Innocent Sorcerers

“‘It’s got to have boxing and jazz, a cool bloke on a scooter who meets pretty girls and occasionally ponders the meaning of life,’ advised 21-year-old Jerzy Skolimowski to Andrzej Wajda, who was twelve years his senior and, following his cinematic explorations of the Second World War, wanted to make a contemporary film about the attitudes to life of young people. Skolimowski rewrote Jerzy Andrzejewski’s screenplay accordingly and recommended that Wajda hire a jazz musician for the soundtrack. The plot centres on Bazyl, a young doctor from Warsaw who provides medical care for a state-run boxing club and whose life, feeling aimless and inwardly empty, revolves between his job, jazz clubs and fleeting romantic encounters, until he makes a chance acquaintance who might restore his faith in love. Jazz actually plays the leading role, expressing the lifestyle of a young Polish bohemian crowd and featuring prominently both on and off screen. The protagonist is himself part of a jazz band, of which Polanski and Komeda are also members. The direct inspiration for the character of Bazyl – in terms of his clothing, demeanour and various details, such as the Lambretta scooter – was Krzysztof Komeda himself [a pioneering Polish jazz pianist and film composer, also famous for his collaboration with Roman Polanski, Editor’s note], who was something of an idol for some of Poland’s youth at the time the film was made.” (Hans-Joachim Fetzer, Arsenal Berlin, September 2014)