to Mrs Danuta Goska about some simplifications.
///The men are bad men, the women are bad women.///
By no means could I agree with such an assertion.
With all the respect to your notion, I think it's mere simplification.
How could you value this film so high, if you presume that it is populated with such an unequivocal characters?
IMO, these characters, with no exception, are complicated, controversal and rich.
Karol Borowiecki was ruthless indeed, but he knew that it costs, and he did pay the ultimate price with dignity and with no hesitation.
Moryc Welt was homosexual, deeply in his forbidden, yet fiery love for Borowiecki (you may spot it following Moryc's image watchfully). The main motive for Moryc's working, despicable as it was, wasn't the greed, but his total devotion to Karol.
Max Baum, submissive yet capable to rob his elderly father (declaring him senile, under Karol's pressure), tormented by his guilt, as well by his hopeless love to Anka.
Anka indeed was smart enough to "see through Karol". She loved him, and suffered greatly because of his faults.
Zucker - cynical dealer, obscenely rich, - and deeply devoted, worshipping to his family man, whose feelings were trampled and sufferings ridiculed.
Müller - coarse, grotesquely uncultured nuvorish - at the same time loving and caring father, painfully feeling for his daugther, Mada, the girl vulnerable in her stupidity. Poor Mada, like any very stupid person, she was somewhat touching and evoking pity.
Even the odious Bucholz - lonesome man hated by everybody around him, whose sheer unhappines declared itself as an extreme haughtiness and cruelty. His heartwrenching last moments expose fully how weak and miserable his real personalty was.
Who else? - Lucy Zuker, depraved but happy of her motherhood to be; Trawinski, vain and arrogant, but capable to sacrifice himself for his principes; and so on.
The general value of this excellent movie are its characters, elaborated to perfection, granted that the movie's other qualities are flawless.
Listen to your enemy, for God is talking