Directed by: Tomasz Wasilewski
Starring: Dorota Kolak, Łukasz Simlat, Tomasz Tyndyk, Katarzyna Herman
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
The original Polish poster of Tomasz Wasilewski’s newest effort Głupcy (Fools) carry in itself the expectation of promoting a highly refined piece of cinema. On balance, this is partially true. The slow-paced sexual intercourse between Marlena (Dorota Kolak) and Tomek (Łukasz Simlat) from the opening scene, framed in a blurred close-up of the lovers’ heads, is the antithesis of pornography. For the avoidance of doubt, it should be however noted that Fools is not a film on sensuality and libido, but rather a cinematic reflection on their fading status in a couple’s life.
When Marlena decides to bring at home her dying adult son Mikołaj (Tomasz Tyndyk) the situation gets out of control. Tomasz who is not Mikołaj’s dad starts feeling like a foreigner at home. Even if her neglected son appears to be left with a short time to live, the woman suddenly feels with her back against the wall having to choose between maternal and marital love.
Fools displays one of the possible roads that fiction cinema in Poland has to use to its own advantage the unpredictable wilderness that the dunes of the Baltic Coast have to offer. The sweeping waters which can be admired from a window at the protagonists over-decorated flat, instead, operate in the story almost as a standalone, overpowered character and a “fourth wheel” in the relationship. Eventually, Marlena instinctively turns to the raging sea to cleanse and heal her emotional wounds.
Once again, after directing United States of Love (2016), Wasilewski intentionally floors the audience with an overtly aesthetical drama in defiance of the sumptuary laws usually attributable to the genre. The wallpapers in the lovers’ tiny flat, the coloured tiles in the dilapidated hospital which Mikołaj is dismissed from and the lush appearance of the morgue ornamented with many plants – they all speak for themselves. The distinctive hand of Romanian New Wave ambassador Oleg Mutu is very visible in the cinematography of Fools.
This time, however, the Polish director seems to have gone to the extremes to try the viewers’ patience. Some expedients in the movie are unnecessary and disturbing. The sound editing, for instance, shows some heavy-handedness. The combination of Mikolaj’s prolonged death rattle near the sound produced by seals on a nearby beach, is a bit too much even for the regulars of arty filmmaking.
The filmmaker’s artistic flirtation with the sordidness is partially offset by the forceful performance, set against a majestic seascape of the Hel Peninsula, of the duo Kolak-Simlat as a couple in decay. Thanks to his flair behind the camera and young age, the director of Floating Skyscrapers (2014) will certainly make up for a minor directorial slip-up that premiered in Karlovy Vary.
Film Reviewed by Giuseppe Sedia
Published by Kino Mania on August 26, 2022