Cosmos (2015)

Watching the final film from any director of the auteurist type is a fascinating (and at times bittersweet) thing in that, whether or not the films were intended to be their last, a good portion of final films do tend to serve as fitting finales. Take for example Love Rites (1987), the final feature film from Walerian Borowczyk. Although never intended to be Borowczyk's last film, its themes of finality and mantra of “Everything must go” nonetheless became eerily prophetic. Alain Robbe-Grillet's Gradiva (2006) is another great example of a filmmakers career coming full circle, even featuring spliced in scenes from previous Robbe-Grillet films that explored similar thematic obsessions. Although it clearly wasn't designed as his last, Jess Franco's reflexive, almost self-portrait-esque Al Pereira vs.the Alligator Ladies (2012) was a proper swansong, making numerous references, both visual and audio, to Franco's past work. Other examples include Lucio Fulci's purgatorial Door into Silence (1991), Nikos Nikolaidis' The Zero Years (2005) and Vincete Aranda's Luna caliente (2009), which both found their respective directors returning to ideas they'd explored in some of their very first films. Andrzej Zulawski's Cosmos is a particularity interesting case. Based on the 1965 novel of the same name by Witold Gombrowicz, Cosmos was Zulawski's first film following a 15 year hiatus and made for both a welcome, not to mention badly needed return to film, but also an appropriate adieu.

After failing his bar exam, Witold, a legal student along with his friend Fuchs, arrive at an inn looking for a quiet place for Witold to study and meet the owners, Madame Woytis, her husband Leon, Catherette, the maid with a deformed upper lip and Lena, Madame Woytis' daughter whom Witold quickly becomes infatuated with despite her recent engagement to an architect. Witold had previously discovered a dead sparrow hanging outside the inn and later finds a piece of wood hanging in the same fashion. Witold soon begins to see these things, along with a strange mold formation on the wall as well as Catherett's lip as ominous premonitions, becoming convinced that all are connected and sets out to uncover any type of meaning while his obsession with Lena also grows stronger and stronger.

When asked about people constantly searching for meaning in his films, David Lynch was once quoted as saying “I don't know why people expect art to make sense when they accept the fact that life doesn't make sense.” Its an interesting quote to think about regarding Cosmos as the film is essentially about someone someone attempting to make sense out of the absurdities of everyday life, looking for meaning where there is none. To make order out of chaos more or less and Zulawski's embracing of the absurdity of trying to make sense of the absurdity. While the film certainly contains moments of heaviness, it's by far Zulawski's lightest and most comedic work, thanks largely in part due to the nonsensical nature of Witold's quest for meaning and the antics of the family at the inn, Leon especially . At face value, the motivations of all the characters could be seen as utterly ridiculous yet as is the case with all of Zulawski's films, it's precisely the exaggerations that strip away all pretense and give much of the film a relatable logic, Witold's intense love at first sight for Lena that quickly turns to l'amour fou being a standout example, a quintessential Zulawskian romance and perhaps the most endearing aspect of the film. The film also stands as one of Zulawski's most clever in terms of dialogue, with a barrage of film and literature references, some even to Gombrowicz, and there's an especially hilarious mention of Pasolini to keep an ear out for.

While being interviewed at the Locarno Festival where Zulawski won the Best Director award, Zulawski spoke about the importance of Gombrowicz's work saying “For my generation, which was born during the war and raised during Communist times, Gombrowicz was censored, totally unknown in Poland. No books in print, no nothing... But we were feeding on his plays and books because he was like air, like light, in those terribly sad, grey, and lying times. Whatever he did looked like a savage provocation in front of the Communist concrete and total boredom and total incapacity to do anything right. My entire generation was a Gombrowicz generation.” He also made some interesting statements regarding his potential future in film stating “I was very happy not doing films for 15 years. Maybe it was the happiest period of my life. I was busy with really interesting things, like living... On the contrary, I bless these times, and now I look forward with a bit of apprehension because the men with the money are thinking that they should make films now, again. And I won’t. No.” Unfortunately Zulawski would pass in February of 2016 so its purely speculative as to he would have made another film or not, so Cosmos stands as not only an essential Zulawski title but given the current state of film financing and marketing, one of the most important films in contemporary cinema. 

