The plot of Anatole France is quite whimsical. Here and the historical realities of late antiquity, smoothly passing into the early Middle Ages. Here and the frenzied mores of early Christian asceticism, and the effeminate, if not to say decadence of pagan culture breathing on incense. And the social aspect, and the culturological plan, and the philosophy of bearded sages, and the visions of no less bearded pillars – all mixed in the text of the French writer into an interesting, fragrant eralash of past times.
But the Polish filmmakers decided to go their own way. They were not inspired by France, Rome, or even history. It seems that an indelible impression on them made the notorious film “Caligula”. At least the erotic component of Tais and Tais openly prevails over all other elements. Poles are generally willing to “resort” to nakedness even in the harsh years of popular socialist rule. However, this is not very surprising for the cinema of socialist countries. Only in the Soviet Union, where the almost sterile asexual environment triumphed on the screens, and (with some assumptions) the GDR censorship triumphed in this matter unequivocally. Poles are very interested in this topic. I don't know why. Perhaps the Catholic component of Polish culture plays a role, Protestants have a completely different relationship with Eros.
However, we must understand that eroticism is not an end in itself, but a reception. Only then is it an aesthetically complete element. And so in this film, naked nature takes much more time and space than the plot itself, as if the director planned to set a local record. Several scenes at once resemble the depravity of “The Death of the Gods” and the straightforward pornography of the above-mentioned film by Tinto Brass. It looks very pathetic, as if the amateur theater conceived to “give” his “Hamlet”, and it would be better not to do so. Probably, in the 1980s, this film could have become a cocky erohit in all the VCRs of the Soviet Union, but after a while it remains only to wonder why they ruthlessly cut down all the interesting cultural studies of literary pretext, why they forgot about the biographies of the heroes, leaving only a narrow outline of their relationship, etc., etc.
So we have to make a sad conclusion about the futility of this film adaptation. It is not shocking, not captivating, can not interest. Even the "fat hint" of a change of times, in fact inevitable for Poland in the early 1980s, can not save anything in the film. It didn't work.