In 1961, Stanislaw Rozewicz created the novella film "Birth Certificate" in cooperation with his brother, Taduesz Rozewicz as screenwriter. Such brother tandems are rare in the history of film but aside from family ties, Stanislaw (born in 1924) and Taduesz (born in 1921) were mutually bound by their love for the cinema. They were born and grew up in Radomsk, a small town which had "its madmen and its saints" and most importanly, the "Kinema" cinema, as Stanislaw recalls: for him cinema is "heaven, the whole world, enchantment". Tadeusz says he considers cinema both a charming market stall and a mysterious temple. "All this savage land has always attracted and fascinated me," he says. "I am devoured by cinema and I devour cinema; I'm a cinema eater." But Taduesz Rozewicz, an eminent writer, admits this unique form of cooperation was a problem to him: "It is the presence of the other person not only in the process of writing, but at its very core, which is inserperable for me from absolute solitude." Some scenes the brothers wrote together; others were created by the writer himself, following discussions with the director. But from the perspective of time, it is "Birth Certificate", rather than "Echo" or "The Wicked Gate", that Taduesz describes as his most intimate film. This is understandable. The tradgey from September 1939 in Poland was for the Rozewicz brothers their personal "birth certificate". When working on the film, the director said "This time it is all about shaking off, getting rid of the psychological burden which the war was for all of us. ... Cooperation with my brother was in this case easier, as we share many war memories. We wanted to show to adult viewers a picture of war as seen by a child. ... In reality, it is the adults who created the real world of massacres. Children beheld the horrors coming back to life, exhumed from underneath the ground, overwhelming the earth."
The principle of composition of "Birth Certificate" is not obvious. When watching a novella film, we tend to think in terms of traditional theatre. We expect that a miniature story will finish with a sharp point; the three film novellas in Rozewicz's work lack this feature. We do not know what will be happen to the boy making his alone through the forest towards the end of "On the Road". We do not know whether in "Letter from the Camp", the help offered by the small heroes to a Soviet prisoner will rescue him from the unknown fate of his compatriots. The fate of the Jewish girl from "Drop of Blood" is also unclear. Will she keep her new impersonation as "Marysia Malinowska"? Or will the Nazis make her into a representative of the "Nordic race"? Those questions were asked by the director for a reason. He preceived war as chaos and perdition, and not as linear history that could be reflected in a plot. Although "Birth Certificate" is saturated with moral content, it does not aim to be a morality play. But with the immense pressure of reality, no varient of fate should be excluded. This approached can be compared wth Krzysztof Kieslowski's "Blind Chance" 25 years later, which pictured dramatic choices of a different era.
The film novella "On the Road" has a very sparing plot, but it drew special attention of the reviewers. The ominating overtone of the war films created by the Polish Film School at that time should be kept in mind. Mainly owing to Wajda, those films dealt with romantic heritage. They were permeated with pathos, bitterness, and irony. Rozewicz is an extraordinary artist. When narrating a story about a boy lost in a war zone, carrying some documents from the regiment office as if they were a treasure, the narrator in "On the Road" discovers rough prose where one should find poetry. And suddenly, the irrational touches this rather tame world. The boy, who until that moment resembled a Polish version of the Good Soldier Schweik, sets off, like Don Quixote, for his first and last battle. A critic described it as "an absurd gesture and someone else could surely use it to criticise the Polish style of dying. ... But the Rozewicz brothers do no accuse: they only compose an elegy for the picturesque peasant-soldier, probably the most important veteran of the Polish war of 1939-1945." "Birth Certificate" is not a lofty statement about national imponderabilia. The film reveals a plebeian perspective which Aleksander Jackieqicz once contrasted with those "lyrical lamentations" inherent in the Kordian tradition. However, a historical overview of Rozewicz's work shows that the distinctive style does not signify a fundamental difference in illustrating the Polish September. Just as the memorable scene from Wajda's "Lotna" was in fact an expression of desperation and distress, the same emotions permeate the final scene of "Birth Certificate". These are not ideological concepts, though once described as such and fervently debated, but rather psychological creations. In this specific case, observes Witold Zalewski, it is not about manifesting knightly pride, but about a gesture of a simple man who does not agree to be enslaved.
The novella "Drop of Blood" is, with Aleksander Ford's "Border Street", one of the first narrations of the fate of the Polish Jews during the Nazi occupation. The story about a girl literally looking for her place on earth has a dramatic dimension. Especially in the age of today's journalistic disputes, often manipulative, lacking in empathy and imbued with bad will, Rozewicz's story from the past shocks with its authenticity. The small herione of the story is the only one who survives a German raid on her family home. Physical survial does not, however, mean a return to normality. Her frightened departure from the rubbish dump that was her hideout lead her to a ruined apartment. Her walk around it is painful because still fresh signs of life are mixed with evidence of annihilation. Help is needed, but Mirka does not know anyone in the outside world. Her subsequent attempts express the state of the fugitive's spirits - from hope and faith, moving to doubt, a sense of oppression, and thickening fear, and finally to despair.
