words
What’s worse, the director decided, in order to strengthen the artistic and spiritual tone, to insert, for example, in the middle of the supposed action scene (the cannon explodes there maybe once), cutaways of the pensive priest Brzóska in the fog in the forest. And he stands there and watches. He stands and looks while the camera films him from below, and the fog lights create a halo effect around his head. It gives you chills because you don’t know whether the director is so delighted or convinced that in this way he is sanctifying the character of the priest general. By the way, Tadeusz Syka is really going towards a narrow specialization of “the most important priests of Polish history”, because his previous feature film was about Father Wyszyński. Who will be next? Popiełuszko, or perhaps Staszic?
Still from the film – promotional materials ‘Insurgent 1863’, dir. T.Syka, prod. Cinema World (2024)
I have a lot of questions: who decided to give money for this production and why? Didn’t the actors get the script before they accepted their roles? Why did someone decide that viewers would not realize that the Podlasie residence of the Russian prince was played by the Palace on the Water in the Royal Łazienki Park in Warsaw? Was it really necessary to shoot an important battle scene in the same place where the Darwin Film Group did their Great Conflicts skit “Death vs Atheists”?
I also have a sad conclusion that if the entire dialogue track from “Insurgent 1863” were deleted and recorded anew, and three quarters of the scenes were cut out when Fabijański is walking in the forest with a strange expression and looking into the fog, something good could be extracted from this film. So we have, as I mentioned at the very beginning, a very long and beautiful music video for the song Sanah (or many other music videos) and potential material for a lot of memes. “Take it and remember it, everyone,” one might say. Nevertheless, it is still a better historical film than “Napoleon”.
Source: Gazeta
Bruce is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment . He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
