At Frederick’s command, Henia (Sandra Samos) rolls up Karol’s torn pants legI continue with my erratic foreign movie posts for this year as well as posting on movies adapted from books (as usual, this post will look at the differences between the film adaptation and the novel). For more foreign movies, check out Caroline’s World Cinema Series 2012. I’m trying to get back in the swing of things after being offline for a while…

Pornografia tests the limits of how much you can add or change before a movie becomes something very different from the novel on which it’s based. Don’t get me wrong—it’s a great novel and an enjoyable movie. See my first post on the novel for the general storyline, which remains essentially the same—Frederick and Witold try to engineer the pairing of Henia and Karol, while the residents of a country estate are tasked with the murder of a resistance office. The main themes regarding the interaction of youth and maturity are consistent with the novel. So what changes?

The movie makes good use of visual imagery, such as focusing on moths trapped in a lamp shade—a little heavy handed at times but in this gorgeous film it usually works. The war (World War II), downplayed in the early part of the novel, remains in the forefront of the movie, whether with soldiers visiting the estate for milk and eggs or in a soldier’s rape of a country girl during a dreamlike sequence in the forest.

One addition clarifies an important point of the novel—Veronika, one of the estate’s maids, attempts to seduce Frederick. He gently rejects her, highlighting Witold’s and Frederick’s interest in pairing Karol and Henia for reasons other than physical enjoyment. The best addition to the movie for me was Henia’s reading of the poem “Without You” by Maria Pawlikowska Jasnorzewska. The timing of its reading adds to the impact of the poem (translation from the subtitles, which includes the ellipsis):

I’m bored without you, bored to madness…
Along with my dog and my squirrel…
I write, read, and smoke, and my eyes are still blue.
But all this is just the force of habit…
The dawn is still gray and the dusk gold-blue…
Day crosses to one, night to the other side…
and the roses bloom, seemingly unwilling…
as they can’t do otherwise.
Yet the world has ended, can you understand?
It is no more and won’t bring it to life.
The time is hard and quiet but wait a minute…I…
may be already on the other side.

Henia runs with Frederick and WitoldThere are many other changes which make little difference or represent a different emphasis from the novel, such as the mistress of the estate being an alcoholic. I had to wonder, though, why bother making such a change? There are some key additions, though, I would like to address because they change the course of the story from the novel.

After the arrival of Siemian (the resistance officer who wishes to quit) at the estate, Witold and Frederick slowly scale back their plans for a forced pairing between Karol and Henia. In place of the original plan, the corruption of the youth is to come from their assignment to murder Siemian. On the way to Siemian’s room, Karol and Henia pause for a brief tryst, showing that despite all the elders’ plans youth will follow its own path. What’s most troubling about the scene to me, though, is the impersonal nature of the sex. Karol and Henia demonstrate about as much passion as if they had stopped for a drink of water. All of which may be the point—the rapturous flights of fancy by Witold and Frederick end in a different, cold reality. There are other ways to view the act, too, but whatever your interpretation its inclusion alters some of the dimensions of the story.

The biggest addition revolves around the inclusion of the Holocaust, which (if I remember correctly) is never mentioned or alluded to in the novel. Its inclusion comes completely from left field and markedly modifies the story. Karol and Witold’s visit to town for kerosene provides the first time its presence is felt. Witold, wandering around the store, spies a family hiding in the basement. The next inclusion, though, is what takes the storyline into a completely different direction from the novel. I apologize for not going into more detail after providing other spoilers, but I think discussing it would ruin watching the movie. It’s enough of a change, even though you can argue it is consistent with other themes, to transform the movie into something completely different than the novel.

I’m not sure the addition of this storyline works. It proves to be powerful but adds a maudlin feeling. For the first 90% of the movie, Director Jan Jakub Kolski did a wonderful job of translating a novel that plays out mostly from Witold’s thoughts. Because of that, even with reservations about the added storylines, I still recommend the movie.

Maria (Grazyna Blecka-Kolska), the mistress of the estate, and Frederick (Krzysztof Majchrzak)