“My Pretty Pony” by Maciej Barzcewski. A.K.A ” My favourite Dollar Baby”

My story with Dollar Babies began even before I directed my own Dollar Baby based upon a Stephen King story: I have been a Constant Reader of Mr. King’s work since I was twelve years old. And when I found out about the Dollar Baby Deal I went nuts and started to search for those short movies. I soon found out that most of them are not on-line, and at the same time I found out about the Dollar Baby film fests. But since all of them were happening in foreign countries, so far away from Brazil, I just sucked it up and continued with my life.

Then I produced my own Dollar Baby (All That You Love Will Be Carried Away) and got into some film festivals with it. One of these film festivals was in the Netherlands in 2017, a Dollar Baby film fest organized by Stephen King Fan Club Netherlands. I was thrilled to get my Dollar Baby at a Stephen King Dollar Baby film festival, but at the same time I was truly upset that I could not attend the fest. I would love to not only have the chance to watch the movies, but also I would have the unique chance to connect with other filmmakers and the audience. But, I had no money to fly to the Netherlands, so once again I sucked it up and continued with my life.

And then, the pandemic happened. During this period, in 2021, I was able to  finally watch 2 Dollar Baby film festivals, both on them on-line: King On Screen 4, organized by Restaurante de la mente, an Spanish film fest and one week later I could watch the first edition of the Canadian Dollar Baby film fest “Stephen King Rules”. At this film fest from Canada, it felt like a dream coming true, because not only was it a 3 days event with so many great Dollar Babies but also I could have my movie in it and get to be interviewed live by zoom. Aaaand I could read all the viewers talking about the movies in the live chat. And they really liked my movie!!!!!  That was the best experience that I have ever had as a filmmaker until this very day.

But let’s focus on the first on-line film fest before we go on. One day I will write again about the “Stephen King Rules” film fest, but for now I will focus on “King On Screen 4” because it was not only the first chance I had to watch a Dollar Baby film fest, but also it was because of this film fest that I could watch some of my favorite Dollar Babies for the very first time. The one this review is about, Maciej Barzcewski’s “My pretty Pony”, my personal favorite, man, it was love at first sight.

The pandemic hit us hard , right? If it wasn’t because our favorite series, our favorite movies, favorite songs, favorite authors and books we would all have gone insane. I wasn’t reading my favorite author back then, I was actually avoiding him and one particular work of his: one of my favorite books of his had a new series released, “The stand”, but I was damned afraid of getting back to that story because It seemed that we were actually living that book. I love post-apocalyptic stories, but since the pandemic I haven’t watched a single post-apocalyptic movie  or series yet, not even The Walking Dead. During the pandemic I only got back to Stephen King stories when those two film fests happened.

The first time I watched “My pretty pony” I was inside my car, parked at the side of a road. See, every single weekend I spent with my daughter and during the pandemic it was not different. She lives with her mother in a neighboring town, so I am always on the road to pick her up and take her back to her mother. But that weekend and the next that would happen at both Dollar Baby film fests, I spent some days with my daughter during the week. I was not working because of the pandemic and she did not have school, she was only 2 years old. I organized my schedule so I could give her back to her mother and I could be at home when the festival had started. But I got late (yeah, it is a Brazilian thing). So when the festival started I was still on the road.

The first movie at that festival was a version of Willa,  directed by Corey Mayne. And since it was an American movie and I do understand English, well… I confess that during the movies in English I was watching and driving at the same time. I didn’t know back then that I could stop a live streaming video and also rewind it, so since the road was empty because of the pandemic I was dumb enough to watch and drive at the same time. (Hey, don’t judge me, it was my first Dollar Baby film fest and I was pretty excited.)

The second movie on that Spanish Dollar Baby film fest was this masterpiece called “My pretty Pony” and once it was not in English and had subs, I stopped the car and started to watch what later became my favorite Dollar Baby and now (finally) I will explain to you guys why.

I call this movie a masterpiece for so many reasons, but the first thing that caught my attention and made me stop the damned car was this Dollar Baby’s cinematography. It is such a beautiful cinematography, not just because Krzysztof Kujawski and Malgorzata Popinogis (the cinematographers) are that good (and they are) but also because almost at every single scene we have some frame that should be framed and hanged in a museum. Well, the locations are beautiful at this polish Dollar Baby, I fell in love with it first because of the landscapes that I saw with the aerial shots. You see, if you ever had the chance to be in Europe you probably know that there are some places in that Continent (a lot of places) that once you point a camera at it, boom, it is a movie set! Especially in the countryside. I have never traveled to Poland, but every time I watch this Dollar Baby it makes me want to go there.

Another thing of  the cinematography of this movie that really pleases me is how they are not afraid of shadows and darkness: some filmmakers, especially at their debut as directors, they seems to be afraid of the dark, because they usually avoid the shadows and dark corners that we all see at every place in real life. Light makes shadows, right? Light creates some small dark corners , right? So why the hell do some directors choose to light up the entire environment in their movies? I personally knew some directors like that, I’ve worked with some of them. And by doing this, the movie becomes less. When something happens, the first person the audience usually blames is the cinematographer and I can assure you that it is not the cinematographer’s fault. The cinematographer usually does what the directors ask him. This kind of thing happens because of the director’s insecurity. But let’s say something, Maciej Barzcewski did not have that fear. He knew exactly what he was doing, he knew exactly what to ask his cinematographers. It becomes clear at one scene in particular that comes to my mind, the funeral at the church: the kid is alone, sitting on the bench, no one else is in there. He is alone staring at his grandfather’ coffin.

