Criminal "Belle Epoque" in Kraków of 1908

Tonight on TVN at 21:30 hours the first part of a Polish TV crime drama compared by some to "Downton Abbey", "Peaky Blinders" or "Tabu". The press reviews underline the precision of the criminal methods shown, splendid costumes and photography.

Olaf Lubaszenko and Eryk Lubos try to make Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson of the Galicia province (south-east Poland). They say it is the most expensive Polish production of the kind so far.

I'm actually planning on watching it. I just hope they don't actually use the song "Psycho Killer" (used in some promotional stuff I've seen) in it.... (I'm not hopeful). If they do use modern music it should be Polish.

Only Polish music.
Short movie Twardowsky:

My quick review:

It has potential but there are some kinks to work out, these include

They need to put Paweł Małaszyński on a diet, he's a bit too chubby for leading man.

Watch the continuity on Olaf Lubaszenko's facial hair, it seemed be moving around his face and looked like it was about to fall off in one scene.

Ditch the music in English. It's distracting, kills the mood and just..... wrong

Improve the film stock (cinematography), for something that's supposed to be so expensive it looks like it's shot on cheap video.

Give Eryk Lubos a big raise, he's easily the best part of the show so far.

Stop the dannn mumbling and speak up (a Polish friend was complaining about this too).

I'm glad to see a show like this being made, though it still needs some work. Is it inspired by the Spanish TV show Victor Ros (a detective show set in Madrid of roughly the same time).

I have watched it, too. My first impression is that Kraków at present does not look that much different from what it was like a hundred years ago. Just take modern cars and things like that away. Their belle époque costumes looked too 'fresh' for a daily life in 1908. But it was nice to watch all those "authentic" interiors which were really taking us to the CK (cesarsko-królewskie) city of Kraków with a splendid and familiar portrait of Franz Joseph, the monarch, in one of the scenes.

I have my doubts about the language used in the film. Not sure if a phrase such as "pochodziła z nizin społecznych" would have been used in 1908. Maybe yes, maybe no, my guess would rather be 'no'.

What a horrible idea to play music in English in such a film!

Anyone else catch the second episode? I thought it was generally an improvement from the first, better cinematography and a better case. I especially liked the information at the end about his lost love's wild side....

They need to stop mumbling so damn much though, this wasn't as bad as the first but a Polish friend said he had trouble understanding some of the mumbling.

I'm thinking more than ever that it's inspired by the Spanish show Victor Ros...

youtube.com/watch?v=N-s-ntS9ecg

I have catched the second half of it (wasn't it the third episode rather than the second?). Anyway, each episode is re-broadcast on the Sunday. And yes, I have had the same impression as you. I follow the plot rather loosely as am interested in costumes and interiors much more than in the plot. Men's hats look quite amusing today. The girl in the laboratory remind me very much of Marie Curie (has the hair dressed in the same way, possibly a typical dressing of that time). Always wonder during the film show how this world of the belle époque would have developed eventually if the World War I hadn't broken it so abruptly.

Have you perhaps seen the murals and magnificent stained glass windows by Stanisław Wyspiański manufactured at the Innsbruck foundry in 1899-1904 in Kraków's Old Town St Francis of Assisi Church? They offer some real feel of the belle époque in Kraków...

Yes, his stuff is amazing, should be much better known. A friend who visited Krakow in the mid 1980s said that particular design made a huge impression on him (given the general drabness and decay that characterized Krakow then). He was looking around the church and turned to leave.... and saw that and just stood for a long time just staring at it.