Fidelity (2000)

The perplexing nature of romantic relationships was front and center in the majority of the films of Andrzej Zulawski and one particular facet, and often the most volatile, as it relates to the themes of relationships, the love triangle, proved to be especially fascinating for Zulawski. Zulawski's fixation with the love triangle can be seen in his first feature The Third Part of the Night (1971) but it was his third film L'important c'est d'aimer (1975) where the various complexities the love triangle presented began to take shape. Zulawski's most famous title, Possession (1981), took the love triangle into the realm of the fantisque (and technically became a “love square”) whereas La femme publique (1984) turned the love triangle idea on its head somewhat by having an actress play the role of the dead wife of one of her lovers. Even in films like My Nights are More Beautiful Than Your Days (1989) and Szamanka (1996), where the love triangle isn't the main focus of the film, nevertheless feature characters involved in fierce relationships while another partner figures in the background. And how appropriate that Zulawski's final film Cosmos (2015) centers around a man obsessed with the wife of another? Fidelity, Zulawski's penultimate feature as well as his final collaboration with then wife/muse Sophie Marceau, once again saw Zulawski shining a light on the love triangle concept with typically cathartic and devastating results.

After accepting a job with La Verite, a trashy tabloid, Clélia (Sophie Marceau), a talented photographer becomes engaged to and later marries Clève, a publisher who was previously engaged to the daughter of Clélia's new boss. Shortly before the marriage, Clélia meets Nemo, a fellow photographer at La Verite and the attraction between the two is immediate. Even after Clélia and Clève's marriage, Nemo continues to pursue Clélia and the more time the two spend together, the stronger Clélia's attraction to Nemo grows. Despite her determination to remain loyal to Clève, Clélia's struggle with temptation becomes apparent to Clève who begins to suspect infidelity which, along with the increasingly dangerous nature of Nemo's investigative photojournalism, causes even more strife in both Clélia's personal and professional life.

Rivaled only by L'important c'est d'aimer in terms of accurately representing the agony that arises out of a situation involving two people who, for all intensive purposes, could be together yet are prevented by various forces, in many ways Fidelity (La fidélité) is very much a sibling film to L'important c'est d'aimer with the two sharing several similarities. For instance, both films have a strong emphasis on photography, with it being Clélia's main profession just as it was Fabio Testi's Servais in L'important c'est d'aimer. Both films also feature commentary on the concepts, differences and similarities of “high” and “low” art, tabloid media and pornography. Both films even develop crime subplots with the male protagonists becoming involved in shady underworld activities. Most importantly though, just as Zulawski did with L'important c'est d'aimer, the typical love triangle is subverted by having no extramarital affair actually take place, choosing instead to focus on the psychological anguish felt by the three parties involved, be it Clélia's temptation, Nemo's lust and Clève suspicion and jealousy as opposed to standard soap opera tropes a love triangle might entail. The central triangle holds even more weight thanks to the various subplots, particularly as it relates to Clélia's job as well as her ailing mother. The film is often singled out as being one of Zulawski's more “conventional”, however the film is still ripe with his trademark idiosyncrasies and eccentric side characters, and there aren't many romantic dramas that feature black market organ trafficking, gangsters and the occasional specter sighting.

Fidelity was again the final collaboration between Zulawski and Sophie Marceau and even with the film featuring some of the finest examples of steadicam work and one of composer Andrzej Korzynski's most gorgeously melancholic, piano based scores (plus some industrial tinged touches for added effect during some of the more energetic moments), its Marceau who really carries the entire film. Although her performance is much more “calm”, for lack of a better word (although she does have one incredible moment of emotional excess), than her previous turns for Zulawski, her performance nonetheless traverses through a wide range of emotions which Marceau brilliantly conveys, the passage of time covered in the film really being felt by her perfectly nuanced performance. Quite possibly her finest role for Zulawski. The fact that both her professional and personal relationship with Zulawski came to a close following the film gives the film an extremely personal quality which, intentional or not, makes the film resonate even more. It would be 15 years before Zulawski would deliver his swansong Cosmos and although Fidelity thankfully wound up not to be his final film, if it had been it would have been as powerful as a final statement could be. While its bound to be much to heavy for many, Fidelity is an essential piece of the Zulawski puzzle, marking the end of one of the most memorable and rewarding artist/muse pairings.