A Year of the Quiet Sun (1984)

A love story about second chances

"A Year of the Quiet Sun" is a love story about second chances; however, it is not a storybook romance. The story takes place in Poland, just after World War II. The people and the country are still recovering from fresh wounds. The landscape is dirty and full of ruins, while the people have just as much scars on their souls.

The story is about an American solder (Scott Wilson) that volunteers to go to Poland instead of returning home early. He quickly meets a Polish woman and takes an instant liking to her. She is very reluctant to fully accept him as her husband just died. They face language barriers, as they do not know each other's language. They slowly overcome this barrier as they learn a few words of the other's tongue. One element that adds realism to the movie is that they actually speak English, Polish and German.

"A Year of the Quiet Sun" has nice drama is not your typical Polish film as one of the leading roles is played by an American. One underling message in the film is about seizing the day. Regardless of a painful past, people can choose to make the best of things and experience some pleasure. I guess one could say "A Year of the Quiet Sun" is a kind of bittersweet romance as it is such a mix of hope for something better and sorrow.
August 30, 2007

The Destruction of Generations

This movie gives incredible insight into the way people lived in Poland during the 50 year Russian occupation.
In his book Revolution from Abroad (Princeton Univ. Press, 1st ed., p. 229) Princeton Professor Jan Tomasz Gross wrote of the Soviet and Nazi occupations of Poland:"These very conservative estimates show that the Soviets killed or drove to their deaths three or four times as many people as the Nazis from a population half the size of that under German jurisdiction. This comparison holds for the first two years of the Second World War, the period before the Nazis began systematic mass annihilation of the Jewish population." Gross shows that, for Polish Christians, the Soviets were even worse, indeed much worse than the brutal Nazis. Essentially all the Polish professional and semiprofessional classes (doctors, lawyers, teachers, engineers, managers, foremen, farmers with holding beyond a few acres, etc.) were rounded up by the Soviets and then either killed immediately or retained in prisons for shipments to slave labor camps in Siberia and Central Asia. Prison conditions were hellish, worse than those in the Nazi concentration camps. What of those who survived the war?Zanussi shows the beginnings of the lives people lived who actually did survive the war to begin a 45 year jouney through what can only be described as circles of Hell. In 1945, the war ended for America. Poland endured an additonal 45 years of occupation worse than that of the Nazis. Difficult for us to understand the suffering of these brave people, but Zanussi brings us to the point where we can see it, taste it, and smell it. May 17, 2007

"Hope and Love During The Times of Misery and Despair"

Krzysztof Zanussi's "A Year of the Quiet Sun" (1984) is a wonderful and unforgettable film. Zanussi's name may not sound familiar but he is one of the finest Polish and European directors who inspired the whole new generation of Polish filmmakers, including Krzysztof Kieslowski and Agnieszka Holland. This film is a lost treasure - I never heard of it; there are only few users' comments about it on IMDb. I saw couple of earlier Zanussi's films ("The Structure of Crystal" and "The Constant Factor") but they could not prepare me for this one, another Landscape After Battle, the simple and quiet story of love during the time of suffering. The year is 1946, the place - a small war- ravaged town that used to be a part of Germany but now is a part of Poland. The Polish widow, Emilia (Maya Komarowskaya in a performance so powerful, intense, subtle, and shining - she reminds me of Liv Ullmann in her best roles) meets an American soldier, Norman (Scott Wilson of "In Cold Blood") who involved in war-crimes investigation. Both their lives have been cruelly disrupted by the worst War of the 20th Century. Norman has seen so much suffering and death (he was a prisoner of war) - it is not easy for him to return home but he feels that the woman he met by chance and with whom he has no common language and can only communicate by gestures or rely on interpreters, could be his partner and friend for life. Emilia, who has lost her husband after only a few months of marriage and struggles to survive while taking care of her ailing mother, questions herself if it is even "right" for a human being to look for love and happiness. Slowly, these two begin to realize that no matter what you lived and you've been through, no matter how unbearable the past was and how uncertain the present is, love is possible.

I found myself so involved in the story that Zanussi and his actors told; I wished so much for the characters to find peace and happiness together but I knew that it was not an optimistic Hollywood romance I was watching. I knew that it was one of the best romance films I was watching. The camera work by Slawomir Idziak (Black Hawk Down (2001), Trois couleurs: Bleu (1993),La Double vie de Véronique(1991), and The Decalogue (1989) is above any praise as well as the original music by Wojciech Kilar (The Pianist (2002), Dracula (1992)).

The film ends with a fantasy scene that takes place in Monument Valley, where John Ford shot his "Stagecoach", the only American film that Emilia and her mother saw and they mentioned it to Norman. Scott Wilson remembers that Zanussi and the Andrei Tarkovsky visited Monument Valley on their way to the Telluride Film Festival in 1983.

From Roger Ebert's review: "Both directors vowed to film there someday. Tarkovsky died before he could. Zanussi traveled to the valley with only his cameraman, his two stars, and Wilson's wife Heavenly as crew, and they filmed the ending, which is poetic in the way it visualizes the hope of the two lovers while reflecting the poignancy of their fates."

4.5/5

December 20, 2006

An interrupted melody of love because of the War!

This is a wonderful and carefully sculpted script on the nature of the art and impossible love. A Polish widow and an American Soldier joined and ironically separated for the invisible barriers of a bloody War: Affections, memories under Chopin 's music will allow us to establish an immediate link with that unforgettable gem of the late Forties: Jean Pierre Melville 's The Silence of the sea.

A haunting and poignant portrait around the unsaid of the War' s legacy.

Maja Komorowska 's towering acting!
February 27, 2006

Maya Komorowska superb in A Year of the Quiet Sun

A Year of the Quiet Sun is a love story told in the bombed out remains of Poland just after World War II. Scott Wilson is Norman, a private in the American Army who remains behind to take part in the investigation of war crimes. He meets Emilia, a woman he notices painting a picture in a burnt out car. He takes an interest in her and soon falls deeply in love with her and wants to marry her. Emilia is played by Maya Komorowska, who is easily the best thing about this film.

If Komorowska is so good, and she is, why haven't we seen her more frequently? The answer to this question comes in a special feature on the DVD. In the mid 1980's when this film was being made, Poland was still under Soviet oppression. Komorowska was a supporter of Solidarity, according to Scott Wilson, who tells us about the problems he faced working on this film with director Krsysztof Zanussi. Few freedoms were available to the Polish people and the oppression they experienced delayed their recovery from the disaster of the Second World War. Komorowska should have been a major star. Fortunately we have A Year of the Quiet Sun to appreciate her great talent.

As good as the acting is in this film by all involved, the story moves at a snail's pace. We are meant to feel the pain of Norman and Emilia as they attempt to find some happiness in a bombed out world of fear and poverty. Emilia speaks only a little English and Norman speaks no Polish. It takes time for them to figure out what each wants, which they do through nonverbal communication and occasional help from a translator.

Also, Zanussi wants us to see and feel the desperation of the people living in Poland just after the war. He shows us more than he tells us and he takes his time as, for example, we watch Polish bodies being excavated from a mass grave. Emilia's husband may be among the dead, although we are not certain of this.

What we are left with after two hours or so of watching this film is the experience of seeing the profound difference one good person can make in the lives of others. Emilia refuses to allow herself and her life to be reduced to hatred and bitterness. She buries the past and attempts to live nonjudgmentally in the present. She seeks happiness, but not at the expense of her duty to her sick mother and to her friends, most notably a prostitute who is her neighbor. Maya Komorowska brings Emilia to life so convincingly that we will not soon forget her or her story. August 3, 2003

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