CORTOMETRAGGI DELLA SCUOLA DI LODZ

"Oko Wykol was my first short film. A strange title. 'Oko' means eye. 'Wykol' means 'torn out brusquely'. The editing was very intricate. There were about fifteen or twenty takes in two minutes. It dealt with a game concerning a knifethrower and a live target. Erotyk is another very strange short film. A good subject for psychiatrists. It stars my first wife, Elzbieta Gzyzewska. There was my wife, a mirror, newspapers and a man. The man was the best Polish actor at that time, Gustaw Holoubek. My wife had never acted before. One year later she had become the most quoted actress in Poland. It was a silent film about an erotic situation. The girl ran down a kind of corridor whose walls were formed by newspaper pages that were stuck on. But you don't know what they were stuck on to. There are no walls, floors, or ceiling nothing but the newspapers, the light, and the shade. Hamles was yet another joke, a joke on Shakespeare. It took place in our times. The only thing I can tell you about this short films is that they were funny. The people really laughed at the screenings." (Jerzy Skolimowski, "Positif", n. 135, February 1972)

"Munk saw my first three-minute thesisfilm. Solarz was the actor, along with a great and beautiful young woman, Yvona Sloczynska. I liked Solarz because he had crosseyes. Munk saw it like this: it was the most you could do in a film that lasted so short a time.
At that time Stanislaw Dygat was a kind of Polish Guy dc Maupassant. He wrote stories you could do anything with. At school we were advised to do films of this kind. If this was the case, I, too, would do a film adapted from Dygat, but making him act himself. Stanislaw took me seriously. Basically, I was a member of the Polish Writers' Association and he soon suggested that we use the friendly 'you'-form. He acted very well. He won a prize as the best male actor in some film festival at school. It was my last thesis film. After, I began to make Rysopis." (Jerzy Skolimowski)

"When Skolimowski entered the Lodz school in 1960 at the age of 22 he was no longer unknown neither in film circles nor in the artistic circles of Warsaw. The young student, who was described as a handsome, fascinating, and brilliant man, had already written poetry, prose, and an experimental play. He had collaborated on the screenplay of a film by Wajda, in which he also appears as a boxer named Hamletak. And Hamlet was to be the subject and the title of one of his short films.
In his student years, he made four short films: three in 1960 (Oko wykol, Hamles and Erotyk) and one in 1961 (Pieniadze albo zycie). Aside from these films which were part of his study program during his school years, he also wrote the dialogues for Przyjaciel, a middlelength film by Marek Nowicki. He wrote the subjects for several of his schoolmates' short films and also worked as dialogue writer for the screenplay of the film of his friend, Polanski, Noz w wodzie.
Really noteworthy for a 23 yearold. Skolimowski is the complete author of his short films both screenwriter and director. With the exception of Oko wykol, with photography by Jerzy Mrozewski, he always used Jacek Stachlewski as cameraman. Stachlewski also worked ori Rysopis. The actress, Elzbieta Czyzewska, who appears in two short films, is also the main actress in Rysopis, playing three different roles. Instead, Skolimowski, who appears as actor in his first films, does not appear in any of his school films. Except for Oko wykol, which is silent, the sound tracks of the other film are very elaborate. In Hamles there are no dialogues but songs. The sound track of Pieniadze albo zycie uses music that is very famous in Poland (Chopin's funeral marcn and 'Sto lat'), the first entirely rearranged and using the harmonica and the second in the form of music at a fair. In Hamles there are short poems set to music. Here is an example: 'Ophelia has to know water / as Shakespeare would have it / the naked bellybutton is the foundation of the world / the lyre, satire, and the movie camera praise this'. In this film Skolimowski uses satire the presence of Polish newspapers and magazines, the characters that get dressed up as Hitler, etc. The first words of Erotyk, spoken by the woman, are also a poem. Various elements of the set are used in a recurring and meaningful way the mirror, the games.. . Skolimowski is already a master of the movie camera expressionistic shorts, shots looking lip. More than the school films, these short films arc already a sign of an author." (Christian Szafraniak)

OKO WYKOL [L'OCCHIO STRAPPATO]
Polonia/Poland, 195960, 35mm, 3', muto, b/n

Director and screenplay: Jerzy Skolimowski.
Director of photography: Jerzy Mrozewski.
Assistente: Ama Piascikowna.
Cast and characters: Iwona Sloczyfiska (la ragazza), Wojciech Solarz (il lanciatore di coltelli).
Production company: PWSTiF (Scuola Superiore di Cinema di Lodz).

HAMLES [IL PICCOLO AMLETO]
Polonia/Poland, 195960, 35mm, 8', b/n

Director: Jerzy Skolimowski.
Screenplay: Jerzy Skolimowski, liberamente ispirata a Shakespeare.
Director of photography: Jacek Stachlewski.
Cast and characters: Zdzislaw Legniak (Hamles), Elzbieta Czyzewska (Ofelia), Wieslaw Golas (Laerte), Hanna Skarzanka (la moglie del capo), R. Ostalowski (il capo).
Supervisore didattico: Stanislaw Rozewicz.
Production company: PWSTiF (Scuola Superiore di Cinema di Lodz).

EROTYK [EROTICA]
Polonia/Poland, 1960, 35mm, 4', b/n

Director and screenplay: Jerzy Skolimowski.
Director of photography: Jacek Stachlewski.
Cast: Elzbieta Czyzewska, Gustaw Holoubek.
Production company: PWSTiF (Scuola Superiore di Cinema di Lodz).

PIENIADZE ALBO2YCIE [0 LA BORSA 0 LA VITA] Polonia/Poland, 1961, 35mm, 6, b/n

Director: Jerzy Skolimowski.
Screenplay: Jerzy Skolimowski, da una novella di Stanislaw Dygat.
Director of photography: Jacek Stachlewski.
Cast: Stanislaw Dygat, Bogdan Lazuka, Stefan Wiechecki.
Supervisore didattico: Stanislaw Rozewicz.
Production company: PWSTiF (Scuola Superiore di Cinema di Lodz).