Brzezina (1970)

small|left|Jacek Malczewski’s painting Thanatos (1899), which is quoted in Brzezina. The story takes place in the 1920s. Stanisław, Bolesław’s brother, arrives at the forester’s lodge deep in the forest, suffering from advanced tuberculosis and hoping to spend the last months of his life there. Bolesław, a widower living with his daughter Ola and their elderly housekeeper Katarzyna, treats his extravagant brother like an intruder. He cannot bear Stanisław’s mood swings and watches with suspicion as a friendship develops between his brother and Ola. Reluctantly, Bolesław agrees to buy a piano at Stanisław’s request. Soon after arriving at the lodge, Stanisław meets Malina, a peasant woman with whom he has an affair. During a casual bicycle ride with Malina, Stanisław becomes weak. He goes for a walk and comes across Bolesław’s wife’s grave. Nearby, he notices Ola, who explains to him how her mother died. When Stanisław and Ola return to the lodge, Bolesław is gazing at Jacek Malczewski’s painting Thanatos. Bolesław tells his brother about his wife and the grief he suffered after losing her. At the same time, he condemns Stanisław for his affair with Malina, leading to an argument between the brothers. He also tries to force the truth about his wife’s supposed infidelity out of his daughter through a cruel interrogation. Before long, Bolesław begins to take the initiative in his rivalry with his brother. When he encounters Malina, he brutally seduces her. Stanisław’s health, meanwhile, deteriorates, and he eventually dies. His piano is sold, and, at Bolesław’s request, his room is thoroughly cleared out. In the final scene, Bolesław rides away on horseback with Ola, regaining his vigor and will to live. Compared with Iwaszkiewicz’s literary original, Wajda’s film includes a number of scenes that do not appear in the short story: scenes of mutual attraction between Stanisław and Malina (riding a bicycle together, exchanging glances during an outing to the lake with Ola, and finally the Easter water-splashing custom of Śmigus-Dyngus), which emphasize Malina’s vitality and instinctive eroticism; an impulsive exchange between the jealous Bolesław and Stanisław, occurring as Bolesław gazes at Malczewski’s painting, which makes Bolesław’s initial aversion to sensual love clear; Bolesław’s humiliation of Malina while his brother is ill—in the short story, “their meetings had nothing passionate about them,” whereas in the corresponding film scene Bolesław’s long-concealed erotic brutality comes to the fore; and the scene in which Bolesław interrogates Ola. Whereas in the short story Bolesław merely ponders Ola’s overheard confidence, which suggests his wife’s marital infidelity, in the film he tries to force his daughter brutally to confess the truth.