SALTO [1965]
year:
- 1965
release date:
- 11 VI 1965
runtime:
- 100 min
directed by:
- Tadeusz Konwicki
written by:
- Tadeusz Konwicki
director of photography:
- Kurt Weber
cast:
- Zbigniew Cybulski [Kowalski-Malinowski], Jerzy Block [an old man], Włodzimierz Boruński [Blumenfeld], Gustaw Holoubek [the host], Irena Laskowska [fortune-teller Cecylia], Marta Lipińska [Helena], Andrzej Łapicki [Pietuch, a drunk], Zdzisław Maklakiewicz [Captain], Wojciech Siemion [the artist], Iga Cembrzyńska [Kowalski’s wife], Krystyna Cierniak [girl dancing salto], Marian Babula, Alicja Banaś
edited by:
- Irena Choryńska
music by:
- Wojciech Kilar
production design:
- Jarosław Świtoniak
produced by:
- Studio Filmowe „Kadr”
executive producer:
- Jan Włodarczyk
awards:
-
- IFF Edinburgh (Scotland) 1967: diploma
About the film
Challenging the Polish Film School, Konwicki records the specific exorcisms targeting social mythomania. As Zbigniew Cybulski said − a film about ourselves.
In a strange town, somewhere on the fringes of surreal fantasy and reality, there is a remarkable man with a personality full of contradictions. It is Kowalski-Malinowski − a Polish Jederman− a persecuted sufferer, mythomaniac and false prophet. He gives the residents of the town different versions of his biography, and people believe in the contrived drama of his wartime fate. Each character is a representative of some version of the Polish fate − tireless, faithful Soldier (Captain), a Jew (Blumenfeld), a bard (Poet). But these are all grotesque personalities, susceptible to the clichés of Kowalski-Malinowski. The symbolic society is drawn into a false game and later a hypnotic dance called salto, which the newcomer leads like the Straw Manfrom Wyspiański’sdrama. When Malinowski’s wife arrives in the town and reveals that her husband is an ordinary womaniser and liar, the spell is quickly broken and the prose of life returns.
Jan Słodowski, Leksykon polskich filmów fabularnych, Warszawa 1996
