The Departure

I was glad when this one was over. Skolimowski had a big reputation in the 60's as an avant-guard director in Poland (Barrier) who had to leave for the West because of the government crackdown on artists. Here he is using Godard's actors--Leaud and Duport from Masculine-Feminine--and cameraman, and Polanski's favorite composer (Komeda). The story he tells is so trite, so lacking in human interest as to make the viewer lose all interest in what is happening, and sometimes there's a lot happening.

Leaud is encouraged to display all the worst features of this young man: the bratty, childish behavior, the forced cackling laugh, so ugly to hear. You won't laugh at the dumb fights that Marc gets into, or the scene at the hairdresser's when he gets his buddy to bloody his nose so he can get out of work. When you steal a car, as Marc does three times, don't the police go looking for you? No sign of that. Catherine Duport--well, the less said about her, the better. It was the third and last film for this ex-model, and a more bovine and boring performer could hardly be imagined.

Willy Kurant gives us the best scene by far; he's lit the car showroom very sharply and coldly for the car that splits in half with the two lovers in it. It's splendid.