The cavalier – regardless of the passage of time and the change of reality – is to the end. This fact was confirmed clearly in the arena of life and... The movie was confirmed by 1 of the last Polish-Bolshevik war marshals and an outstanding athlete, the first Polish Olympic medalist in riding – Major Adam Królikiewicz.
Unlike in Stefan Żeromski's “Popioły”, Andrzej Wajda decided that in his movie adaptation of the fresh Krzysztof Cedro would not be a lansjer but a seamstress. It's just an different one, a rush. After recovering from the wounds, as a healer, he receives an assignment to the infantry regiment besieging Saragossa. After this dramatic and traumatic experience, the sick, bitter Cedro follows his regiment through the mountains. Having lost a steed, he carries a saddle on his back, even though it slows down his march even more, and yet he is in danger of death: in case of falling into the hands of Spanish partisans – before his death he will face terrible torment... However, the schwoleżer seems to ignore this, due to the fact that his head is absorbed by the flashback of the charge under Somosierra – and this is precisely what Wajda intended the viewer to see on the cinema screen. Thus the charge that Żeromski did not put in the fresh appears in the film.
Somosierra close Łódź
If you wanted to movie it the way you wanted to paint it in your panorama Wojciech Kossak – you would request the anticipation of then American or russian cinematography: thousands of statisticians (as in the case of Americans) or peculiar regiments of troops (as in Soviets) trained to play conflict scenes in films. Wajda could number on the aid of the Polish Army and the Bulgarian Army, due to the fact that in Bulgaria they shot Italian and Spanish parts of the film, but on specified a scale and possibilities as his American or russian colleagues could surely not count.
The painter's instinct led to a imagination akin to that captured on his canvas by Piotr Michałowski after the words of Captain Niegolewski, that he remembered from the charge that there was thick fog and it started snowing, and among all that the grenades snapped... Andrzej Żuławski defined in “The Ashes” as an assistant director, and in “The Film” he published “The Diaries of “The Ashes”. In his episode on the shooting of the charge at Somosierra, Wajda wrote: “Somosierra was to be ‘only’ Somosierra, that spectral flash, gallop, just a charge. And as for the deficiency of stuntmen, specialists, artists of spectacular death – Wajda decided to take a chance, to put on this bit of happiness so far the ‘dust’ added.
Scenes of the charge under Somosierra were shot in Poland, in Bogusławice close Łódź. As Żuławski figuratively put it, it was “Somosierra... between a cartoflisk and a field with beets, in November (1964 – P.K.) erstwhile the earth hardens and becomes dangerous in the fall, Somosierra in the fog, drizzles, in the smokes, during the dark days, that the exhibition was only adequate to extract these specters of riders, horses and cannons. At the same time, Somosierra is beautiful, saber-smelling, saddened with the amarant of uniforms, a mass of 1 100 horses – frozen, steaming, turning close to this name of surviving movement." And it's all shot with black and white tape, which makes the effect even more powerful, due to the fact that close to graphic designers and black images of Goi! Horses for movie seamstress were taken from the celebrated pre-war tradition of Stallions in Bogusławice. This stud, among another things, provided the steeds of the Polish cavalry, and after the war the herd was carefully recreated. Only for specified a complicated conflict scene as the charge under Somosierra, the Bogusławick stallions had to be trained first. A large aid was presented by the manager of Andrzej Osadziński Stud. Under his direction, the selected horses were tamed for 3 weeks with a bang of cannons, fire, smoke and screams and were taught to jump through the batteries of the Spanish cannons. Between the beet mentioned by Żuławski and the cartoflisk, a road was built – "way to nowhere", which a two-and-a-half-ton car could drive at a velocity of 60 km/h – due to the fact that horses were galloping so rapidly – and on its platform there was a camera, which named the full charge to register.
