The Last Day of Summer

Tadeusz Konwicki's 1958 Polish film follows two people who meet on an empty beach. A woman and a man, both alone and both finding it hard to speak. The film takes place within a single day and nobody else appears. The narrative is not a story of coming together but of failing to. The conversations keep breaking off, sentences go unfinished and neither understands what the other is really trying to say. The weight left by the war is constantly felt beneath this and never named. Konwicki was known as a writer and this is his first film, made with two actors, a small crew and his own means. It runs under sixty minutes in a single location. Wind and the sound of the sea are almost the entire sound design. Who it's for: those who like Polish cinema and minimal narrative. Who it's not for: viewers waiting for event; the film consists almost entirely of waiting and of failing to speak.