Original subtitles

He was first.

Neither Edison nor Proszynski, but he

Josef Andryszek I a blacksmith of Popielawy.

His camera was simple:

a magic lantern,

a cherry wood frame,

belt transmission,

a transport gear shaped like a slice of bread,

and a lens to boot.

We've just wrapped.

The film's a little about this and something else.

The director's happy, like the cameraman and the rest.

And me?

I wrote a story long ago, as a boy.

I've had my fun already.

No I recall the characters.

Josef V, a blacksmith, like his ancestor-

His son Jozef VI, takes after his late mother.

Hanutka - in and out of Popielawy all the time.

She talked Kulawik into burning the engine house with the movie machine inside.

The promised reward -

his first night with a woman.

That's what started it all

as far as I remember.

This film will be about a very frail thing, remembrance.

THE STORY OF THE CINEMA FROM THE VILLAGE OF POPIELAWY

Diary. Day one. Winter.

I've just come to Popielawy. I'll go to school here.

"Don’t worry", said my folks, Popielawy got everything".

You know what it was?

- What did you burn? - A machine.

Machine...

What do you say? Burning bright, eh?

Wasn't it?

Andryszek?

Come closer.

The fire burned the invention so fast

there was nothing to salvage.

Jozef V returned to blacksmithing.

The village chewed the fat for a while and soon stopped.

Everything passes.

Fuck it!

I miss the town of Lodz less and less.

The fall must be uglier up there.

Her revenge to Andryszek taken Hanutka breathed easy.

Love must have spurred it.

Kulawik rides around and cries.

It's love too.

It worries Sixth

he did not sketch the machine.

The family kept it for a hundred years.

Dark clouds aplenty.

Now a ray of sunshine.

Uncle Janek arrives today

with a movie-on-wheels from Bedkowo.

Wear this to the movies and this afterwards.

You will have talked to St. Rock by that time.

he always asks questions,

Then answer him, Staszek.

St. Rock, I beg you

not to ask me anything and let me pass by in peace.

The whole Poland was waiting for his statement.

Have you, shitass, forgotten?

It was a beautiful film, Sir Saint,

very beautiful.

A servant girl return to her village from the town.

She had a man's suit her master left her.

Every peasant wanted to wear it.

A beautiful film, Sir Saint.

About love, that is. A very big love.

Weronika Andryszek. Died in 1962 at the age of 26.

How you doing...

in the grave?

Go away.

Fuck that machine!

- I'm angry no more. Have forgotten already. - But you don't want to forgot her!

I may well want to,

but she still lives.

It's me who lives. It's me.

Hanutka...

Look, geese are flying away.

Autumn's over again.

The geese have flown away. Autumn's over again.

It'll be white with snow.

Andryszek V goes to Hanutka again.

I wonder what attracts him to her.

Maybe love.

You know what?

Your hands are godsend.

Well, Kulawik, going to the movies?

To the movies? To Hanutka for kissy-kissy.

- What a movie it'd be! - About love!

May the good Lord change the snow to frost,

-30C to freeze you stiff!

May your movie-on-wheels get stuck on the way!

What if it doesn't come?

Uncle Janek comes here any kind of weather.

What if he doesn't?

All right.

- They got his goat. - Who do you mean? - Kulawik.

- The snow's gone. - Bullshit.

Sixth...

Jesus Christ! Uncle Janek!

Sixth!

Sixth!

Who let you, shitasses, fiddle with it?

How are Father V and Gramps IV?

They never saw me come to the movie house.

Defrost yourself, Baska, defrost.

I wonder what you'll call next Andryszek Jozef?

Seventh? You'd better change it to another name.

Seventh? What a stupid idea!

Seven-bis.

But that would have to be a girl.

You don't number girls, do you, Sixth?

No, we don't.

- Sixth? - Yes, Uncle.

Do you still look for those pictures of Jozef I?

Yes, but they must've burned with the engine house.

What if they didn't?

Your late mom, my sister, told me to keep then.

She wanted you dad, my brother-in-law,

to apply himself to work more rather than only watch them,

muse about the future, and bend his elbow to boot.

Capish, Sixth?

- A bit perhaps. - A bit perhaps.

So now I know how you're going to turn.

I've discovered today how powerful movie-on-wheels is.

It can make a man come to life. And a horse too.

It melts ice and also makes wild animals lose their fear.

But can't stop me from wetting my pants around St. Rock.

Sixth was happy about the found pictures.

He left them with me not to let Dad sell them for booze.

I haven't written that since Sixth's mom died,

Andryszek V has taken to the bottle a lot.

That's why Sixth is so sad all the time.

But he's going to cheer up tomorrow.

We'll trace the history of the invention in the pictures.

I can hardly wait.

I'm Jozef Andryszek, the first blacksmith in the family.

Good too. They come to me rather than to the manor smithy.

I'm going to get married soon.

Every next Andryszek will be Jozef and a blacksmith too.

I'm First, my son will be Second. And his son - Third.