Kingdom for a stuntman
So the horses were prepared, there was a ‘Somosier route’, there was a battery of the department that was expected to ‘decimate’ the charging seamstress and their steeds. Yeah! There was inactive the most hard issue of the “hit” horses and riders. There were no circuses, trained to fall or even lay to the ground... The method utilized was then widely utilized – present unthinkable – before the battery the wolf pits were dug, but unlike Grunwald they were not loaded with sharpened stakes, but filled with hay. specified masked pits of horses fell suddenly, 1 or 2 spectacularly buckling, and riders riding them had a low and short flight, just above the ground. As Żuławski put it, a man trained, flexible felt like slipping on a banana skin...
Only that specified "flexible" on the plan " ash" was missing. Again, it is unthinkable, but – according to the passage quoted above “Dziennik” Żuławski – Andrzej Wajda did not have a cascade crew. This is how Andrzej Żuławski wrote: "Yes, there were a fewer boys of ‘judocks’ coming, riders falling, but in the pictures there was mostly a mass of mastalers, people serving horses regular and yet the most common of them falling."
Żuławski wrote about mastalers that they were simple people, residents of close villages, employed in the Bogusławska stud. In no way did they have stunt skills, but it did not give them courage. Żuławski did not add only, but about which Daniel Olbrychski wrote in his memoirs, that the mastels, in addition to courage, besides had a very attractive motivation – for each fall they were paid 500 zlotys, which was a staggering amount. So there were volunteers determined to "die for the emperor" respective times in front of the camera, but it was then that a tragic accident occurred and he touched a man who was least expected to do so. A schwoleżer like those of Somosierra, Major Adam Królikiewicz was a pre-war bachelor of blood and bone. He served in the elite 1st Swiss Regiment of Józef Piłsudski, awarded Virtuti Militari inactive in the Legions, fought bravely and in 1920 in the Polish-bolshevik War. As it frequently happened with bachelors, in addition to an excellent soldier, he was Królikiewicz and a large hippie athlete: in 1924 he won a bronze medal in the Olympic Games in Paris, making him the first Polish Olympic medalist in riding. There's been more sporting successes. The military career was besides great: from 1935 he served as the head of the education of equation (drives) at the Cavalry Training Centre in Grudziądz. September ‘39 found him in the spare centre of the Pomeranian Cavalry Brigade commanded by Colonel Tadeusz Komorowski, later general and chief of the Home Army – ‘Bora’. After the unit withdrew east Major miraculously survived from the death of the Soviets, and after reaching the German side of the occupation, respective times from the hands of Kraków The Gestapo both saved his and his wife's sports past – German officers intercede for them who either competed with the major or remembered in the stands his feats.
After the war, to support his household in Krakow, he glued shoes and mounted electrical lamps. In 1955 he first became a movie consultant – on the plan of "Podhal in the Fire" by Henryk Hechtkopf and Jan Batory. During the thawing period – literally, due to the fact that in October 1956 – he patronized the uprising of the Krakow Horse Driving Club. 2 years later, he became a coach at the club, besides a squad leaving for global equestrian competitions. He was besides approached by further proposals for consultation on movie plans, not only was he a consultant, he besides acted in front of the camera in the occasional roles, specified as the quack in Wadi Berestowski's "Rancho Texas" – the "wester".
Andrzej Wajda invited Królikiewicz as a consultant and coach for horse riding. Among another things, the Major practiced equestrian skills of the player of the function of seamstress Krzysztof Cedry – Bogusław Kierc. He participated in preparing the key scenes of the movie – from the escape of Rafał Olbromski from wolves to the siege of Zaragoza and the conflict of Raszyn, after all horses participate in all. The photographs of the charge at Somosierra belong to the second in the implementation, and his cavalry soul full spoke in the seventy-year-old Królikiewicz. He decided to take part in the charge as an extra. Despite his age inactive in the saddle he kept beautifully, but Wajda and the remainder of the crew tried to dissuade the major from this idea, explaining that he would be more useful, observing and judging the implementation of the charge from the side. In vain.
Dreamy Death
A tragic accident occurred during the trials. Major's top in a full gallop hit a gap in the ground... Daniel Olbrychski, an eyewitness, said: “I was sitting with a crew in the car and saw a major get out of the saddle. If the horse had fallen, the fall of a man would not have been so dangerous – he would have fallen from a smaller height. And so Królikiewicz broke his spine in many places. After a fewer weeks, he died in the hospital.
