The Last Days of Peace

(Pamiętnik pani Hanki)


1963   >   comedy/ drama

A film by Stanisław Lenartowicz, a director underappreciated and overlooked for many years, nowadays rightly recognized as the “mood master” and one of the greatest individualities in Polish cinema.
 
An adaptation of the last novel by Tadeusz Dołęga-Mostowicz, one of the most popular and influential writers of the interwar period, the author of such Polish literary classics as “Znachor” or “Kariera Nikodema Dyzmy”.
 
An excellent reconstruction of the pre-war Warsaw and atmosphere of the environment depicted in the film. 
 
A perceptive satire on the selfishness and blindness of the elites of the Second Polish Republic, epitomized by the title character (Hanka). The literary original fit in perfectly with communist propaganda which blamed the Sanation political authorities for Poland’s defeat in the September campaign. 
 
As a wife of a diplomat preoccupied with his political career, Hanka enjoys her luxurious life of a prominent lady. This beautiful but shallow, reckless and egoistic woman spends all her days having fun in the company of similarly vain representatives of the ruling classes. One day she starts a love affair with a handsome Robert Tonner. Capable of thinking only of herself, she does not realize that her new lover is actually a foreign intelligence agent. Hanka gets involved in a spy affair, which may end tragically for her.

Crew:

director
Stanisław Lenartowicz
script
Stanisław Lenartowicz
d.o.p.
Antoni Nurzyński
designer
Jan Grandys
costumes
Marian Kołodziej
editor
Halina Nawrocka
music
Adam Walaciński
cast
Teresa Szmigielówna, Andrzej Łapicki,
Leon Niemczyk, Lucyna Winnicka,
Jan Machulski, Tadeusz Pluciński
Materials: SD
Length: 99’

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