Polish filmmaker Andrzej Wajda's 1979 film Maids Of Wilko (Panny Z Wilka- also translated as Young Girls Of Wilko) shows that, like such filmmakers as Ingmar Bergman, Robert Bresson, and Yasujiro Ozu, he is an artist more interested in endurances than mere 'scenes.' His characters speak as if philosophers, but in a naturalistic style. They are not the hyper-educated bourgeoisie of Bergman, the spiritual elitists of Bresson, nor the everyday philosophes of Ozu. Yet, there's something more to them, and Wajda, than what is on the screen, even if the film, as a whole, fails to reach great heights.

His two most famous Polish descendents in cinema, Roman Polanski and Krzysztof Kieslowski, are filmmakers who believe in indulgence. This is not a comment on the success of their indulgences, merely a recognition of them. Polanski, for example, has a predilection for the Grand Guignol, and would have been perfectly at home in the 1920s, making silent films alongside the great German Expressionists. Kieslowski, on the other hand, grew into a filmmaker who heaped visual razzle-dazzle with spiritual symbolism, almost to the point of surfeit.

By contrast, Wajda's film is a Chekhovian chamber play, although most of it is set outdoors. It is one of those works of art in which, in answer to a query such as, 'What is it about?', the only answer is nothing and everything. It is, in a sense, akin to Betty Smith's fantastic novel of female maturation in early Twentieth Century America, A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, save that much of the basics are inverted. The lead in Maids Of Wilko- despite its title, is a thirtysomething veteran of war. Instead of his eventual departure from his youthful stomping grounds, he is returning to them after fifteen years away, in the late 1920s (since 1922 and '23 are mentioned as being some time ago),in which time he was in World War One, and ended up a farm manager outside of a big city. The interwar years make this film a historical period piece, unlike most of the films of Polanski and Kieslowski, which are set in contemporary times, and it's interesting to note how similar the characters are to their counterparts in films set in other countries at the same period of time, rather than their differences…. Maids Of Wilko was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award in 1980, but while it's a very good film, it's not a great one, and never really soars into the stratosphere. The three other sisters in the film, Julia (Anna Seniuk),Jola (Maja Komorowska),and Zosia (Stanislawa Celinska) are not as well defined as Tunia nor Kazia, to the point of their being almost interchangeable, yet the situations sketched, and the actors who play the three other main characters are wonderful. The only semi-memorable moment for Jola- a blond with a facial mole, is when she lectures Wiktor that, 'Moral authority is invoked by those who live immoral lives.' By contrast, there is one standout scene, when Kazia comes to a party in a dress she borrows, dances with Wiktor, and takes off her eyeglasses, that defines her character and the futility of mere words in capturing emotion. It is almost 'pure cinema.' She tips her head backward so he can kiss her, but when he does not, the look of disappointment on her face is palpable enough to be felt by every viewer. It is a moment no novel nor poem could capture, for it forces all the viewers into the same position, as they reflect on their own disappointments.

It is in moments like this, that do not go wasted, that Wajda proves he is a great film director, even if his overall film falls shy of that claim. Everything in Maids Of Wilko has import, if not to a character than to the viewer, and that is a rarity. The film is complex without being overly complicated. It plays out like a Brontë or Dickens novel with more depth. The same is true for the handsome yet deep Wiktor, who never quite learns the power of the word, even if I do. It is: ….

The male lead in this movie is handsome, accomplished, kind and well meaning, but he does not comprehend the harm he has caused his female friends (and lovers)in his country town 15 years ago. He suffers the loss of a good friend in his new surroundings and returns to his old town for comfort and rest. But he has learned nothing about his lack of understanding of the depth of love he can inspire. Even when he discovers that a previous lover had lost her life to pain, he begins again, unknowingly, to hurt a girl of a younger generation. There is not a wasted word or movement in the movie. Everything is important. I loved the movie and will buy it and watch it over and over.

This movie is a super-ten. It is as good as any Ibsen play.

I had never heard of Andrzej Wajda until the Academy Awards gave him an honorary Oscar. I assumed at the time that Jane Fonda had mispronounced his first name, but it turned out that she pronounced it correctly (AHN-jay). It wasn't until a few years later that I started watching his movies. One that I just watched is 1979's "Panny z Wilka" ("The Maids of Wilko" in English),an adaptation of a short story by Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz. Like Nikita Mikhalkov's "Burnt by the Sun", it shows a man visiting some people in the countryside whom he'd left many years earlier. But unlike that one - in which the (unpleasant) surprise comes from the visitor - here it's the visitor who gets a surprise.

I read that there's speculation that Wajda made this movie palatable to Poland's Soviet-backed authorities, so that they wouldn't notice when he made "Man of Iron" (a movie supporting the Labor Solidarity Movement). Whatever the case, it's an outstanding movie. I recommend it.

PS: Maja Komorowska (Jola) is the cousin of Poland's former Pres. Bronislaw Komorowski.