At one point, Polish troops were brought in to put down a rebellion in Spain, and more particularly in Saragossa. This historical episode, and Saragossa itself, attracted a lot of attention from Polish artists, including the maker of an internationally acclaimed cult movie, as Maciek Proliński reports.

One of the best known painters who represented the Napoleonic legend was January Suchodolski (1797-1875). He painted some 300 works, mainly oils on canvas, many of them battle scenes. Many were lost during the wars, the rest are in Polish and Russian museums. Until recently the artist had been forgotten and disparaged. “Most of his many generally banal paintings teach us merely about the beginnings of historical painting …”, wrote Tadeusz Dobrowolski, an eminent Polish art historian in his “Modern Polish Painting”. Today the artist is ever more highly valued and his works continue to be priced higher at art auctions in Poland (some of Suchodol-
ski’s paintings have a starting price of PLN15,000). Did he pass on much of the tragedy of the Napoleonic wars in Spain? In 1843 he painted “The Storming of the Walls of Saragossa”, illustrating the siege of Saragossa during Napoleon’s Spanish campaign (1809).
It is no secret that Polish Napoleonic tendencies strengthened national symbols of the day, such as the Dąbrowski Mazurka written in 1797 - the national anthem, which includes the line referring to Napoleon “Bonaparte showed us how to win”. Great Polish literature talks about the Napoleonic times, for example in “The Ashes” by Stefan Żeromski (1864-1925), an early 20th-century novel depicting the drama of Polish soldiers fighting Napoleon’s battles in other countries in the name of freedom of their motherland. The social reality of Poland in yesteryear and even earlier has left its imprint on the national consciousness and will probably remain there forever in the emotive state that Żeromski had cast.
It has also shaped itself in the nation’s imagination through its vision of the Polish past during captivity. (…) “Żeromski constantly searched, troubled and shattered. He was bitter, tormenting and brutal when he talked about baseness and brutality of his time,” wrote Henryk Markiewicz about the novel (Książka i Wiedza, 1983).
Żeromski’s works have been adapted for the screen many times. In 1965 “The Ashes” were made into a film by the master of Polish cinema, Andrzej Wajda (br. 1926). “I do not choose to make films from novels written by Henryk Sien-
kiewicz, but rather by Żeromski, because I am not interested in literature that talks about national concord, literature that reconciles everyone with everyone else,” said Wajda during directing the film. “Our heroes are young, immature people from the immature country we inherited after World War I and after we gained independence”, he added. By transferring Żeromski’s epic to the screen, Wajda did not hide the fact that he was particularly interested in “the absurd, while at the same time heroic scenes, similar to many moments in Polish history”. This observation brings to mind the director’s earlier masterpieces, such as “Kanal” and “Ashes and Diamonds”. In those films there were also persistent questions about the boundaries of heroism and about the consequences of confronting Polish myths (the myth of freedom) with Polish history. With “Ashes” Wajda wrote another chapter in the book of extraordinary achievements in the “Polish cinema school”, coming to terms with history and with the war period.
Poles associate the motto “Saragossa” with the “Manuscript Found in Saragossa” (original title “Manuscrit trouvé a Saragosse”), written by Count Jan Nepomucen Potocki (1761-1815) – a Polish author who wrote in French. The book is about the adventures of Alfons von Worden, appointed captain of the Walloon Guard by the Spanish king Philip V, who goes to Spain in 1739. During his travels through the Sierra Morena mountains he meets weird strangers and listens to their incredible tales. “The Manuscript …” was first published in 1813 in French and for many years was unknown in Poland. It was translated into Polish 34 years later. A film based on the novel was produced in 1964 by Wojciech Jerzy Has (1925-2000) with the title “The Saragossa Manuscript”. It is regarded as the most exceptional and amazing film in the history of Polish cinematography, with a cult following in Poland and around the world… In his “Manuscript…” Wojciech Jerzy Has gives us a wonderful consolation. He shows us that a story can have enormous power and huge charm (in its process of creation and in the process of listening). This power of storytelling is even able to conquer death.
Wojciech Has has a huge talent, he is a great poet of the Polish cinema, an exceptional master of mood setting, storyteller about passing and death. His works will always be more than merely “costume comedies”, “mask and sword” and “fantastic fairy tale with ghosts”. This is despite the fact that from among his 14 films, this one is the only cheerful, not to mention jovial and comic movie. The “marvel” is in the fact that with its marvellously attractive form it serves to portray significant messages. That is simply a school of life, a cross-section of society as it was in the 18th century and is today. The hero is supposed to start thinking, and the game is about how he will think. Everything can be interpreted in two ways: mystical and magical Cabbalist philosophy clashes with the humanist rationalism of a Mathematician. It is not only van Worden who has to choose, but also the viewer”, admitted the director during filming “The Manuscript…”

“The Saragossa Manuscript” – American film poster. Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola are among the great admirers of the film and its director Wojciech Has. Thanks to them the film is remembered by cinema lovers overseas. Scorsese and Coppola financed the renovation of the full version of the film, which is acknowledged as one of the hundred most brilliant films in the world (the only Polish film).