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Polish comedies created by Bareja, are they understandable for non Polish people ?

posts: 9

Wroclaw_666Threads: 3 Posts: 69 Joined: Sep 20, 11 ♂	Oct 31, 11, 08:34 #1
Yesterday I watched "Co mi zrobisz jak mnie złapiesz", an old Polish comedy, from 1978. I wonder if the sense of this movie is understandable for people who has no relation with "old times" in communistic Poland. This comedy ridicules the old Polish system. What is your opinion ?

Foreigner4Threads: 22 Posts: 1,990 Joined: Nov 18, 07 ♂	Oct 31, 11, 13:13 #2
I have tried and while conceptually I get the jokes, the humour isn't there.

CosmopolishThreads: - Posts: 14 Joined: Oct 31, 11 ♂	Oct 31, 11, 15:02 #3
I think it may be difficult to grasp for people who didn't live in Poland during those times. Probably the situation were to abstract for others to get it.

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Oct 31, 11, 22:37 #4

there is a one genial scene in the movie that happens when the main prothagonists drinks in a pub in Hungary and retells to some Hungarian lad he's drinking with (the Hungarian is already dead drunk) the story of Otello (he was at a 'Otello' spectacle in a Budapest theatre that day) - he grabs the waiter's neck to show how Otello strangled Desdemona and the panicked waiter (a Hungarian too obviously) gives back the change from the notes he just received from the Polish guy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjyAlRfeNk0&feature=related - the scene starts at 1:45 more or less

JonnyMThreads: 16 Posts: 4,487 Joined: Mar 9, 11 ♂	Oct 31, 11, 22:49 #5
Wroclaw_666: are they understandable for non Polish people ? Yes but they're still tenth rate...

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Edited by: Wroclaw_666 Nov 1, 11, 08:04 #6

gumishu:

there is a one genial scene

This movie is a miscellany of genial scenes. In general this commedy consists of many threads, which consists of few scenes at each thread. This is one big impression (parody) for the communism in PL, I believe it was hard censored, but still shows a the real face of the old system.

Stanislaw Bareja created also few another comedies in that style e.g. Miś, Brunet wieczorową porą and also serials like Alternatywy 4 or Zmiennicy. I can't imagine how can he fund and publish their movies in that time, as far as I know he fought with censors very hard. "Alternatywy 4" has been published in TV few yeard after they completed it.

Another interesting thing is that all best actors have played in Bareja's movies. I believe that everyone wanted to take a part in the parody of the hated political system.

mafketisThreads: 17 Posts: 1,880 Joined: Mar 31, 08 ♂	Nov 1, 11, 08:18 #7
genial =/= genialny (you can find that meaning in the dictionary but it's outdated and I've never heard a native use it that way) genial = sympatyczny (meaning for native speakers of english) Due to changing social mores and political systems Bareja's movies are probably funnier for non-Poles who knew something of Poland then than for younger Polish people.

Wroclaw_666Threads: 3 Posts: 69 Joined: Sep 20, 11 ♂	Nov 1, 11, 08:43 #8
mafketis: genial =/= genialny (you can find that meaning in the dictionary but it's outdated and I've never heard a native use it that way) genial = sympatyczny (meaning for native speakers of english) You are right, thank you.

mafketisThreads: 17 Posts: 1,880 Joined: Mar 31, 08 ♂	Nov 1, 11, 09:23 #9
Brilliant is a good (US) equivalent of genialny, not sure about British usage where it's often used to mean something like 'great' or 'awesome'. Bareja is a little hit or miss for me and he gets some really bad ideas (esp with any non-white character) but at his best he had a better understanding of the day-to-day Polish national character (and how to deflate it) than anyone else.

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