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."
3.5 斯皮尔伯格对纽约街区的空间人物调度都特别出色，且用一种较新的电影技术投入其中。单拎几个舞蹈段落都令人眼前一亮，不过问题在于配角的风采完全盖过了两位主角，这使得两位年轻主角的恋爱故事从一种令人白眼的恋爱闹到结局的荒谬悲剧。
这是个什么鬼？恋爱脑男女主和他们的冤种哥哥和哥们儿？女主把认识两天的爱情看得比亲情都重要？新添的文戏有啥用？每一个配角都比主角好。斯皮尔伯格其实导得还可以，镜头什么的四平八稳，但大可不比整一部苦情虐恋街头版罗密欧与朱丽叶，并且还有不配字幕的西语。顺便一提，服装挺出彩。
歌舞场景都有超越到原版的，不过男人打架的故事我不想再看了，再加上罗朱的一见钟情，演员颜值不高的话我都get不到。Spielberg的第一出musical，他就不适合用xx years old来形容，而是at 75 years of youth。
5分，这部电影充分证明了歌舞片和犯罪元素实在不搭，前半部分几乎全歌舞的表演看着太尬了，后半部分的剧情又实在是过于drama。以暴力开场终会以暴力收尾，届时付出的代价不是泪就是血。
算是国师的芳华吧
看了太多 犭言犬，各种名义的；看看歌舞吧，repeated rhymes.
打架泡妞，泡妞打架，不注意看还以为是印度片。但印度片还有帅哥美女，对抗强权啥的。这个真是要啥没啥，种族话题跟人家的种姓制度也没法比。只有结尾的枪击事件还像回事儿，只是略显生硬。难不成75岁斯皮尔伯格也被挂名了。4
似曾相识的大起大落-10/10/21 at AMC Garden State Plaza 16
新版改让老妇唱Somewhere是个神来之笔，五十年已过，没有分歧的应许之地还是只能在电影中幻想
2.5 再厉害的导演也救不了这么一个脱离时代而老套的故事。
这种故事啥都不改放到银幕上太违和了，街头火箭队和鲨鱼队火拼真的像两群gay gansters在斗舞。‘罗密欧’上阳台的经典场景看着像徒手攀岩，配不上‘tonight’。
其实对原版就不太感冒 这个新版更多了一份尴尬
这个完成度超出预期太多了，斯皮尔伯格不愧是你！
几年前看老版的时候不觉得，新版真的看得我坐立难安，几乎要半途离场。一开始以为是文戏节奏太慢，后来发现是男主完全miscast，毫无混混头子气质，演技颜值形体唱功全部掉线，一开口斯老爷子费尽心思渲染的气氛就凉了一半。到最后被女主的三观气到不能自已，进而发现全片没有一个人三观正常。除了加剧的种族分裂，这个故事人物相对于这个时代太失真了，这样的翻拍真的毫无意义
不要插手你妹妹的闲事，否则你会被人捅死。你被捅死当晚你妹妹还会跟杀死你的凶手啪啪啪，再被你老婆抓到。你老婆抓到以后还会被你妹妹劝去给凶手传信，顺便差点被凶手的同伙们轮奸。天要下雨，娘要嫁人，为难别人就是害自己。阿弥陀佛。
吐槽后疫情时代劝退级电影时长的同时，还要替这版“新瓶装旧酒”尴尬——最后三十分钟简直煎熬，故事结束的点也是无比奇怪。要我说不如停在三十分钟前，或者继续把故事讲下去（两个半小时都熬过来了，我还会心疼再多那十几分钟？
没看过原版，觉得整体故事还行，但一些桥段居然让我笑场数次，连中评也不能有
剧情一般，歌曲舞蹈也一般，比较长，几度睡在电影院里。
歌舞部分竟然被压缩至此，绝大部分叙事通过常规方式表达，这点在我看来算是加分项，尤其是不能保证演员唱功的前提下。不过女主演的唱功好棒哦！难怪找她来演白雪公主！可惜中后段不管是布景还是叙事又有点回归舞台剧的感觉，变得有点古怪，最后的结局也是显得很戏剧化。总体还算不错的一部音乐剧电影吧，可能我本来就对这个剧本无感……男主94年的已经这么多主演了🐮🍺
最好的还是音乐和编舞，是每首唱完整个影院都在鼓掌的程度。绝对是今年好莱坞几部歌舞片里最好的。真的会让人感叹“这才是电影的魅力”。故事和前版改动不大，所以稍微感觉有些陈旧？最后结尾处理有点仓促。
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