At the same time, the Jewish girl's search for refuge resembles the state of Polish society. The appearance of Mirka results in confusion, and later, trouble. This was already signalled by Rozewicz in an exceptional scene from "Letter from the Camp" in which the boy's neighbour, seeing a fugitive Russian soldier, retreats immediately, admitting that "Now, people worry only about themselves." Such embarassing excuses mask fear. During the occupation, no one feels safe. Neither social status not the aegis of a charity organisation protects against repression. We see the potential guardians of Mirka passing her back and forth among themselves. These are friendly hands but they cannot offer strong support. The story takes place on that thin line between solidarity and heroism. Solidarity arises spontaneously, but only some are capable of heroism. Help for the girl does not always result from compassion; sometimes it is based on past relations and personal ties (a neighbour of the doctor takes in the fugitive for a few days because of past friendship). Rozewicz portrays all of this in a subtle way; even the smallest gesture has significance. Take, for example, the conversation with a stranger on the train: short, as if jotted down on the margin, but so full of tension. And earlier, a peculiar examination of Polishness: the "Holy Father" prayer forced on Mirka by the village boys to check that she is not a Jew. Would not rising to the challenge mean a death sentance?
Viewed after many years, "Birth Certificate" discloses yet another quality that is not present in the works of the Polish School, but is prominent in later B-class war films. This is the picture of everyday life during the war and occupation outlined in the three novellas. It harmonises with the logic of speaking about "life after life". Small heroes of Rozewicz suddenly enter the reality of war, with no experience or scale with which to compare it. For them, the present is a natural extension of and at the same time a complete negation of the past. Consider the sleey small-town marketplace, through which armoured columns will shortly pass. Or meet the German motorcyclists, who look like aliens from outer space - a picture taken from an autopsy because this is how Stanislaw and Taduesz perceived the first Germans they ever met. Note the blurred silhouettes of people against a white wall who are being shot - at first they are shocking, but soon they will probably become a part of the grim landscape. In the city centre stands a prisoner camp on a sodden bog ("People perish likes flies; the bodies are transported during the night"); in the street the childern are running after a coal wagon to collect some precious pieces of fuel. There's a bustle around some food (a boy reproaches his younger brother's actions by singing: "The warrant officer's son is begging in front of the church? I'm going to tell mother!"); and the kitchen, which one evening becomes the proscenium of a real drama. And there are the symbols: a bar of chocolate forced upon a boy by a Wehrmacht soldier ("On the Road"); a pair of shoes belonging to Zbyszek's father which the boy spontaneously gives to a Russian fugitive; a priceless slice of bread, ground under the heel of a policeman in the guter ("Letters from the Camp"). As the director put it: "In every film, I communicate my own vision of the world and of the people. Only then the style follows, the defined way of experiencing things." In Birth Certificate, he adds, his approach was driven by the subject: "I attempted to create not only the texture of the document but also to add some poetic element. I know it is risky but as for the merger of documentation and poety, often hidden very deep, if only it manages to make its way onto the screen, it results in what can referred to as 'art'."
After 1945, there were numerous films created in Europe that dealt with war and children, including "Somewhere in Europe" ("Valahol Europaban", 1947 by Geza Radvanyi), "Shoeshine" ("Sciescia", 1946 by Vittorio de Sica), and "Childhood of Ivan" ("Iwanowo dietstwo" by Andriej Tarkowski). Yet there were fewer than one would expect. Pursuing a subject so imbued with sentimentalism requires stylistic disipline and a special ability to manage child actors. The author of "Birth Certificate" mastered both - and it was not by chance. Stanislaw Rozewicz was always the beneficent spirit of the film milieu; he could unite people around a common goal. He emanated peace and sensitivity, which flowed to his co-workers and pupils. A film, being a group work, necessitates some form of empathy - tuning in with others.
In a biographical documentary about Stanislaw Rozewicz entitled "Walking, Meeting" (1999 by Antoni Krauze), there is a beautiful scene when the director, after a few decades, meets Beata Barszczewska, who plays Mireczka in the novella "Drops of Blood". The woman falls into the arms of the elderly man. They are both moved. He wonders how many years have passed. She answers: "A few years. Not too many." And Rozewicz, with his characteristic smile says: "It is true. We spent this entire time together."
