In memory of Andrzej Zulawski (Cosmos)

The last novel of Witold Gombrowicz, the last film of Andrzej Zulawski

On the day of Andrzej Zulawski’s death I got an idea to write the series of reviews «In memory of Andrzej Zulawski». Before his death, I have written reviews on some of his films, but after some time I found their quality as not-so-satisfactory. Especially it concerns the reviews of L’important c’est d’aimer and La femme publique. I have analyzed them from only one point of view and I have not used the best language. That is why, I have taken the writing of those reviews more seriously; for example I have read the books. Before watching Cosmos I have read the original novel of Witold Gombrowicz.

In one interview, Andrzej Zulawski said that there are two traditional themes in the Polish literature – Romanticism and Surrealism. After saying that, the Director especially pointed out that Polish Surrealism, compared with Czechoslovakia, didn’t have the common concept. Andrzej Zulawski said that his Surrealism was the result of pushing the Polish Romantic tendency to excess, as with Witold Gombrowicz.

One of the main element of Surrealism is expression of the actual functioning of thought, without the thought dictate and other societal constraints. In this meaning, the turning point of the film and the novel is the invitation to «the omnipotence of dream, in the disinterested play of thought» (quoting Manifesto of Surrealism).

The original text of Cosmos is almost impossible to film because of the author’s neglect to the traditional rules of literature. For example, there are many cases when storyline is broken, there are scenes where characters disappear and the novel uses unusual language. Andrzej Zulawski perfectly understood all of this and radically changed the original test. Despite that, the Director preserved the atmosphere of the original novel.

Andrzej Zulawski was fond of saying the he made the films about what was torturing him, and a woman serves him as a medium. In his last film, the Director broke his traditional rule and a male character his «medium». The speeches of the main characters – failed lawyer and writer Witold, - includes the thoughts of Andrzej Zulawski.

Though Witold, the Director mocks the modern Internet society. He gave to one the characters (Fuchs) a useless profession – manager at a Parisian fashion company, - and made him a completely ignorant man, who doesn’t know the single name in French and international literature. Along with that, Andrzej Zulawski mocks an internet writing by making Witold a writer, who writes and speaks stereotypically. Also, I think that by giving to Witold the traits of La Femme Zulawskienne, the Director was showing the mixing of gender roles of the modern society.

As I said, Andrzej Zulawski broke the traditional rule and made the female character (Lena) the archetypical bad actress, about whom the Director said so much words in his interviews, Lena is a linguistic teacher, who doesn’t know the languages, and who desperately tries to become a good actress.

After watching Cosmos, I realized that Andrzej Zulawski had some self-irony. In one of the dialogues, the characters described the not-so-personally favored by the director film (L’important c’est d’aimer) as boring. Also the scene, where Witold enters the rocking sea, resembles the final scene of Mes nuits sont plus belles que vos jours. Despite the self-irony, the Director was still an opponent of the boring cinema. The heroes called the films of Ingmar Bergman «the factory of boredom». Nevertheless, Andrzej Zulawski paid an homage to Theorema (Pasolini) and Nosferatu (Murnau).

In the last years of Andrzej Zulawski’s life he was called an old cruel senile, who could only write and speak badly about others. Nevertheless, the terminally ill director found some strength and made his last film. The film is a slap to a stereotypical arthouse, because the film is clever, subtle and energetic.

After discovering the fact of terminal illness of Andrzej Zulawski, his choice of book for the filming is rather symbolical. If you forgive me the banality, you could say that Cosmos is a swan song of Andrzej Zulawski.