Barrier (Skolimowski, 1966): BFI Southbank, NFT1, 8.50pm
This screening includes an introduction by season curator Michael Brooke while the film is also on at BFI Southbank on April 1st. Full details of the Jerzy Skolimowski can be found here.
Chicago Reader review:
In his third feature (1966), Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski captures
the spirit of youthful anarchy so prevalent in 60s cinema but cloaks his
philosophical hero, a graduating Warsaw university student (Jan
Nowicki), in a mantle of pessimism and ennui. With no immediate plans,
the graduate wanders a modern but impersonal cityscape; after failing to
connect with his preoccupied father, he tries to impress his former
classmates by enlisting an attractive streetcar operator (Joanna
Szczerbic, Skolimowski’s wife at the time) to pose as his fiancee. Their
big date in a fancy restaurant unfolds as absurdist slapstick, but the
overall tone of the film is one of sardonic despair, from a
Fellini-esque scene of a blood drive during Holy Week to the hero’s
climactic blind tumble down a steep incline.
Andrea Gronvall
Here (and above) is an extract.
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