Starring: Zbigniew Cybulski, Andrzej Łapicki, Iga Cembrzyńska, Gustaw Holoubek
Directed by: Tadeusz Konwicki
As an admirer of Rękopis znaleziony w Saragossie (The Saragossa Manuscript, 1965), Martin Scorsese would almost surely enjoy as well Tadeusz Konwicki’s movies, at least the ones infused with the zest of surrealism. As an accomplished writer, Konwicki can be regarded, even more than Wojciech Has, as a foreign body in the Polish Film School.
Salto (1965) is still an impressive specimen of Konwicki’s imaginative storytelling combined with a brilliant soundtrack from Wojciech Kilar. Cybulski play here in the role of Mr Kowalski-Malinowski (a duo of common Polish surnames), a cheeky Everyman that jumps out of a moving train and into the lives of the inhabitants of a rural village, where is hailed both as a prophet and a troublemaker. Before being put to flight by a furious mob, Mr Kowalski-Malinowski leads the villagers in a dream-like dance called the Salto.
The satire on provincial bigotry is used to examine the mentality of post-war Poland. Two years later, a twist of real-life fate killed Cybulski when he fell attempting to jump onto a moving train in Wrocław station.
Originally published by The Krakow Post on May 01, 2013