Capital Celluloid 2027 — Day 36: Thu Feb 5

Innocent Sorcerers (Wajda, 1960): BFI Southbank, NFT3, 8.40pm

This is part of the Andrzej Wajda season at BFI Southbank and also screens on February 20th. You can find all the details here.

Chicago Reader review:
A 22-year-old Jerzy Skolimowski coscripted this minor Andrzej Wajda feature (1960), a modish comedy about a hip young doctor who moonlights as a jazz drummer. The film serves as a fascinating document of Polish youth culture during the least repressive years of the communist era, as well as a rough draft for the freewheeling comedies Skolimowski would soon direct himself (Walkover, Identification Marks: None). Wajda, for all his talent, has never had much flair for comedy, and this feels weirdly studied for a movie about youthful exuberance. But there are passages of genuine spontaneity, especially in an extended confrontation between the hero and a young woman he's trying to bed; it recalls the famous bedroom showdown in Godard's Breathless, released earlier that same year.
Ben Sachs

Here (and above) is a montage of scenes from the film.

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