Zemsta

Color, NR (mature themes), 100 min. VHS $79.95, DVD $29.95, Polish with English subtitles

DVD: no extras

Street: Sept. 30, Prebook: now

First Run: L, Int'l. 2002, NA

Cast: Roman Polanski (A Pure Formality), Janusz Gajos (White), Andrzej Seweryn (Genealogies of a Crime), Katarzyna Figura (The Pianist),

Director: Andrzej Wajda

VANGUARD

Story Line: In 17th-century Poland, two noblemen (Gajos, Seweryn) occupying opposite ends of the same castle conduct a nasty feud. Papkin (Polanski), a wandering minstrel, is recruited into carrying messages back and forth between the warring parties. In the meantime, Waclaw (Krolikowski), the son of one nobleman, plots to marry Klara (Buzek), the niece of the other.

Bottom Line: Polanski has acted so rarely on screen that it is easy to forget that he is a remarkably fine performer, possessing a somewhat creepy presence and a fine sense of comic timing. The 2002 Zemsta (The Revenge) is a top-notch, classically styled farce by Polish master director Wajda that went virtually unseen in the U.S. The film proceeds along familiar Shakespearean lines but moves at a fast clip and, appropriately enough given the nature of the material, features a sextet of gleefully hammy performances. As he proved in Giuseppe Tornatore's A Pure Formality and his own The Tenant, Polanski excels at scene-stealing in emotionally overwrought, claustrophobic pieces. Here he does a classic braggart/liar/coward turn of the sort perfected by Danny Kaye and Bob Hope. Zemsta deserves a push by retailers with a steady cadre of foreign film fanatics. The film is part of Vanguard's ongoing release of works by Wajda, including his forgotten titles (Landscape After Battle) and some classics (Man of Marble). --Ed Grant

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