怀旧口吻的童年细碎也很动人啊。那些迷迷糊糊梦醒交界时的想象与现实。儿时的我们总做最大的梦啊，有绝对的想象力去成为那个伟大计划里的幸运儿。
很好看很有意义的一部电影。他们的感情真挚且淳朴。他们勇敢，坚定，顽强，懂得感恩。不畏环境艰苦。一个知识青年上山下乡，一个支援教育让边远贫困地区的孩子学习到了远超他们想象的东西，老师们也给予了孩子们梦想和希望，当然并不是所有人都能做到像韩老师一样，毕竟艰苦的程度远超城市人想象，但是相信坚持下来的人会发现这里的真诚和善意。
还记得我和我的祖国里上海单元的故事吗？黑白电视看女排的那个，这部电影就有点那个意思，以导演回忆的视角，呈现了美国生活和记忆点最强的部分，动画片的画风特别好，比看真人演员尬演1969年好，还降低了火箭发射和太空漫步的拍摄成本，so cool！
爱在墨西哥湾和月球静海。德州人林克莱特，把《爱在黎明破晓前》系列给搬上了月球。在“人类迈出一大步”的1969年，绝大多数电影都会选择呈现——土星5号运载火箭搭载阿波罗11号在烈焰中摇晃着大地升空——“6亿人看电视直播”般的盛况，但林用怀旧风的转描动画（甚把胶片和模拟电视动画化了！），絮絮叨叨69年的休斯顿——这座因国防/二战、航空航天和石油工业新兴的典型美国城市里——一普通中产家庭男孩童年生活手记。尼尔走出登月舱的壮丽瞬间，男孩却在父母怀中睡去，做了一个独驾阿波罗10½号登月的梦。似查泽雷的《登月第一人》，又一用私人化叙事缅怀黄金岁月电影。69年的男孩幻想20世纪末去月球度蜜月，或攒一年钱去火星，但直到22年也无人重返月球，只有电视剧《为全人类》在续写那个浪漫、壮阔的平行宇宙的故事。
2022.4.4 好看 近期看过最好看的动画了 但是这画风是我第一次见 亦真亦假的感觉 介绍了好多60年代美国发生的事啊..2001太空漫游 人猿星球 尼克松 荒野大镖客 66年居然都有蝙蝠侠和青蜂侠 碟中谍了 67年美国居然就拍了太空登月记的电影 美国人登月发现俄国人早已到 但都死了哈哈 这部展现出了美国的文化输出到了极致啊！年代感实在太强了 简直是经历过那个年代的美国人的回忆杀 他们的童年也太丰富了吧..不像现代的小孩各个捧着手机平板啥的.. 居然是肯尼迪提出的登月计划 经历过大萧条时期的美国人也太节俭了吧 居然有三个宇航员在发射台测试中丧命 居然来电居然不显示 一直整人哈哈哈 捡垃圾居然可以换刨冰 50年美国人就在拍登陆月球..休斯顿的太空乐园…看着就好玩 居然有肯尼迪角！
这几年纯个人风格化作品蔚然成风，姜文、娄烨、昆汀、卡隆、安德森均已纷纷发表，老林可不甘示弱，碎片大师这次还整了个花活，好家伙。 ps: 他之前好像承诺过要拍Before 4作为系列收尾。
花絮太少了，为啥不多放一些好喜欢男女主的互动啊，好甜！
当我们被银幕上的各种奇观包围，被荧幕上那么多商业片洗脑，仿佛眼中填塞的尽是些大鱼大肉，这时候这部电影仿佛一股子清流，洗净了我们身上所有的铅华！
童年扫描仪 半梦半醒的少年时代 太细致入微了 各种琐事 游戏 音乐 电影 构成真实的飞向太空的回忆
个人童年与国家事业之间的联系。六十年代美国文化那部分，个人回忆录又是社会风情画。小孩梦想与历史潮流紧紧绑定在一起，
真的是跟这个破导演对不上电波，以为烂番茄高分媒体狂赞是有多好看，结果还是高估了文青心中对60年代的缅怀，实在太难看了
米国太空的荣光已经不是NASA，而是归于马斯克。NASA直接交给马斯克管理是好事
电影里的景色很美，里面呈现出来的情更美。非常值得一看。
回顾了美国和苏联在那个年代的军备竞争！是个值得回味的年代
两个看似普通的人，就这样用自己的肩膀默默承担起了藏区孩子们的生活，这种伟大有点儿可望而不可及
当一个平凡的普通人拼命地燃烧自己的时候，他就已经不再普通了
3.5/ 好奇妙，完全不同的年代与区域，童年给人的感触却那么相似，在各种亲历或错过的在场与不在场中，我们成为历史微渺的一部分，历史成为我们温热的少年回忆。
也许我离电影里的60年代美国社会过于遥远，距离感只能让我站在旁边窥视，但没有什么共情感。（家庭段落如果换成真人来演...我不知道我还能不能撑到进度条放完）
7.6 以动画转制现实来进一步混淆不可靠叙事，“我”的一小步越过了“人类”的一大步，“两次”登月的平行剪辑高潮竟如此举重若轻，而是以其为核心在离散的叙述间拼贴出60s的美国风情画，林克莱特对于时代符号的迷恋可见一斑。
虽然是历史叙事流水账，但不由感叹，好怀念那些过去的童年啊
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