Cannes '08: Jerzy Skolimowski's 'Four Nights With Anna' marks director's formidable return

Wonders do happen, even at as agnostic a place as Cannes.

The gifted 70-year-old Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski opened the Directors' Fortnight on Thursday with a double surprise. His new film, "Four Nights With Anna," was not only his first in 17 years, it was every bit as good as films like "Deep End" and "Moonlighting" that made his considerable reputation.

Set in contemporary Poland, this story of obsessive desire and the power and limits of human love is a small gem, made with exceptional skill and command. It's just the kind of film they don't make anymore, which, as it turns out, is why the director made it.

I'd been introduced to Skolimowski, who became a painter partially based in Los Angeles after he stopped directing, at the opening of a show of his work at a Bergamot Station gallery a few years ago. So when I saw him at the back of the theater, I went over to say hello and ask what had brought him back to directing.

"I made it for my own pleasure. I think I was disappointed in what was going on in current cinema; I wanted to go to a theater and see a story told in a unique way," Skolimowski said.

Gesturing toward the screen, he added "they don't make any more films like this. It's disturbing that what we see in film is what we see in television and what we see in life. If that's what you are going to do, why bother? Filmmakers are not taking the audience on a trip anymore."

Speaking of trips, Skolimowski said he is spending less and less time in L.A.

"I am staying much more in Poland. I need a peaceful atmosphere around me."

-- Kenneth Turan

Photo: Jerzy Skolimowski after a Director's Fortnight screening of "Four Nights With Anna" in Cannes. Credit: Delphine Pincet / Quinzaine des Realisateurs