Ostatnia rodzina (2016) Reviews

• A powerful movie about life

  andychrist272016-11-26

  This movie was one of these which I didn't enjoy much in the beginning but the closer it got to the end the more I started to appreciate it. This movie is about Polish surrealist painter Zdzislaw Beksinski and his family. I have to say I've never heard of this artist and I have no idea how famous he might be in his homeland. I have a feeling though that the main reason why this movie was made was the extensive video archive he left behind, where he had obsessively recorded his family and everyday events (including very personal ones, like deaths of his loved ones). There's a fair amount of those videos included, which have been recreated with actors, staying true to the poor VCR quality of the originals. A short summary: in this movie, much as in life, everyone dies in the end. The film spans 28 years and most of the events we see are somewhat tragic in nature. Zdzislaw, who already looks like a pretty old man in the beginning of this film, ultimately outlives all his family members, only to suffer a violent, ridiculous end. It must be said though, that the key conflict in this movie boils down to two different approaches to life. One is represented in the humorous stoicism of Zdzislaw, the other in the paranoid suicidal anxiety of his son Tomasz. The father tries to help the son and respect his way of living, although there are moments when it all becomes too much even for him. Art, music and film all hold an important place in this movie, as these seem to be the tools by which this family tries to rise above the depressive factors ruling their lives. Pretty much the entire movie takes place in drab socialist era apartments (one belonging to Tomasz, the other to his parents) and Beksinski's paintings on the walls of both offer a glimpse of alternate reality, a sort of escape from the mundane suffering.

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• Go deep into a painter's life

  uurcauur2017-05-03

  Actors, actresses play convincing. Dawid Ogrodnik's acting in the beginning of the movie disturbed me a bit. But then I started to explore the magic of his acting. He is really good. The movie is not good for the ones seek for big adventures. It is about calm and interesting life of a painter. I can claim that it is one of the best movies from Polish cinema which i have watched before.

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• It's a mad mad mad mad family.

  Reno-Rangan2017-08-24

  This is really something. I could not believe I saw it. It was challenging, but I did it. When a biopic was made, surely there will be a solid reason behind it. That could be a positive message or highlighting the negatives or the important historic events. But it's always about how much you know about that person the film portrayed. If he is someone famous, but not in your nation, yeah, you would be desperate to learn about him through the given film. That's the case for me in here, but that's not what exactly happened. This was a life drama of one of the renowned Polish painters of the last century. Mainly focused on him, his family and overall their lifestyle. It was not stylish, but craziest. Yep, I could not understand the entire film and thought why someone has to make a film like this. Then it was not until the final scene, I thought worth a watch. Moreover, I was shocked how it ended, after two hours of nothing, but a family madness. Yeah, the end was like another genre. You could consider it a black comedy, which is not actually, but somehow for the reasons it feels like that way, until the final scene. It was the last three decades of life story of Zdzislaw Besinski. Started off in the 70s, where his son moved to a new apartment close by. But he's a trouble who attempting to self-killing. Then his ageing mother has to be taken care. So, basically there's always an issue in the family. All this insanity keeps happening for the next couple of decades. As the years pass by, as the technology changing, so do this family, but shrinking from the strength. Until the mid 2000s, where the narration comes to halt with an unexpected twist. ❝Wherever I go, I've to act like other people, do what everyone else does. I've got to play a role to get the things I want or to be liked. I've to keep acting. I can't get out of this.❞ The more I recollect everything I saw, the more I started to like it. You will agree with me that the film was uninteresting in the beginning. Not just the beginning, but almost entirely. Though the value of the film will be realised once you finish watching it and as I said while analysing the scenes in your head makes to change your stance. The opening scene and the end scene are totally opposite. That's the highlight of the film, and the meaning of the title. Anyway, the final scene was sudden and brutal. Not good for little fellows. A feature film debut for the director. He was good though. While watching it, I thought the writing was bad. One thing I have learnt in my life was that no judging a film by its poster, its synopsis or its cast and crew, and also not after watching just a few minutes of its opening. On a few occasions, the budgets as well. So, the key for this film is the patience. Sitting for it quietly over a hundred minutes will make the difference as it did for me. But that does not mean everyone would love it at the end. It somewhat looks like a documentary film, that's because of the film having plenty of found footage kind of narration in parts. The actors were amazing. Like the whole film was shot in a couple of flats with a few shots elsewhere. That means, the story firmly decoding the family and nothing else. The end was sad, I could not take it. But the film was just telling the truth. Not a kind of film to recommend, but surely worth a watch if you are not looking to have a good time, I meant to enjoy watching it. 8/10

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