involved four notable men: Ryszard Lenczewski, who in Grzegorz Królikiewicz’s The Case of Pekosiński created one of the most indelible neither/nor portraits com- mitted to the screen, and the man behind the recent Paweł Pawlikowski sensation, Ida; Krzysztof Ptak, who worked not only with Dziworski but also with Krzysztof Kieślowski (Decalogue), Krzysztof Krauze (My Nikifor, Papusza), Wojciech Smarzowski (The Dark House) and Grzegorz Królikiewicz (Killing Auntie, Neighbors); Dziworski’s serial collaborator Wit Dąbal; and Piotr Sobociński, the brilliant cinematographer behind Andrzej Czarnecki’s disturbing Rat Catcher, who also shot parts three and nine of Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Decalogue and Three Colors: Red. Going through these names is like flipping through a catalogue of Poland’s cinema of moral concern and its offshoots. It is no coin- cidence that these films also evince the same formal rigor that permeates Dziworski’s films. Dziworski returns to circus performers in Szapito, a
29-minute tragicomic postscript to Arena of Life, filmed five years later with a different troupe. Retired perform- ers reenact their numbers, allowing Dziworski to cap- ture their ebbing prowess, as well as more quotidian moments, such as bathing the animals. Unlike Arena of Life’s aesthetic starkness, Szapito’s deep, rich colors and opulent contrasts enfuse the film with sensual warmth. If Arena is a study of enchantment, Szapito is its decon- struction. Old pros trying to prove that they still got game botch up a trick with a loaded gun; a disabled juggler balances a stack of glasses while complaining of his low pension (a rare nod to contemporary politics); a plump tightrope walker tries to resuscitate her number. As she balances precariously on stiff legs, non-diegetic sound stresses her breathless vertigo. Elsewhere, slow-motion close-ups capture a trick convincingly, but the perform- ers deconstruct their own magic. Agnieszka Bojanowska’s
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A FEW STORIES ABOUT A MAN
brilliant, nonlinear editing adds another layer to the film, drawing a bridge between the past and the present. In one shot, a man fishing is synced to riotous laughter as his face breaks into a merry mask, suggesting that he has worked as a clown. Again, we are partly in the realm of fantasy, and the circus environs—with the boardwalk at sunset and the backlit tent in the background—are ren- dered dreamlike by the two cinematographers, Ptak and Dąbal, who worked on Arena of Life. As a psychodrama on aging and survival, Szapito
extends the notion of the real in ways that are highly subjective. Dziworski, who gathered the troupe to shoot a feature film for Grzegorz Królikiewicz, convinced them to stay on once that project fell through. Are these art- ists performing for the camera or for themselves? Or maybe both? Dziworski draws upon the circus’s roots in the lowly arts, particularly in commedia dell’arte, and imbues it with poetic vigor. These elderly athletes may be impoverished, and belabored sweat coats
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