Cast: Jakub Goldberg, Henryk Kluba
Director: Roman Polanski
Country: Poland
Genre: Short
Watch it: Here
Editor’s note: The following review is a continuation of Matthew Blevins’ Subversive Saturdays series.
Roman Polanski’s Two Men and a Wardrobe witnesses the emergence of two young men from the depths of the sea, carrying with them a wardrobe that acts as an albatross of unspoken ideological dissonance from the status quo. The nature of their burden is of little consequence, as young men and women have been carrying their own wardrobes and weighty furniture of newly forged convictions since the beginning of time. The two mysterious men emerge from the sea like borrowed political ideologies washed ashore from distant lands, unprepared for the natural trepidation and violent outbursts from the uninitiated and close-minded. The innocence these unidentified men possess is incorruptible, and they earnestly haul their new toy through the apathetic cobblestone streets of polite society. They are the only ones capable of seeing the value of their impeding and seemingly useless artifact. Due to youthful naïveté, it never occurred to the two that this burden can simply be left at home and that others may be disinterested in this millstone of ideological obligation.
The two mysterious men emerge from the sea like borrowed political ideologies washed ashore from distant lands, unprepared for the natural trepidation and violent outbursts from the uninitiated and close-minded.
Two Men and a Wardrobe comes from a number of political thaws during the waning influence of Stalinism in the eastern bloc of Europe during the late fifties and early sixties. It was a time of ideological uncertainty as the fall of fascism would cause a generation to slowly emerge from their lengthy slumber to wipe the sleep from their eyes and assess the uncertain world they found themselves awakening in. The subversive spirit can silently soar during such periods as they push the limits of artistic imposition to provoke and irritate the shifting entities that helped to sponsor their expression. They had not yet been awake long enough to have forged clearly defined cultural doctrines that could erase the sins and transgressions of their fathers and identify their own beliefs. They would act as instigators and minor irritants, poking and prodding at the establishment through secret agendas and barely concealed metaphors, and taking infantile delight in provoking their tenuous allies with cleverly disguised attacks.
Polanski uses surreal imagery and exaggerated physical movements to create a light-hearted absurdity that mimics the seemingly nonsensical workings of apathetic society. The complacent do not wish to suffer the foolishness of the disquieted soul, for to entertain such preposterousness would be an affront to the ungreased wheels that trepidatiously keep society moving forward on the unidirectional highway of rationality. To deviate from that clearly defined thoroughfare is the cardinal sin of polite society, and travelers of unorthodox paths are met with resistance. Such resistance is the result of generational schadenfreude, as men hold contempt for those that have not yet resigned their idealism for the complacency of a life free of surprises and uncertainty.
There is no hypocrisy in seeing the problems within one’s self while feeling powerless to change them, and Polanski simultaneously condemns and forgives himself for his own complacency.
The two young men wield their burden proudly, as the weight of unconventional thoughts and ideas does not become intolerable until a demoralizing trek through the cobblestone streets of generational malaise. Their burden would be minimal if they could simply leave it in one spot, but they are compelled to change the hearts and minds of all people and therefore must present their burden for all to see. The young naively believe that anyone seeing this wardrobe should be instantly transformed by the weight of its implications, but the slow erosion of demoralization has already exposed the underlying complacency that lurks below the surface of all men. Polanski condemns himself for such apathy by appearing on camera to attack the two dangerously radical men. There is no hypocrisy in seeing the problems within one’s self while feeling powerless to change them, and Polanski simultaneously condemns and forgives himself for his own complacency. One can respect those who wield their ideological burdens free from apathy and cynicism as a sideline observer, silently hoping that one day all of humanity will atomize the burden of these fresh ideas so that each may carry a negligible portion of concepts that were once unimaginably cumbersome.
In this brief Aesopian tale of the struggles and burdens of the thoughtful, Polanski creates a timeless framework into which any new attitudes can snugly occupy. Each new generation emerges from the sea with their own burden, and the weight of this hindrance increases and decreases depending on the prevailing attitudes at the time of the emergence. These burdens are eventually atomized to become allergens in the collective unconscious that help forge new attitudes through their mild yet unavoidable irritations, or cast back out to sea to be rediscovered and refinished by new generations more prepared to shoulder their unwieldy weight.
[notification type=”star”]88/100 ~ GREAT. In this brief Aesopian tale of the struggles and burdens of the thoughtful, Polanski creates a timeless framework into which any new attitudes can snugly occupy. Each new generation emerges from the sea with their own burden, and the weight of this hindrance increases and decreases depending on the prevailing attitudes at the time of the emergence. These burdens are eventually atomized to become allergens in the collective unconscious that help forge new attitudes through their mild yet unavoidable irritations, or cast back out to sea to be rediscovered and refinished by new generations more prepared to shoulder their unwieldy weight. [/notification]