When I visited him at the clinic, his face had a curved plague of pain. But he tried to smile.
(Karol – P.K.) Rómmel died of the flu – he said – and I at least with the saber in my hand...
The Major meant the brother of the celebrated general (Juliusz Rómmla – P.K.) who defended Warsaw. An excellent rider, a typical of the Tsar for the Olympics, well, 1 of the legendary figures of that time. He and Adam Królikiewicz – 2 large Polish riders of the 20th century".
You gotta comment on this beautiful anecdote in 2 places. Major Królikiewicz died much longer, for eighteen months. He first went to the Łódź infirmary and then, partially paralyzed, stayed at the Rehabilitation Centre in Konstancin, where he died on May 4, 1966. In fact, Lieutenant Colonel Karol Rómmel died a year after Major Królikiewicz – on 7 March 1967. possibly the fever-stricken major “buried” his friend – an equal bachelor and athlete. Rommel has already become celebrated as a young Tsar Army officer. At the 1912 Stockholm Games as a typical of Russia, Rómmel (then besides as Rummel – the spelling of the surname under the influence of Brother Juliusz changed in 1918) was about a hair from the gold medal in jumping through obstacles. At the end of the flawless second pass his horse Siablik slipped on wet ground—the last obstacle was a ditch with water—and he fell, and Rómmel broke six ribs. Still, he got on a horse and finished the performance. It was ranked in fifteenth place, but gained a large applause from the audience. King Gustav V of Sweden later visited him at the infirmary and handed him a copy of the Olympic gold medal. Lieutenant-Colonel Karol Rómmel joined the Polish Army in 1919, in the Polish-bolshevik War he commanded the 8th Ulan Regiment, since 1924 in the 1st Szwoleżer Regiment Józef Piłsudski. In 1929, he was transferred to rest. During the war German concentration camps, and in the Polish People's Republic, again like his friend, riding coach and movie consultant, among others on the plan of Alexander Ford and Andrzej Wajda's “Krzyżaks” and “Air”.
Fall like a part of bread
After the accident of Major Królikiewicz, black clouds gathered over the further implementation of the Somosier's charge. Mastalers did not want to take any chances – if a large rider like the major has fallen into an accident, it means that the film's plan is hung by fate... No 1 wanted to be another, possibly for the remainder of his life or dead, injured. The situation, and consequently the scene of the charge at Somosierra was saved at that time by the actor of the main function of Rafał Olbromski – Daniel Olbrychski. As we know, in the Spanish part of Olbromski's “Pope” there was no one, but as he writes in his memoirs, he came to the set, on andrzejki (there were 5 of the Andrews' crew: Wajda, Żuławski, Osadzinski, Kostenko and Brzozowski) and stayed to see the filming of Somosierra.
After the protests, the photograph mastalers were interrupted, any of the crew left for Łódź, and as Olbrychski recalls: “All the way I molested Żuławski to get the squad to explain to them that I could try. I'll show the mastels that you can fall safely. Żuławski realized that they would never agree otherwise. I must have fallen 3 times. As I was driving, I was hiding from a camera behind any seamstress's back, and my face was covered with a bloody handkerchief.
– Then how do you do it, Danus?
– Yes – I showed very arrogant – legs from the stirrups, and then just let the horse out of the ass – that's all. somewhat throw yourself aside and fly as slow as you can.
I slow convinced them it was no large deal to fall. The wives of the mastels came to the set with the children.
– Wojtuś, and you kiss our Józekka, possibly this is the last time...
Wojtek rubbed the tear, kissed, said goodbye to the sign of the cross, and then – erstwhile he took 500 zł – he moved again. This does not look bad on the screen." Indeed, it looks large on the screen – to this day!
Sources of quotes:
A. Żuławski, Journals of Ashes, Part 7, "Film" No. 8 (846), 21 February 1965.
D. Olbrychski, Angels around the head, cooperation: P. Ćwiklinski, J. Ziarno, Warsaw 1992.
