Film Screening: "Komeda, Komeda"
The Second Weekend with "16" Film Club
The Sounds of Film Score
directed by Natasza Ziółkowska-Kurczuk, Poland 2012, 72’
As the title suggests, documentary film “Komeda, Komeda…” is devoted to the genius jazz musician – Krzysztof Komeda Trzciński. The film features a number of extensive interviews conducted with people associated with Komeda and the then Polish art world at large. Statements by fellow musicians, relatives, and friends provide documentary evidence of what an unidentifiable and contradictory personality Komeda was. Their accounts co-create an ambiguous narrative of one of the most original and searching Polish jazz artists. Some remembered him as an introvert recluse, while to others he was a socialite and a bon vivant.
The film makers managed to talk directly to people who knew, lived, and worked with Komeda. Primarily, there are conversations with family members: Irena Orłowska, Komeda’s sister, and Tomasz Lach, the son of Zofia, Komeda’s wife. Especially important are interviews with musicians who used to play and work with Komeda, including musicians from his first ensembles: Jerzy Milian, Jan Ptaszyn Wróblewski, and Andrzej Idon Wojciechowski, as well as other musicians, such as Michał Urbaniak and Leszek Możdżer.
There are also other associates and friends interviewed, among others: Roman Polański, Andrzej Wajda, Marek Karewicz, Rosław Szaybo, Edward Etler as well as school friends and fellow medicine students. Their recollections add yet another dimension to the in-depth portrait of the artist.
Unique animated sequences created by Piotr Dumała were conceived on the basis of the work-in-progress demo version of “Rosemary’s Lullaby” from Roman Polański’s “Rosemary’s Baby”. The oneiric character of the documentary is supplemented by idiosyncratic film sequences as well as a few animated photographs of Komeda. The film is characterised by a tempting sense of the place, musical and visual allure, and a slightly ironic distance.