This is my will.

It doesn't make me happy, though.

Look Jozef,

blacksmith Jozef Suchemi makes different plows.

The moldboard is hammered and screwed on.

Good. Then it cuts deeper and the furrows run even.

But we could use even four screws

and then could control the furrow.

I'm better blacksmith than that one.

But it doesn't make me any happier.

Should I stamp my foot on it, Jozef?

Right. Go ahead and do it.

And this will make it spin,

pick the yarn and wind it up around the thingamajig?

Mother...

That doesn't make me happy.

OK.

But they aren't moving.

Aren't moving at all.

Just standing like stiffs.

That doesn't make me happy in the least.

When was the Defloration Right annulled, eh?

A complete design. It says everything.

About the dimensions,

the right wood for the cogwheels,

for the box.

Everything.

Could this really work?

I don't know. I guess not.

Uncle Janek said it did.

How about the light source? There was no electricity.

There was fore, though.

Well?

Must you look at it? What's so interesting?

Everything.

One madman in the family is quite enough.

All the rest are blacksmiths. Capish?

That's our blacksmith's lot. You can't beat it.

You get it?

I'm not going to be a blacksmith.

Right, you aren't.

You're too weak.

No.

Not that.

Then why?

I'll be an inventor like First.

I won't be a drunk either.

Come here.

Come the fuck here, shitass!

You don't know it, sonny.

You don't know it early on.

What?

I'll make you heaven on earth.

I'll kiss the ground you walk on.

Hanutka, I've had a woman.

I'm not greedy.

People already pass me by, a drunken wretch.

They don't come to the smithy as before.

I don't need much.

Say a word and I'll leave everything for you.

I'll try hard to earn your love.

I've loved already, Hanutka. Enough of loving.

He could use it.

Look!

- See? - I'll burn your eyes out.

Go ahead.

Do it.

Burn them out. A good match with my burnt-out soul.

Come on burn them out!

I'll do it when you leave me.

With acid.

I'll leave you, Hanutka.

I'll sure leave you.

My name is Andryszek V.

I'm the fifth blacksmith in the family.

A drunk.

Leave it sonny, I beg you.

Your mind will get confused,

You wish you could do it, eh?

Dad, what you're doing?

All you can do is destroy, you fucking blacksmith!

- I won't be a blacksmith. - You will.

- I won't. - You will.

- I won't. - You will.

- I won't. - You will. - I won't.

I'll harden you. I'll harden your body.

Others will harden your soul- You'll be a blacksmith.

You’ll shoe horses,

hammer shares, fix axes like your grandpa and your dad.

I'll put all this shit out of your head

and cool down your burning noggin.

A man needs a station on earth. Capish?

You will be a blacksmith.

I won't.

Stay put.

Daddy...

You won't be my father!

Leave it, Janek.

Leave it.

Polish newsreel No. 12 1968.

On July 22, the Polish Copper Basin will start production.

The hoist towers of two mines are working already.

Ever been to the beach? Seen the sea?

- No. - I have!

I've been there too.

Do seagulls really like the kishka?

I don't know.

All that sea is a piece of shit.

How do you know?

I've seen it in the movies.

But you haven't been there.

Have you been to Bedkowo, Ciosny, Lominy, Slugocice?

No, I haven't.

See? But I have.

I've been to Pyskowice at my grandma's. We were riding all night long.

There was a garden with cabbages and flowers there.

Break!

- Will you take me along? - Yes.

- What will we be doing? - Everything.

Everything?

Will we cry?

No, we won't.

You know what?

I fuck such a love.

Hanutka, if you want, we will.

Kid, I can only cry with a man, though.

Andryszek, don’t kill me.

Come to the movies.

- Hey! - Don't ask me. I got more important things on my mind.

A lot happened before winter arrived.

Sixth got seriously ill.

After the hospital, he went to a TB sanatorium.

His dad saw him off to the bus. Sixth cried.

Before long someone set fire to Hanutka’s house.

The fire was like that in the engine house.

Hanutka went to a textile mill in the town of Lodz. This time for good, it seems.

Scenes from the film Jadzka keep haunting me.

The most beautiful film that.

Thanks to the film, I seems to have stopped wetting my pants around St. Rock.

Winter will be here soon.

I gathered brushwood with Granny for the stove.

I may never know how that invention looked like.

You're feeling better?

Is that right?

Yes, better.

- They'll soon let you go. - I know.

Are you happy?

Your hair has turned gray.

I stopped drinking, son.

Won't you open it?

How come you got it?

How?

I drew them all.

Daddy!

I watched them so long that I remembered everything. Each screw.

Mom neither liked that machine nor my painting.

I used to come over to her, like I come to you.

Tomorrow, the priest will do it, but today, I am.

I give you the name of Jozef

and the second blacksmith number.

I'll burn it in your heart once you understand anything.

A circle...No, not that. The picture won't stop then.

What is it going to look like?

St. Peter, St. Martin, St... St. John.

