Dos hombres y un armario

Two Men and a Wardrobe (1958, Poland-15min)Yes,it can be a film about intolerance.But it showed not the intolerance about homeless,gays,or different believers.i think it showed the intolerance about everything that was against the communist system. A Polanski friend who studied with him once told about `their'game' during studies.They used to get into the tram and polanski pretend to be very ill,like he was dying.This way he got the seat.Near their stop,when the tram was slowing down,Polanski suddenly recovered said BYE BYE! And jump off the tram.It seemed foolish,but that was actually the way he fought against the system.In this film Polanski played some kind of evil creation,the boss of a local mafia.It was his most typical `character creation',because he played similar roles in other films like A GENERATION(POKOLENIE) directed by his mentor Andrzej Wajda also in KONIEC NOCY(END OF THE NIGHT).Very interesting was Polanski'' short film "`ROZBIJEMY ZAWABE(WE'LL BREAK UP THE PARTY)to make this film he payed the real trouble-makers to bit the party of Lodz Film Academy students and he. just filmed that!,again polanski played the bad boy in the film'NIEWINNI CZARODZIEJE'.He appears there ony a few minutes but he manages to beat the main character of the film! After moving outside Poland ,Polanski abandoned this profile,but made one exception,as you probably remember in CHINATOWN he suddenly appears and knifes Jack Nicholson's nose.in this moment he plays an evil dwarf ,is both scary an funny.

His experience in Polish theatre gave him a lasting love of Absurdism, with its sardonic, existential view of life's futility, and its vicious parodies of the chaotic power games that underpin (and often undermine) social structures.

Polanski was not only interested in this kind of personages,he likes the relantionship between' the master and the servant' The domineering and the repressed ,as we can see in his short film' The Fat and the Lean' (1961, B&W, 15mins) or in features like Knife in the Water (1962); Cul-de-sac (1966);Dance of the Vampires(1967) etc.

"Wardrobe" has two meanings for most people: 1 - A wardrobe (sometimes called an "armoire") is a standing closet, sometimes called an "armoire" used for storing clothes. Sometimes it is in the form of a big trunk. 2 - a collection of wearing apparel; a collection of stage costumes and accessories I know it as the second definition but in this movie, an early Roman Polanski film, it is a big "dresser, a large piece of furniture to store clothes and has a mirror in the middle of it. It looks big and tough for even two people to carry.

So....imagine the absurdity of the opening scene: two men appearing out of the ocean, walking to shore carrying this "wardrobe!" That scenes sets up this strange 14-minute film, the first one of Polanski's to get public viewing. Polanski made films in Poland for the first five years of his career. I wonder what people there thought of this strange tale.

This movie starts out strictly as a comedy, almost like an old silent film one because there is no dialog so all the humor is physical. However, it then delves into some other odd areas, such as animal abuse, some unexplained and non-eventful and very routine scenes with a girl, some fistfights. You just never know what will happen, all the while the two guys are carrying this huge wardrobe around. I left out mentioning a bunch of strange things so as not to spoil it.

Like most of Polanski's early works, this is unusual stuff. My opinion is that many people would see this in many ways, and have a wide wide of likes and dislikes about it. One thing for sure: it's different. You can see this early Polanski effort on disc number 2 of the "Knife In The Water" DVD.

Two Men and a Wardrobe (1958)

*** (out of 4)

As the title suggests, two men carry a large wardrobe around the city getting in all sorts of trouble. Polanski shows good timing in the comic moments and his cameo as the gang leader reminded me of a certain scene in Chinatown.

Break Up the Party (1957)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Somewhat amusing short from Polanski has a more interesting history than what's exactly on screen. Polanski threw a party at his school and invited a gang to break it up half way through. That's what we see here.

Teeth Smile (1957)

*** (out of 4)

Another short from Polanski, this one dealing with a peeping tom. Once again the young director shows he would become quite capable of building some nice atmosphere.

Murder (1957)

*** (out of 4)

Roman Polanski's first short film quickly shows a murder taking place. For such a short film (running time wise), the director does a very good job at showing atmosphere and the murder is quite effective as well.

Although you can file this movie under experimental or avant-guarde (which are controversial film genres), I think that if only all film student made short films as good as this one... perhaps student films would have had a wider audience (other than film students!).

Despite the English title sounding a lot like a recent sitcom, it is a short, very early film by the master of early film making, Roman Polanski. I saw this on a documentary on Polanski late last year (1998), and i thought it was kinda funny, in a queer way. It is, of-course in Polish, so i don't know what happened exactly on the movie, but i can talk about the style on the feel of the movie.

It looks as if it was made when film was just starting to get it right, (even though it was 1958!). It probably cost a fortune for him to make, since he was still a nobody at this time. The movie starts with these two guys on a beach, and they are struggling to carry this enormous wardrobe. The scenery and the props as i just mentioned don't seem to go together, and the result is pretty funny. Watching these guys trip in the sand carrying a huge wardrobe is like watching someone push a shopping trolley down the isle of a movie theatre, you watch it and just sorta... laugh!

The two guys eventually meet some other people, and then dialogue became involved so i got lost again. So what i'm trying to say is that if you're a die-hard fan of Roman Polanski, you still probably won't like this short, black and white movie...

But i've seen something you haven't, I've seen something you haven't, i've seen something you haven't...