|
 Skolimowski, 77, who wrote the dialogue for Roman Polanski's
"Knife in the Water" (1962), said his latest was inspired by
personal tragedy, including his son's death in India.
"I lost members of my family and I was really in a very bad
shape, physically and mentally," he told Reuters in an interview
at the festival. His film is among 21 competing for the Golden
Lion top prize, which will be awarded on Saturday.
"In order to overcome this, I decided that I would force myself
to work and I really forced myself to sit down in front of the
typewriter and I said I’m not getting up until I have four pages
a day," he said.
The film's action takes place within the 11 minutes of the
title, when a procession of lives collide in a square in Warsaw.
Among them is a young starlet who is having an interview with a
foreign filmmaker alone in his luxury hotel room, while her
jealous husband paces the corridor outside.
Other characters include a drug courier, a pedophile teacher on
probation now working as a hot-dog vendor, a young woman who has
split with her lover and a water-colorist -- possibly a stand-in
for Skolimowski, an accomplished painter -- who is a passenger
on a bus heading to the square.
"It’s a human story, it could happen any place in the world,"
Skolimowski said.
Much of the action takes place with hints that police
surveillance cameras are watching. A plane flies thunderously
overhead, at low altitude, suggesting a link between the action
in the film and the events of Sept 11, 2001, in New York City.
[to top of second column] |
Skolimowski said the connection with the terror attack on the Twin
Towers was not intentional, but the tragedy has long been simmering
in his subconscious.
"That’s such a huge thing that my little modest film is not
competing with any of those aspects," he said.
"Still, if there is an echo of it, why not? ... I couldn’t get rid
of those images, so maybe 14 years later I somehow free my
imagination of those bad things,” he said.
He said the film is meant to convey that every second of life
counts.
"I wanted to share quite universal experiences, the fact that we
don’t treasure our lives, we don’t realize that it could end almost
any time so rapidly, so unexpectedly, and it would be too late after
that to enjoy it -- so that is the message, universal message," he
said.
(Writing by Michael Roddy; Editing by Larry King)
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
