Cosmos

I'm sure that somewhere in this 100 minutes of random psychotic banter, meaning can be found, but only if you're of the finest intellect. Don't worry if you don't like this film, you're probably just not smart enough. It's from a heady art-house Polish director, after all. Couldn't this film be something he just reclaimed out of his toilet after eating some bad kielbasa, getting high and drunk? Could be. But no, it's probably just way over your head. You wouldn't want the world to know you don't understand it, would you? It could be a clue that you really aren't sufficiently refined. I, for one, love the emperor's new clothes. The art world is full of lies and presumption like this.

Amazing. Beautiful. A true work of art!

Cosmos starts with two friends trying to get away from it all. One is Witold who has flunked his law exam and the other is Fuchs who has just packed in working for a Parisian fashion house. They head off to some seaside resort to a family run guest house. This family run guest house is from the more bizarre end of the market, the sort that gets very mixed reviews on Trip Advisor. For starters things are slightly awry from the start, with dead birds found hanging and staffed by people who are so emotionally unstable that a Ritalin overdose would, possibly, have little effect.The backgrounds of the two young men are juxtaposed brilliantly to the mayhem that is going on around them. Witold seems to be a frustrated dilettante and writer who is wont to fall in love and Fuchs is a force of nature who sparkles with a misplaced energy – if such a thing really exists. The increasing madness seems to deliberately challenge any form of acceptable narrative whilst telling stories that will, eventually, add up to the whole.This will not be a film for everyone; it can be seen as ‘art house’ or even deliberately annoying, but when you peel back the layers there is so much here that it is actually a celluloid feast. The performances are at once over the top and sensational as well as being sensationalist. Jean-François Balmer as Leon the patriarch of the house is just sublime as is his screen wife - Sabine Azéma. But the real star is writer and director Andrzej Zulawski who sadly died in February. As far as a Swan song could go it would be hard to beat such a piece of original work as this – he will be truly missed. If you like cinema that challenges convention and has its heart firmly planted on its, over acting, sleeve then be prepared for a treat.

Amazing movie, in a beautiful package, with plenty of printed material.Loved it.

What a beautiful epitaph, as subversive and inner-directed as the whole catalogue he left behind.