POLISH FILM ACADEMY

50 Years of Polish Film School, Warsaw 2008

The Last Day of Summer

Andrzej Bukowiecki

Who is the creator of the “Last Day of Summer” (1958), one of the most original Polish films and at the time also one of the most innovative film productions in the world? According to film critics and viewers there is one clear answer to this question: Tadeusz Konwicki with photography by Jan Laskowski. In fact, however, we read in the end credits the film was created (bold type by A.B.) Tadeusz Konwicki and Jan Laskowski. There is no other mention of a scriptwriter (Tadeusz Konwicki did this part; he did not, however, write a script, but right away a shooting script), a director or a cinematographer. Moreover, according to the “History of Polish cinema” vol. IV (Warsaw 1980) and the www.filmpolski.pl web site, both artists are film’s creators (Konwicki as a director and Laskowski as a cinematographer). “The Last Day of Summer” should be perceived as their common work (and, in a way, it is). This view is supported not only by film’s opening credits, but also by Laskowski’s memoirs published in Łukasz Figielski’s and Bartosz Michalak’s book “The Private History of Polish Cinema” (Gdańsk 2005). “If you have a good script and two – three actors you can take a camera, start shooting on location and do it all practically without any money”, said Jan Laskowski trying to convince Konwicki, a professional writer and a scriptwriter, to make his debut as a film director. Therefore, initially “The Last Day of Summer” was Laskowski’s idea, who intended to make the film with a very “small” cast and shoot only on location. But it was Konwicki, who shaped the idea into a story of a men and a woman, who try to get to know each other at a beach. He wrote the shooting script and he was the main director, whereas Laskowski mostly did the photography. In the end it turns out, irrespective of Laskowski’s input into the project as its initiator, co-director and cinematographer, the authorship belongs to a much larger degree to Konwicki. Therefore, although in the film’s opening credits both artists are mentioned is its creators, in this analysis, following the example of movie’s old and new critics, we shall stick to terms such as “Konwicki’s film”, “Konwicki’s debut” etc.

“The Last Day of Summer” – still the Polish Film School or already the New Wave?

The new DVD edition of Tadeusz Konwicki’s directing debut is released as a part of the jubilee collection of the Polish Film School’s works. The collection was prepared to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the Polish School since its creation dating back to premiere of Andrzej Wajda’s “They Loved Life” on April 20, 1957. Polish Film Institute is the collection’s initiator and publisher.

But there are serious doubts whether “The Last Day of Summer” really does belong to the School… The term Polish School is used generally to describe various outstanding Polish films made in the second half of the 50s and the first half of the 60s. The films touch upon both contemporary issues and traumatic collective experiences of the Polish nation, such as Nazi occupation and (rarely) Stalinism. “The Last Day of Summer” certainly fits the description. It is widely believed to be an excellent contemporary work of art drawing inspiration, as we shall see in the following part of this article, from the Nazi occupation and in a way facing this nightmare. But if we identify Polish school with its leading works, such as Andrzej Wajda’s “They Loved Life” and “Ashes and Diamonds”, as well as Andrzej Munk’s “Eroica” and, to a smaller degree, “Bad Luck” and “Passenger”, we will see “The Last Day of Summer” is a very much different motion picture. Its creators paid much greater attention to its psychological aspects than to historical reality and national martyrdom. Qualities such as little action with minimum cast, filming only on location and very sparse dialogues make this film more similar to works of (then) newly created French New Wave. What is more, “The Last Day of Summer” precedes and to a certain degree is precursory to works made later in France! Because we should remember that although the French New Wave was born with the creation of Claude Chabrol’s “Cousins” and “The Beautiful Serge” made in the same year as Konwicki’s film (1958) it reached its peak a year later with the creation of Francois Truffaut “The 400 Blows” and Jan-Luc Godard’s “Breathless”.

“The Last Day of Summer” is the first but, naturally, not the last film of the New Wave. Other followed: Janusz Morgenstern’s “Good Bye, Till Tomorrow”(1960), Kazimierz Kutz’ “Nobody's Calling”(1960), Andrzej Wajda’s “The Innocent Sorcerers” (1960) and Roman Polański’s “The Knife in the Water” (1961).