At this scene there are a lot of shadows and darkness, even at the kid’s face. And it doesn’t bother me as an audience or a filmmaker, it is quite the opposite. It is a beautiful scene, we can feel the kid’s loneliness because he had just lost not only his grandfather, but also his best friend. And at the back of the church we also can see a single beam of sunlight… It is such a beautiful scene! Krzysztof  Kujawski  and Malgorzata Popinogis , thank you for such beautiful cinematography.

Let’s talk about the cast now, Marian Dziędziel (the grandfather) and Mateusz Broda (the kid). You don’t have to speak Polish to understand how great these two actors are. Yes, you will have to read the subs, and of course that makes us lose some things of the cinematography, but we can hear small nuances in their voices and small nuances in their lines that make all the difference. Because the good actors, the really good ones, are not just reciting their lines, the good actors actually live their roles. They love, they hate, they really smile and they really cry. The good ones really fell and live their characters’ concerns and cry their losses. And I can assure you that these two polish actors really lived their characters. Marian, the older one, in a higher level , of course. But even the kid, with the most humbling experience, really gave life to his character in a way that it is not that usual to see in a child actor and, of course, that is also something to congratulate the director too. He not only was great selecting and directing this cast, but also at adapting the screenplay.

The screenplay,  man… The original short story is great, there are so many layers on it, so much learning and great advice (sorry, not advice, but instructions). But the first time I read it, I confess that this story did not get me. And until this week I had never understood why.

I used to love this story because of this Polish Dollar Baby. But before I started this review I read the story for the second time and found out I now love the short story too. And after that I read Maciej Barzcewski’s interview here in SKSM and by doing that I finally understood why the story did not get me the first time, it was for the same reasons it did not get Maciej the first time he read it too. In his own words “… as a young reader I was disappointed that there were no supernatural elements, no twist or even a distinct ending to the story. At that time it seemed to be just a long scene of a grandfather talking to his grandson….”

You see, I am using his words because I could not explain it better. Because if I would try to explain only using me as an example, dude, I would probably say that twenty years ago I was younger and dumber. Well, let’s try to explain it better, at least the concept: I learned with this example and some others that some movies or books you might not be ready to really understand and appreciate today. It might take you twenty years to get that. For me it was the same thing with Shakespeare’s “Macbeth”, Lars Von Trier’s “Dogville”, Christopher Nolan’s “Memento” and now with my favorite author and his story called “My pretty pony”, which Maciej Barzcewski helped my better appreciate with his story.

The screenplay was so well adapted and I can assure you, as a writer, that this story is not an easy one to adapt. It might look like it is, but it is not. You would need to truly understand and truly empathize with the characters and the whole idea that the grandfather wants to instruct his grandson. And, let’s face it: when you are younger and dumber it is harder to do that. Believe in me, I know (please, read these last two words again, now using Monica Geller’s voice in your head. You know, Monica Geller, from “Friends”).

Maciej Barzcewski truly empathize and truly understood what Stephen King wrote in that short tale and that is why Maciej wrote such a beautiful adapted screenplay. Why does he empathize so well? Well, I don’t know Maciej and have no idea why, but thanks to him today I understand why I do relate to this story on so many levels: the story is about a grandfather who knows he is about to die and he wants to leave some knowledge and widow to his grandson. He is talking about life, death and most important of all, he tries to explain to that kid about Time. And he chose to use some metaphors and symbolism that look like simple examples, but it is such a beautiful metaphor for life and how fast/ quick it can be. It is one of the best words of widow Stephen King has ever written! And Maciej did a beautiful job by adapting it. But, why do I relate so much to that ? Because this lines:

– Do you understand it? – asked the grandfather.

– No, Sr.

– But will you remember it?

– Yes.

Why do these lines from the book and the movie gets me? Because I also had a close relationship with my grandfather and he also told me something similar to that when he was talking about how fast time goes by. “You will understand someday”, my grandpa said.

It took me more than thirty years, but I finally got it because now I am also dealing with how fast time can go balmy. Thank you, Stephen King and Maciej Barzcewski, thank you for literally writing this feeling in a way that dumb guys like me can understand.

I could talk about this Dollar Baby for hours, there are so many beautiful scenes, visually and as a story, but I would like to finish this review talking about another scene that really gets me every single time:

– Do you know when the summer is so good and it looks like it will never end and the school days will never come back? – asked the old man.

And before the kid answers, we see him again alone at that church. It is such a powerful way to show the audience that the kid lost his grandfather/best friend/and a teacher.

We all lose loved ones during our lives. Some of them are not blood related, but some of our dearest relatives come disguised as teachers and when we lose them it looks like school days will never come back. What we don’t know in our grief is that sometimes these teachers left so much of them inside ourselves, they become part of us even in their absence. And sometimes it takes us more than thirty years to realize that.

Thank you, Maciej Barzcewski.

The Dollar Baby’s grade? We from SKSM team give Maciej Barzcewski’s “My pretty pony” fingers from the dead guy’s hand. I, Leonardo, if I could I would give 30 fingers. But, joining all the dead guy’s fingers and toes we only have 19, so I owe you 11 fingers Maciej.

That is it for today,  Constant Readers. See you guys next time.

Leonardo Granado