The creator of excellent comedies that ridiculed the realities of life in the People's Republic of Poland often fell victim to the system himself. This is the realities of filming "Miś" and other hits by Stanisław Bareja.
Today, the term "bareism" is associated with a funny absurdity that touched the average citizen of communist (and not only) Poland. It turns out, however, that this phrase was invented for a completely different purpose…
In 1968 or 1969, Kazimierz Kutz used it to criticize the film "Wife for an Australian". For him, the term bareizm meant simply a stupid and infantile genre of joke that attracted crowds of unrefined viewers to the cinema . Meanwhile, the then Polish authorities saw something completely different in bareizmach. What exactly?
Laugh at the party
In the times of the Polish People's Republic, the scripts of the films were read very carefully by censors - and appropriately "corrected" so that too many scenes critical to the system could not be smuggled in. For some time, even production was deliberately made difficult - especially those with a mocking tone. However, this did not stop the master from laughing at the communist reality, Stanisław Bareja.
Bareja's satire was too hard to swallow for the party tops. He, on the other hand, aware of the importance of his decision, continued to create new films despite obstacles. As Maciej Replewicz describes:
In spite of the dominant trend, films by Has, Kawalerowicz and Wajda, he wanted to have fun and make you laugh. No metaphysics or mysticism. Without in-depth analyzes of the human psyche. No dramatic settlements with the war past. Stanisław Bareja has always wanted to make comedies, knowing that it was a difficult and thankless choice. In the eyes of critics, each comedy was in a losing position with my colleagues' titled films.
On top of that, there were other problems. Polish filmmakers in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s did not have an easy life. Example? When Bareja submitted his musical project "Adventure with a song" for evaluation, the Script Evaluation Committee ordered a number of changes - including replacing Vienna with Paris. The problem is that going abroad, to the capital of the "evil, capitalist" country, in order to make the entire movie was out of the question, so the promenade in Paris was characterized by ... the vicinity of the entrance to the Grand Theater in Łódź.
Stanisław Bareja lived in the era of bareisms
The outdoor scenes, however, had to be created in the right location, so after long battles with the bureaucracy, the team went to the Seine. On the spot, it turned out that the French do not really want to pursue a career as extras in Polish production. As the "natives" fled the shots, Bareja himself eventually played a passerby with a traditional baguette.
The difficulties did not end when the director gained popularity. On the contrary - the party started to throw logs at his feet. For the purposes of filming later comedies, he received a lower allocation of film tapes - about 30-50 percent of the quota for "ideologically right" filmmakers. In addition, the operators had to work with the Arriflex 35mm camera, which ... was found in a barn, abandoned by the retreating Germans! The equipment was manufactured in 1943, so it's no wonder it took a lot of effort to keep it alive somehow.
But according to Bareja, the hardware problems were not the worst that could happen to him. “This stage of work on the film, compared to the numerous difficulties with the script and the finished film, is a piece of cake. Although cameras and tapes are missing, the equipment is worn out, and the transport is bad. However, these difficulties can be overcome ” - said the director.
Movie against idea
It was worse with the "political correctness" of his films during the communist regime. In the script of "Miś" alone, censorship ordered the removal or modification of as many as thirty scenes. The effect was that the film, even fresh from its release, looked as if something had been hastily cut out of it. Perhaps this is why, despite the undoubted success (fifth place in the ranking of Polish films for 1981, 626,000 viewers until December 13 of that year), the reviews were not flattering. In "Przyjaciółka" it was written:
(...) we got a cluster of gags and skits quite clumsy together and clearly underdeveloped in terms of directors and scripts. Some of them are actually witty and original, so what if everything together resembles a stage compilation rather than a real film comedy. Definitely the funniest thing about this film is the fact that it was made exactly a year ago and sent back by censorship for political reasons (yes!).
Anyway, difficulties appeared at every step during the filming of "The Teddy Bear". The best example is the fact that the film crew could not get a real ham and sausage. After all, such delicacies should not have been shown on the screen! Cured meats were harder to come by than passports and visas to Great Britain. And after showing the finished film to the censorship, it turned out that the scene showing the "very juicy" Polish ham available for purchase in London is not suitable for showing in domestic cinemas ...
The success of silly movies
The propaganda of the Polish People's Republic did everything to silence Stanisław Bareja. Meanwhile, his films, regardless of the voice of party critics and unflattering reviews, won the hearts of viewers.
About 3 million viewers watched "There is a Rose Without Fire" with a star cast in Poland. Abroad - there were about 9 million of them in total. The painting earned over PLN 16 million. And that's at a time when most Polish films barely covered the production costs.
Still from the movie "There is no rose without fire"
However, Bareja's popularity was not seen in the official media. On the subject of "Brunet in the evening time" in "Gazeta Krakowska" one could, for example, read the following sentence:" Most viewers, after leaving the cinema, would take part in the search for Stanisław Bareja, the director and co-writer of this work, to recover at least some of the money spent on the ticket. zlotys ". Needless to say, we are talking about a film that outclasses most of modern comedies and is a great place to have fun today!
On the other hand, the director did not have to look far for inspiration. The times in which he wrote were full of… bareisms. For example, when Bareja's neighbor, when he was forced to renovate his own apartment and shoot scenes for "Wanted, Wanted", denounced him. For what? Well, the bricklayer hired to erect the partition wall did it so sluggishly that the simple matter took over a month. According to the resident of the premises next to Barej, she is certainly "renovating her apartment at the expense of the film". And what does the main stakeholder say? Of course, he used the whole situation for the next scenario…
Bibliography:
- Łuczak, M., Miś, that is about Stanisław Barea . Prószyński i S-ka, Warsaw 2001.
- Replewicz, M., The eye was sticking off this bear…. Fronda Publishing House, Warsaw, 2015.
- Replewicz, M., Stanisław Bareja. The king of the crooked mirror. Zysk i S-ka, Poznań, 2009.