Art cinema, poetic cinema

The ascetic form is not the only reason for the fact that “The Last Day of Summer” differs so greatly from other Polish School films dealing with national martyrdom and war trauma. Konwicki’s movie, in a way, is a very personal work. And not only because the author, unlike Wajda, Munk or Kutz, who based their work on already existing literature (e.g. Jerzy Stefan Stawiński’s, Jerzy Andrzejewski’s  or Józef Hen’s prose), created an original script (or rather, a shooting script). More importantly, Konwicki presents his own unique style and take on the war by searching for its frequently forgotten traces in people’s psycho. At the time it was a very innovative technique and the artist used it later again in his novels e.g. “A Dreambook of our Times” (1963) and films such as “All Souls’ Day” (1962), “Jump” (1965) and “How Far How Near” (1971).

Auteur cinema, introduced in Poland by Konwicki with “The Last Day of Summer” was later continued in works of, among others, Jerzy Skolimowski, Krzysztof Zanussi, Andrzej Kondratiuk, Krzysztof Kieślowski and Jan Jakub-Kolski.

“The Last Day of Summer” was one of the first poetic films. Konwicki’s concise storytelling (which did not, however, decrease the artistic value of his work!) was balanced by a romantic landscape creating a very intimate atmosphere of the motion picture. Similar techniques were used later in Witold Leszczyński’s “Mathiew’s Life” (1967), Władysław Ślesicki’s “Quicksands” (1968) or Andrzej Kondratiuk’s “Stardust” (1982).

Two at a beach

The film poster for Roman Polański’s “The Knife in the Water” conveyed a following information about movie’s cast: “Starring: Leon Niemczyk, Jolanta Umecka, Zygmunt Malanowicz and nobody else”.

“The Last Day of Summer” has even less numerous cast, because it features only Irena Laskowska and Jan Machulski. The character portrayed by them, a 28-year-old man with looks of a boy and a mature but not much older woman, meet on a beach at the seaside. The sandy beach, shore and dunes are very much visible throughout the 1-hour-and-6-minute-long film. And within this time we never find out the names of the main characters. Now and then military jets fly over their heads.

For the woman it is the “last day of summer” as she is about to leave to go home in the evening. Around noon she notices for the first time the presence of an unknown man. Not sure of his intentions she tries to chase him away and when her entreaties have a contrary effect, she even slaps the intruder across the face. In that instant the men jumps into the water and disappears in the sea. Woman, alarmed, comes to his rescue and saves his life.

This dramatic incident becomes a turning point in their acquaintance. Eventually, they open their hearts to each other. It turns out he has had many jobs in his life, but has never been successful in any of them and has nobody in his life. She, on the other hand, was in love once with a pilot but he has never returned form the war. For this reasons jets flying over their heads (notabene copied from a documentary film)  remind her not only of air strikes from the times of occupation, but also of her lover.

In the end the two “tourists” share a long kiss and make love (which is not, however, explicit in the movie, but barely suggested by the image of sand sliding from under their bodies). But this changes nothing. The woman wakes up in the morning only to see that the men who was trying to talk her into staying with him is gone. The footprints on the sands lead into the sea…

What is this movie about?

According to a widely accepted interpretation “The Last Day of Summer” tells a story of people burned out by the experience of war, which has made them unable to love. There are three instances in the movie supporting this view. The films opens with woman’s monologue recalling her war nightmares by reciting Tadusz Różewicz’ poem “Voices”: “There was a split hate / mutual dislike and wry face / there was a dead-end and walls’ flat faces pockmarked with bullets / thrown away from stock-cars / a herd driven with blows / and a roar / and along the way only dogs’ paws / dogs’ paws dogs’ paws”.  And then “I know it is not the way it should be / but / when a friend stretches out his hand / I hide my head like from a blow / I hide away from human gesture / I hide from an impulse of tenderness”.

In the second dialogue the man confesses he has never in his life pronounced the words “I love you|”. And, finally, the woman answering men’s entreaties to stay with him says “I can’t anymore, I don’t want to”.

