Country: Kazakhstan
Year: 1965
Duration: 78'
"My film does not tell an anecdote or a series of particular facts, but seeks to take account of the mental landscape of the protagonist. Hence I act in a way that the reality that I present assaults the viewer in the same chaotic, brutal, and formless way that it hits my protagonist. The fact that not everything is understood or even taken in must end up getting on the nerves of the viewer. For me, realism consists exactly in this. The political allusions are very subtle. The girl is balanced and entirely normal, apparently the opposite of the protagonist. But, at a certain point, there is a complete overturning of values. She is an old Stalinist who has learned by heart everything that she must think and she recites it. At the end it is he who shows that he is stronger than her. They both take the rain that is, they flee. And the motorcyclist who chases the train does not only call the protagonist but also the girl, who does not ansu7er. The boy, instead, answers by jumping off the train. This is an attitude that has an ethical, artistic and political meaning." (Jerzy Skolimowski, "Cahiers du Cinéma", n. 177, April 1966)
"Poet, boxer, screenwriter, leading actor in his own films, Jerzy Skolimowski is the very best Polish filmmaker and one of the first in Europe. Poet and boxer, like Cravan, like Jarry, with whom he shares dryness and sarcasm, Jerzy Skolimowski makes cinema as you fight it and as you breathe it. It is possible that Walkower an raucous short film of an hour and a quarter which is elliptic, allusive, rapid, humorous, and exciting is for the eastern European countries what À bout de souffle was for French film the resounding manifestation of a radical and irreversible renewal and the sudden promise of fresh air and fresh blood." (JeanAndré Fieschi, "Cahiers du Cinéma", n. 168, July 1965)
Biography
film director
Jerzy Skolimowski
(Lodz, Poland, 1938), director, screenwriter, producer, and actor, after inconsistent studies and experience as a boxer and a poet, became involved in cinema thanks to Andrzej Wajda, who encouraged him to enroll in the film school in Lodz. With Polanski, he wrote the screenplay for Knife in the Water (1962) and he debuted as a director with Rysopis (1964), which, with his next film Walk over (1965), made him one of the major exponents of the international Nouvelle Vague of the 1960s. In 1967, his film The Departure won the Golden Bear in Berlin but that same year another movie of his, Hands Up!, was censored (it was released only in 1981) and he never made another movie in his home country. Skolimowski's international career is full of risky production adventures and great masterpieces and spans various countries (Czechoslovakia, Italy, Germany, England, the United States). After the failure of King, Queen, Knave, he spent a great deal of inactive time in England and Poland, followed by the great success of his English movies The Shout (1978) and Moonlighting (1982). In 1985, he directed his first all-American movie, Lightship and he moved to the US. After returning to his homeland, in 1991 he directed his first Polish movie after Hands Up!, 30 Door Key and over the years continued to work in cinema, writing and producing the film by his two sons Józef and Michal, The Hollow Men (1993). After a long hiatus from film, he returned to directing movies in 2008 with Four Nights with Anna, presented at the Quinzaine des réalisateurs in Cannes, followed by Essential Killing (2010), Special Jury Prize in Venice; 11 Minutes (2015); and EO (2022), the Jury Prize in Cannes.
FILMOGRAFIA
Rysopis (Rysopis - Segni particolari nessuno, 1964), Walkover (1965), Bariera (Barriera, 1966), Le Départ (Il vergine, 1967), The Adventures of Gerard (Le avventure di Gerard, 1970), Deep End (La ragazza del bagno pubblico, 1970), König, Dame, Bube (Un ospite gradito... per mia moglie, 1972), The Shout (L'australiano, 1978), Ręce do gory (Mani in alto, 1981), Moonlighting (Moonlighting - Cittadini di nessuno, 1982), Success Is the Best Revenge (Il successo ad ogni costo, 1984), The Lightship (Lightship - La nave faro, 1985), Torrents of Spring (Acque di primavera, 1989), Thirty Door Key/Ferdydurke (1991), Cztery noce z Anną (Quattro notti con Anna, 2008), Essential Killing (id. 2010), 11 minut (11 Minutes, 2015), EO (2022).
Cast
& Credits
Director and screenplay: Jerzy Skolimowski.
Director of photography: Antoni Nurzyiiski.
Art director: Zdzislaw Kielanowski.
Editor: Alina Faflik, Jerzy Skolimowski.
Assistente al montaggio: Barbara Krzyczinonik.
Music: Andrzej Trzaskowski.
Sound: Mikolaj KompanAltman.
Cast and characters: Jerzy Skolimowski (Andrzej Leszczyc), Aleksandra Zawieruszanka (Teresa), Krzysztof Chamiec (il direttore), Elzbieta Czyzewska (la ragazza suicida), Andrzej Herder (Pawlak), Joanna Jedlewska (la ragazza del progetto), Henryk Kluba (Rogala, l'allenatore).
Director of Production: Jerzy Nitecki.
Production company: Gruppo "Syrena" .
Director of photography: Antoni Nurzyiiski.
Art director: Zdzislaw Kielanowski.
Editor: Alina Faflik, Jerzy Skolimowski.
Assistente al montaggio: Barbara Krzyczinonik.
Music: Andrzej Trzaskowski.
Sound: Mikolaj KompanAltman.
Cast and characters: Jerzy Skolimowski (Andrzej Leszczyc), Aleksandra Zawieruszanka (Teresa), Krzysztof Chamiec (il direttore), Elzbieta Czyzewska (la ragazza suicida), Andrzej Herder (Pawlak), Joanna Jedlewska (la ragazza del progetto), Henryk Kluba (Rogala, l'allenatore).
Director of Production: Jerzy Nitecki.
Production company: Gruppo "Syrena" .