The Departure

In 1967, Hands Up!, Jerzy Skolimowski’s fifth feature film, was due to be released. However, the film was deemed anti-communist and was censored by the Polish government. Following this incident, Skolimowski decided to leave Poland to continue practising his art freely, even though he could have chosen to make some compromises in order to continue his career as a filmmaker in his own country, as so many of his peers had decided to do. His international career, which would lead him to settle in England and later in the United States, had, however, already begun with his previous film, The Departure, as if Skolimowski had anticipated his future exile even before Hands Up! went into production. Skolimowski made the most of a contact in Belgium in the form of Bronka Abramson, a Polish origin emigrant, art lover and patron of the arts, who had founded the production company Elisabeth Films in 1966. She met Skolimowski at the Bergamo Film Festival, where he was presenting Bariera (Barrier), which, incidentally, won the Grand Prix. Abramson was captivated by his films – and no doubt also by the young man’s strong personality – and offered to produce his next film. This was fortuitous, as Skolimowski already had a new project in mind, which he outlined to her… this was a massive bluff, as he hadn’t given any thought whatsoever to his next film! He called his friend Andrzej Kostenko, whom he had met at the Łódź Film School and who had been the cinematographer on Barrier, to produce a presentable version, as the financier had acquired the film’s rights solely on the strength of Skolimowski’s enthusiasm. But the pair soon had to face the facts: the plot that Skolimowski had cobbled together on the spur of the moment was going nowhere… They therefore had to find a new plot as a matter of urgency, and the idea of telling a story centred on motor rallies was certainly not unrelated to the fact that the producer’s husband happened to be Jacques Ricquier, owner of a publishing house that produced two major Belgian motoring magazines. Skolimowski, who loves sports cars and speed, fortunately had little trouble embracing this theme chosen to win over the Belgian couple. The two screenwriters were soon joined by the composer Krysztof ‘Komeda’ Trzcinski, a long-standing friend of Skolimowski (he had introduced him to Wajda and thus launched his film career), who would act as an interpreter, as Skolimowski did not speak a word of French and had to direct a technical crew and actors from France and Belgium. Jean-Pierre Léaud plays Marc, the latest incarnation of the impetuous youth that had already been at the heart of Skolimowski’s early films."" (Olivier Bitoun; dvdclassik.com)