Thus, Konwicki depicts psychological barriers existing in people’s minds that do not allow them to reach real understanding. He achieved that years before the creation of much acclaimed movies by Michelangelo Antonioni on the same subject, “Night” (1960) and “The Eclipse”(1962).

“The Last Day of Summer”, however, like the majority of prominent works of art escapes a clear-cut and simple interpretation. The movie ending is very characteristic in this regard. The woman, upon seeing the man is gone probably to make another attempt, this time fatal, to end his life follows him into the water. Tadeusz Lubelski, an expert on Konwicki’s art, in an essay published in the “History of Polish Cinema” (by Tadeusz Lubelski and Konrad J. Zarębski, Warszawa 2006) suggests, “film’s main characters unable to find enough hope in themselves to enter into a new relationship decide to commit a suicide”. A double suicide then. Perhaps. But can we really be sure of it? Even in the last scene of the film the woman does not disappear under the water but merely goes into the sea calling out for the man. If we look really closely we may find out from Irena Laskowska’s acting that the character portrayed by her does not really intend to kill herself but actually wants to rescue, again, the man met at he beach who has now become much more important to her. And she does that not out of humanitarian compassion, like she did the first time, but to save the love that sparkled between them.

Why did Konwicki make “The Last Day of Summer”?

If we are to consider various interpretations of Tadeusz Konwicki’s film debut other than the traditional one, we should not forget the one proposed by the author himself. Konwicki several times, e.g. in a conversation  with Tadeusz Lubelski in the book “Polish Cinema Debuts” (a collective work edited by Marek Hendrykowski, Konin 1998) and in his own book “I Remember It Was Hot” consisting of interviews made with him by Katrzyna Bielas and Jacek Szczerba (Kraków 2001) he made it clear that “The Last Day of Summer” was created in order to shake off his shock after the events that had taken place in Poland in October 1956.  With the October came the Polish anti-Stalinist thaw, which made Konwicki, author of a socrealistic novel “Construction site” (1950) and a script for Jan Koecher’s socrealistic movie “Career” (1954) feel psychically and morally uneasy. (Even though in the same period, in 1956, he created the script for Stanisław Lenartowicz’ artistically ambitious “Winter Dusk”.) His world already once fell apart in 1939. To deal with this trauma Konwicki used the man at the beach in “The Last Day of Summer” as his alter ago. He created a character, whose all life has been a failure and who could never find his own place like Konwicki, both after the war and after the Polish October. Jan Machulski, playing the man at the beach physically was even somewhat similar to young Konwicki.

In the end then “The Last Day of Summer” turns out to be a work which serves the author to deal with his past; in a different way, however, than Munk’s “Eroica” or Wajda’s “Ashes and Diamonds” do. Konwicki does it in a very autobiographic form in fact settling accounts with himself. This motif, however well disguised, actually makes Konwicki part of the Polish school. “The Last Day of Summer” is the Polish School in a “lighter” and “New Wave” package.

Film as an extravagance?

An unusual work such as “The Last Day of Summer” war created under equally unusual circumstances. The film was produced in the Kadr Film Studio, where Konwicki was literary director from 1956. He enjoyed full confidence of its artistic director Jerzy Kawalerowicz and production manager Ludwik Hager. They decided to produce the film assigning 10,000 PLN (the rest of the film’s budget came from Konwicki’s own resources) and 6,000 m of black and white film stock for this purpose.

“Thus “The Last Day of Summer” became the cheapest feature film in the history of Polish cinema and it is difficult to imagine anyone could break this record in the future”, wrote Tadeusz Lubelski in the previously quoted article from the “History of Polish Cinema”. The film was shot within three months of 1957 at a beach between Białogóra and Łeba. The “production headquarters” were set up at a forester’s cottage in Szklana Huta 6 km away from the nearest village and 3 km from the beach. Small crew consisting of only few people with Konwicki and his friends, brothers Jan and Jerzy Laskowski (Jerzy was production manager; actress Irena Laskowska was their sister) as its “core” carried all the equipment in a cart every day to the set and back.

