Cosmos

(Andrzej Żuławski, France/Portugal 2015, 97 min., DCP, French w/subtitles)

Andrzej Żuławski | Rochester Premiere. Żuławski’s final film, a literary adaptation suffused with his trademark freneticism, transforms Polish writer Witold Gombrowicz’s novel into an ominous and manic exploration of desire. Witold, who has just failed the bar, and his companion Fuchs, who has recently quit his fashion job, are staying at a guesthouse run by the intermittently paralytic Madame Woytis. Witold’s reality mutates into a whirlwind of tension, histrionics, foreboding omens, and surrealistic logic as he becomes obsessed with Madame Woytis’s daughter Lena, newly married to Lucien.

“In terms of cattle and the arts alike, old mavericks can still deliver an energetic kick—as proven by veteran Polish writer-director Andrzej Żuławski’s keenly awaited comeback Cosmos. A fast-paced adaptation of Witold Gombrowicz’s seminal 1965 novel about bizarre shenanigans at a village guest-house, this metaphysical French-Portuguese gabfest boasts the uncompromising intensity that has often been Żuławski’s hallmark but leavens the stew with welcome streaks of off-kilter humor.” – Neil Young, The Hollywood Reporter