Ashes and Diamonds (1958)

Director: Andrzej Wajda
Country: Poland

After many years of procrastination I finally saw "Ashes and Diamonds", a political, historical and important European film worshipped by some of the most important filmmakers in America such as Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola. 

This is not an easy film to digest, it is very dense in its own structure, it has many dialogues and the main conflict of the story can be forgotten easily through the film which focuses more in the romantic and political context of the story than in the investigation of the murder of the innocent civilians who died at the beginning, on the other hand if you are studying to become a cinematographer or a professional photographer this is a film you need to see, because it was beautifully shot, it is full of noir textures: chiaroscuros, smoke and shadows, but especially one shot that attracted my attention was the scene filmed inside the destroyed church when we can see a Christ turn upside down due to the bombings, it was a maverick movement by Wajda because that single scene could have been considered subversive by the communist. 

This is a great film but in my humble opinion it could have been better, many scenes are useless, some dialogues are unnecesary and I never felt the romantic chemistry between the characters, perhaps this is a film one needs to review after a long, long time.