Cycle index

Long Conversation with a Bird

Das lange Gespracht mit dem Vogel

dir. Krzysztof Zanussi / West Germany 1990 / 93’

subtitles: Polish and English

retrospective: Krzysztof Zanussi A Plane from Budapest, Anxiety, Attestation, Behind the Wall, Camouflage, Cement and Words, Face to Face, Family Life, Girl and Uhlan, Hipothesis, Holden, Illumination, Imperative, In Full Gallop, Inventory, Krzysztof Zanussi – Essential Conversations, Life As a Fatal Sexually Transmitted Disease, Long Conversation with a Bird, Mountains at Dusk, Persona non grata, Revisit, Spiral, Stop Thief, Students, The Balance, The Bluebeard, The Catamount Killing, The Constant Factor, The Contract, The Death of a Provincial, The Lady with the Ermine, The Lame Devil, The Power of Evil, The Role, The Roof, The Silent Touch, The Structure of Crystal, The Tram to Heaven, The Unapproachable, The Year of Quiet Sun, Time That Passed, Umbrella, Ways in the Night, Wherever You Are, With a Warm Heart, A Woman’s Business, Deceptive Charm Section index

Cast

Robert Powell, Brigitte Fossey, Olivia Leigh, Hannelore Elsner, Daniel Olbrychski, Jirí Menzel

Film description

This film, which is hardly known in Poland, is quite exceptional in Zanussi's artistic output. It is based on a scenario co-authored by an outstanding German playwright, Tankred Dorst. Long Conversation with a Bird is a Nabokov-styled drama - John, an actor in his forties, becomes the object of fascination for the taciturn adolescent Laura and he himself - like Humbert Humbert - is somehow (but not entirely) enchanted with the mysterious, natural, faint and coquettish innocence of the nymphet. Something is going on between John and the girl's mother Elisabeth, too. Finally John faces the opportunity he has dreamt of and he backs off. But his noble intentions ironically lead to tragedy.

The story is set in Tunisia - the exotic location adds to the film's beauty. But it is not about landscapes, it is about an atmosphere of temporariness, elusiveness, unreality - of a sort of impunity. The film's form is simple, its style resembles amateurish holiday chronicles. The leading roles were entrusted to the very young Olivia Leigh and the couple known from the Imperative (Imperativ): Brigitte Fossey and Robert Powell. And a bonus: Daniel Olbrychski as the successful king of life, actor and counterpoint for John.

Mirella Napolska