Day 58: Bareja Just Took Notes
In her grandmother's kitchen in Tczew, film studies student Oliwia (A) tells her grandmother Wanda (B) about her review of Stanisław Bareja's 1981 comedy Miś (Teddy Bear), a satire on life in communist Poland.
How to study this lesson 3 steps
- Read the situation under the title. It says who is talking and how they know each other, which decides how politely they speak.
- Read the dialogue line by line with its translation, until every line makes sense. Point at (or tap) a Polish word to see what it means.
- Spend at least 30 minutes listening to native Polish, for example from the Resources page. It doesn't matter if you don't understand it yet.
Dialogue
Audio recordings are on the way. For now, each lesson is the dialogue with its English translation.
Keys: E hide English · ← → previous / next day · point at a word to see its meaning
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A
Babciu, piszę recenzję „Misia”. Twierdzę, iż Bareja stworzył groteskę całkiem oderwaną od rzeczywistości.
Grandma, I'm writing a review of Miś. I argue that Bareja created a grotesque completely detached from reality.
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B
Oderwaną od rzeczywistości? Dziecko, to był dokument, tylko z lepszymi aktorami.
Detached from reality? My dear, it was a documentary, just with better actors.
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A
Szatniarz, który nie oddaje płaszcza i jeszcze pyta, co mu klient zrobi? Przecież to czysty absurd.
A cloakroom attendant who won't give a coat back and then asks what the customer's going to do about it? That's pure absurdity.
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B
Dla ciebie absurd, dla nas codzienność. Bareja niczego nie wymyślał, tylko stał w tych samych kolejkach co my.
Absurd to you, everyday life to us. Bareja didn't make anything up; he just stood in the same queues as we did.
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A
Ale krytycy traktowali go wtedy, jak gdyby kręcił tanią chałturę dla mas.
But the critics back then treated him as if he churned out cheap hackwork for the masses.
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B
Krytycy pisali swoje, a widzowie cytowali dialogi, nim jeszcze film zszedł z ekranów. I cytują do dziś.
The critics wrote what they wrote, and audiences were quoting the dialogue before the film had even left the cinemas. They still quote it today.
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A
Dobrze, w przypisie zaznaczę, skąd mam tę opinię: od naocznego świadka. A coś w tym filmie jest przesadzone?
All right, I'll say in a footnote where this opinion comes from: an eyewitness. Is anything in the film exaggerated?
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B
Jedno: kolejki. W prawdziwym życiu były dwa razy dłuższe.
One thing: the queues. In real life they were twice as long.
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