Director: Wojciech Has
Country: Poland
Award: none
Movement: none
The Doll or Lalka is a 1968 Polish film, directed by Wojciech Jerzy Has. The film is an adaptation of the novel The Doll by Bolesław Prus, which is regarded by many as one of the finest Polish novels ever written. The influence of Émile Zola is evident, and some have compared the novel to Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert; both were Prus’s contemporaries. The movie, however, may be more compared to Stendhal’s The Red and the Black. Set in the 19th century Warsaw. The indolence of aristocrats who, secure with their pensions, are too lazy to undertake new business risks, frustrates Wokulski. His ability to make money is respected but his lack of family and social rank is condescended to. Because of his “help” (in secret) to “the doll’s” impecunious but influential father, the girl becomes aware of his affection. This poetic love story follows a nouveau riche merchant, Stanisław Wokulski (played by Mariusz Dmochowski), through a series of trials and tribulations occasioned by his obsessive passion for an aristocratic beauty, Izabela Łęcka (played by Beata Tyszkiewicz).
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