INNOCENT SORCERERS

By day, the eccentric ladies’ man Bazyl works as a sports physician for a state-run boxing club, by night he kills time by keeping it as a drummer in a jazz band. Together with his friend Edmund (played by Zbigniew Cybulski, who would die far too young), he roams through the night on a hedonistic and aimless search equally focussed on finding the next girl and the meaning of life. One evening, Bazyl discovers Pelagia in a bar and relieves her of her escort in no time flat. Light on its feet but melancholy and composed in the rhythms of jazz, Wajda’s film succeeds in capturing the subdued mood of rebellion in a couple of creatures of the night, who move through 1960ies Warsaw recklessly and free of illusions.