Inside Saragossa

Wojciech Has’ film The Saragossa Manuscript is many things to many people. To fans of 60s Counter-Culture it is a head movie, to Lynch enthusiasts it is surrealist film, to story tellers it is a labyrinth and puzzle.

But when searching for underlying influences, the city of Krakow, Poland, is to be found everywhere. Wojciech Has was born in Krakow (1925) where he was childhood friends with Mieczyslaw Jahoda (Director of Photography) and Jerzy Skarzynski (Set and Costume Designer). The film is shot in a semi-mountainous area just one hour north of Krakow. Cybulski was a graduate from Krakow acting school, where Iga Cembrzynska was also just about to graduate, and the whole film was only possible thanks to the cooperation of the artistic community of the Krakow theatre scene bending its timetables to accommodate shooting. Krzysztof Penderecki was educated at Krakow State Academy of Musicand had recently become a rector of another music school in Krakow. Even, the novel’s author’s name ‘Potocki’ is a great aristocratic family name originating from Potok in the Krakow Voivodship.

It is in Krakow, 1960s Poland, operating on rules largely unknown and incomprehensible to the West that perhaps the key to understanding The Saragossa Manuscript lies. A reality where although celebrating new freedoms upon the end of Social Realism, everyday life remained anything but settled and comprehensible.

So pull up your most comfortable chair, take a deep breath, and disconnect your mind from what you think you know. You’re going on a Journey, back to Spain, 18th Century, to Madrid….

60s Counter Culture

The ideology of the 60s was able to cross borders unhindered and it was only products of that culture (music, literature, film) that couldn’t infiltrate. Countries experiencing cultural blockades therefore had to produce their own versions.

Where’s the Target?

Not all film is made within a free market for a commercial audience. Imagine if there was a ‘Director of Culture’ in charge instead of a producer and constant supply of new film makers and actors graduating from specialist state funded film schools. Further more, imagine if stars and cleaners earn the same wage.

Whatever Makes You Laugh

What happens when you live under a state system that makes absolutely no sense, that is unwanted yet (supposedly) supported by all, where everyday life becomes increasingly farcical as surrealism and realism merge into one? Humour based on the absurd and disbelief emerges.

Travel Broadens the Mind

Youth often considers travel and adventure instrumental in coming of age, but not everyone is free to travel or has the passport to do so. For some, all journeys must begin and end at home or are travels of the mind.

Who is Pulling your Strings?

You have no control over your life and key decisions are made for you by those around you. Even if you try to take your life back into your hands, ultimately comes the realisation that notion of controlling your own destiny has been given to you by others.

Welcome to the farcical, dark, satirical, and baffling world of The Saragossa Manuscript. Enjoy!

Timjim 2008

Wojciech Has (1925-2000)

Wojciech Has (1925-2000) is regarded as one of Poland’s most adventurous yet sensitive film-makers. Known to be a great observer of his surroundings, his films tell stories through mood as much as narrative.

Pre-Production

The starting point of the whole project for Has was being introduced to and then reading Potocki’s novel. However, thereafter his background and education in painting took control of proceedings.

Together with set/costume designer Jerzy Skarzynski a series of illustrations were drawn, setting the tone for the film that went on to feature in the opening credits. The illustrations took on a surrealist feel, probably in reaction to the end of the era of Social realism in Poland, but otherwise contained no direct social or political hints.

From here the script was then written by Tadeusz Kwiatkowski, which was accepted by Has without alteration. Has, however, then went on to develop his shooting script in which he considerably altered many aspects of the original screenplay. This shooting script was compiled with incredible precision and detail including camera movement. It is this shooting script that became The Saragossa Manuscript.

The Saragossa Manuscript is not just a film, but a whole make-believe world in itself as from the original illustrations and the shooting script was created an entire country. The set featured over 100 buildings that took over 7 months to prepare and within these building were extensive props, most of which were designed and created for the film.

Production

Has regarded film as more like human thought rather than an activity as you don’t know where it will take you. He was therefore a believer in allowing his films to grow their own energy, embracing the notion that film is regulated by its own rules and that the movie world does not need to pretend to be real.

While the shooting script was exact, there was enormous room left for the cast to develop their roles. In fact right from the very beginning, there were never screen tests to acclimatise the actors and on set Has rarely provided them with instructions. Instead he observed each shot, choosing whether to accept it or re-shot it, but never giving any criticism, good or bad, to the actors. A firm believer in self motivation, the only advice he gave Beata Tyszkiewicz while viewing the rushes was that she should listen to herself and decide if she is lying or not. While this technique coerced fine performances from the seasoned professionals on the cast (Holoubek) or the talented new-comers (Cembrzynska), it left others all at sea.

Themes

Has’ most common motif is that of the journey and many of his films tell the same story but in different ways. Nearly all involve the desire to go places and escape from enclosed spaces, as characters struggle to settle into the reality of their own lives. It is claimed that Krakow is embedded in his movies and that it is through them that he attempted to come to terms with his surroundings and to keep his head above them (1960s Krakow was extremely poor).

More specifically, the dominant theme in The Saragossa Manuscript seems to be that of duality. On a broad scale, the real or unreal, magical or mathematical, believer or sceptic. Or in closer detail, Muslim or Christian, dead or alive, libertine or pensive. Throughout the film there are frequently pairs, the foreign Princesses, the Hanged brothers, the duellists, and finally even Alphonse himself divides up into two people in the most talked-about mirror scene at the end of the film.

Has’ Later Career

In 1974 Wojciech Has became a lecturer in Directing at the Lodz film school in Poland, before becoming the dean of the directing department in 1989. In 1990 he became the school’s provost, a position he retained for 6 years.

In the later part of his career, it became more and more obvious that the unique circumstances that led to the production of films such as The Saragossa Manuscript were now a thing of the past and Has became aware that modern ways of film-making meant he would never be able to make another movie.

With money now firmly in the driving seat, he continued to work with film by moving into teaching and educating others. Has has said of himself.

“My cinema, my film narratives are visual in nature… Their point of departure is always literature. Operating on time. Abbreviations of time. Jumps in time. Sidetracks and various layers. Space is the domain of painting; time is the domain of literature and film. Playing with time activates the imagination of film viewers (…) the fundamental topic of cinema to me is that of the journey.” (Culture.pl)

Memorial to Wojciech Has in Wraclaw, Poland.

Timjim 2008