St. Rock.

You keep silent.

It doesn't make me happy, though.

Like a slice of bread,

you stupid clod!

Like a slice of bread. How simple this is!

That makes me happy at last.

No, it can't be so.

I got to make it move.

- God speed you, Jozef. - God speed you, Madam.

Is that your son?

Mine.

Jozef, too?

He is. And soon a blacksmith also.

You're building a devilish contraption, they say.

You may say so.

Do you have any spare time for pleasures?

Blacksmithing is pleasure.

Is it really?

If you want a real one,

you know where to find me.

Study, Joe, it's a very important subject.

In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy spirit.

In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy spirit. Amen.

Will you go to bed?

Wait for al while.

How long, Jozef?

God knows it's been three years already.

You're young.

Yes, I am.

I have blood and a heart. And I don't want to wait any more,

Understand?

She has a heart and blood too.

Who?

The machine.

She's like a human who wants to come to life.

I can't refuse her.

Remember Joe: a full circle is twenty-two steps.

That will be 16 pictures per second.

Yes!

Well? It's working.

A slice of bread.

A heart rather than a slice of bread.

You wouldn't know yourself if you did it for the first time.

I made a box, attached a belt drive,

the number of revolutions fixed for 16 pictures exactly.

I put in light.

But pictures?

What to paint them on

to make them run one by one and let the light shine through.

You don't know, do you?

I know: swim and urinary bladders.

Urinary and swim bladders.

What you're looking at?

- Nothing. - Show me.

My leg!

My leg!

Sixth has bone TB. The diagnosis was confirmed.

Poor Sixth. He may lose his leg.

I don't want to think about it.

Such a restless boy, so fast, without legs?

Andryszek is crushed.

He keeps visiting the professor who leaves little room for hope.

I visited Sixth too.

We talked about the movie machine.

He is my child!

Come! Come!

I beg your pardon!

It may be too late.

You won't cut off his legs.

They're coming! I saw the car!

They're coming!

You know what to turn and how?

- I know, Uncle. - Turn to your heart's content.

A very special showing, this. As if for VIP's.

Understand? Only for you and Staszek.

Jadzka?

Why don't you come to school?

You believe it, Staszek?

I do.

Like you believe in God or more?

Like in God.

I believe it even more.

- What are you doing? - I'm praying.

Don't worry. It's the head that makes inventions.

And that's what they don't want to cut off.

I came to you with him after he was born, remember?

So did my father with me and his with him.

We've been coming here for generations

to welcome a new life with you, but not to part with it.

I won't take it at that, you hear me?

I won't take it at that!

The fuck you better remember!

Jadzka!

Jadzka!

Someone was here?

The wind.

Are you worrying?

Yeah.

Will that be all life long?

What?

Always something to worry about.

Mom's illness, the funeral.

Now you worry about me.

I don't know. I guess not.

I think the Lord knows when to stop.

You sure?

Don't you have other questions?

And Jozef I?

- What about him? - Did he come up smelling like roses?

I think he did.

Tell me.

In the winter of 1863, the machine was almost ready.

Only the light had to be made brighter by means of

a mirror built in the magic lantern.

But the January Rising broke out,

and Jozef had to forget his machine.

His blacksmith's skills were much more useful now

than his machine for projecting moving pictures.

In his smithy, you could hear hammers clank,

hammering out weapons for the Rising.

- How many do you have? - 32 scythes and a few pikes.

- And a wagon? - Yes, but no driver.

Then she showed up.

Jozef was smitten at a glance before he knew it.

Love needs a no time to think it over.

You got a horse?

A gray one.

Put it to the wagon and let's go.

And the scythes?

Enough of weapons. We need men.

They call me Hanutka.

Jozef. Josef Andryszek. The first.

Two months no more.

For six years Jozef's whole world was Popielawy and the machine.

The machine and Popielawy.

He forgot them the first night.

That was his another invention:

forgetting comes easy.

I must find light.

For that machine?

I must find light in me.

- And then... - Then?

A stupid bullet injured him.

Not the one aimed at him, but just a stupid one.

At one moment, the Rising was over for him.

Not only for him.

And this is the whole story.

I'll give a birth to a girl and call her Hanutka.

And will tell her to bear a girl of the same name.

God knows. Our children may meet some day

and finish our unfinished love.

Hanutka...

I'm thinking of you.

We buried Granny yesterday.

A sudden death. She didn’t suffer at all.

My parents took me back to Lodz.

This time I miss something else.

I won't go to Popielawy until vacation comes.

I'll meet Sixth.

We may build the machine at last.

I forgot to tell you that he is fully recovered.

His legs are OK. The doctors just made a mistake.

Sixth believes it was the film that helped him recover.

If this is true, then the cinema is very powerful.

No wonder the Lumiere Bothers came here from Paris

to copy, measure and take pictures of the machine.

Jagoda, the widow of Jozef I, got a lot of money for it.

So she could afford a beautiful funeral of Andryszek.