Second to None

Jerzy Skolimowski at the I-House

by Shaun Brady

(CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

"Coming of age" tends to refer to some magical moment when adolescence cedes to adulthood, a single rite of passage when childish things are put away and responsibility is finally shouldered. But in the early films of Polish-born director Jerzy Skolimowski that make up I-House's mini-retrospective, maturation is an ongoing and cyclical process, as the bad habits of youth endlessly recur in the face of new beginnings.

Skolimowski began his career working on screenplays for Andrzej Wajda and Roman Polanski before enrolling in Lodz Film School. While there, he designed several short films that could be assembled into a feature, circumventing the Polish apprenticeship system. The resultant film became Identification Marks: None (pictured), his 1964 debut feature.

Skolimowski himself stars as Andrzej, a college-age man drafted into military service. The film begins with his appearance before the draft board and ends with him boarding the train that will take him into his uncertain destiny; the intervening moments unfold as a series of encounters in which he breaks with his past.

The title refers to Andrzej's response to the board's query about identification marks. "None," comes the reply, and as we watch him drift through his life, the significance of that answer becomes clear. Andrzej's very identity seems unformed, in his own mind and as reflected by the people in his life. Skolimowski's then-wife, Elzbieta Czyzewska, plays three characters in the film, including a young woman who reminds Andrzej of his wife as she once was; he seems to be roaming through his own past in a nostalgic reverie.

Deep End (1971), Skolimowski's first English-language film, deals with the more familiar coming-of-age concept of a young man's sexual awakening. But this tale of a 15-year-old's experiences working in a London public bath is a much more caustic take, with the flowering of sexual activity accompanied by the sour taste of physical commerce and objectification.

I-House's series also includes Walkover (1965) and the 2003 documentary Against the Clock: Skolimowski, Filmmaker, Painter, Poet.

(s_brady@citypaper.net)

Jerzy Skolimowski: Inside/Outside | Fri.-Sat., June 20-21, $5-$7, International House, 3701 Chestnut St., 215-387-5125, ihousephilly.org.