Barrier

Director: Jerzy Skolimowski, Jerzy Skolimowski, Jerzy Skolimowski, Jerzy Skolimowski, Jerzy Skolimowski, Jerzy Skolimowski, Jerzy Skolimowski, Jerzy Skolimowski, Jerzy Skolimowski, Jerzy Skolimowski, Jerzy Skolimowski, Jerzy Skolimowski

1966 / 77min / DCP

Skolimowski’s romantic, exuberant Barrier features Jan Nowicki as its nameless protagonist, an alienated medical student who abruptly abandons his studies to plunge into self-analysis and play the floating flâneur in the streets of Warsaw, his various encounters including a beautiful tram driver and his senile pensioner father. Shot in solemnly sumptuous black and white, it’s a film that exudes a feeling of reckless invention and youthful spontaneity, from its dialogues to Krzysztof Komeda’s jazz score to its unexpected shifts into slapstick satire.