Actually “equipment” is too big of a word. The cinematographer had only one and already much used camera Arriflex at this disposal. To achieve horizontal movements with the camera he used the cart. It was much more difficult when a vertical movement was necessary; the crew could not even dream of having a crane. Luckily they found a wooden ladder on the beach they could use to carve a cylindrical snag, like the one used in the country to chop wood on. They would put the ladder on the snag and Jan Laskowski would lay down on it while Konwicki was holding the other end of the ladder and move it up and down. This is how pictures with a camera moving vertically were shot.

There were no reflectors on the set. The chiaroscuro contrast was softened only by using a reflector board, or rectangles made of plywood, covered with reflective gel. What is even more interesting there was no equipment for sound recording! Because at the time in Poland sound was recorded optically onto a light-sensitive, and not magnetic, stock. The camera used for sound recording was so heavy it could not be brought to the set every day. Dialogues in “The Last Day of Summer” were remembered (sic!) or written down and recorded afterwards in A.D.R. It is hard to wonder at Tadeusz Konwicki telling Katrzyna Bielas and Jacek Szerba in the book “I Remember It Got Hot” about his film debut, “My film at the time was an extravagance”.

Worse still, during film shooting Jan Laskowski got seriously ill and it had to be put off for a while. Also, after the first viewing of the material it turned out it was not acceptable and the shooting had to be repeated from the beginning!

“The Last Day of Summer”, however, corroborates thesis of Rudolf Arnheim, German art and film theorist, that nothing serves a work of art better than the difficulties an artist has to overcome to create it. To this day Konwicki’s “extravagant” debut amazes us with its originality and artistic versatility (which, however, does not spoil its ascetic form). Film’s director, most likely with cinematographer’s help, was able to steer clear of visual monotony, which was quite probable due to shooting only on one location. To this end, he made an excellent use of the seemingly unvaried seaside landscape. Furthermore, he turned his camera on not only on sunny days but also when the sky was overcast and in the amazing light right before a coming storm. The changeable weather masterfully captured by Jan Laskowski gave an additional dynamic to the visual side of “The Last Day of Summer” and thus to the film as a whole. On the other hand, long shots used in the greater part of the movie – “blending” actors’ figures (two at the most and frequently only one!) with the vast background – underlined the sensation of being lost in life shared by the film characters and their loneliness.

Of course the director was assisted in this regard by the actors. Irena Laskowska had her film debut behind her. Jan Machulski (who came for the shooting of “The Last Day of Summer” with his wife Halina and a 3-year-old son Juliusz, today a famous director) also played  in several films before but only in episodes and supporting roles. Therefore, both of them were practically debutants. Still, they were able to stand up to the task of modern psychological acting, based on subtle exchange of glances, silence and sometimes even freezing in one pose.

The soundtrack of “The Last Day of Summer” also adds to the impression of intimate atmosphere created in the motion picture. Its leading motif is the so called atmos track: sounds of sea waves crushing against the shore, foghorns, roaring wind etc. They are accompanied by discreet music: a melody played on ocarina by actor Adam Pawlikowski. The only loud sound present throughout the movie is the roar of jets flying over characters’ heads.

The main artistic achievement of the film, however, is probably the fact that the work done by a professional writer, therefore a man working with words, speaks to us mostly through images. A moving story of human loneliness sometimes bordering on despair, other times on hope was told with par excellence cinematographic means.

Last problems, first successes

Final works on “The Last Day of Summer” were completed in spring 1958. But from the start it was a very unique work and also a short subject film and in effect it was not widely distributed in movie theaters. It was not until it was awarded at the International Documentary and Short Films Festival in Venice that the film was screened in theaters around the country. “The Last Day of Summer” received there Grand Prix and on August 4, it had its Polish premiere in Sopot.

Film critics, among others Aleksander Jackiewicz and Bolesław Michałek, welcomed the film with little enthusiasm, though appreciating its originality. Maria Dąbrowska, a writer, on the other hand was clearly enthusiastic. On September 23, 1958 she wrote in her journal, “The film is a world class event (…) A one day romance, scarce dialogue – and expressing so much! I have never seen a movie I would like as much as this one.”

History proved the author of “Nights and Days” right. Today “The Last Day of Summer” is an obligatory work on the program of every respectable art house cinema, Film Discussion Club and ambitious TV station.

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