GB No. 2(17)/95
I first saw Soft Spots (Czułe miejsca), a film directed by Piotr Andrejew, at the beginning of the 80's. At that time, as today, the film was perceived as being aimed at communism. It made no great impression on me. I remembered it only recently, when the problem of "why has the world not turned out as well as we thought it would?" was widely discussed. The film broadcast on tv was like old wine which had gained flavour. Science fiction imagery and lack of immediate allusions let Soft Spots survive and the message the film conveys appears to be of wider meaning than its authors thought. Like Aldous Huxley who in his The Brave New World appeared to have a deeper insight in his prophecies than Orwell. Words of nostalgia for the 80's: "There was so many people in streets.", remind us that we are getting closer to the American life style in which using your feet is proper only when you do aerobics and people spend their free time watching tv.
The protagonist, Jan Zalewski, thanks to the fact that he works by means of his own brain, not a computer, is the only independently thinking and feeling man left. He is a social outcast, unlucky even in love. His girlfriend represents the new model of thinking: she loves him but she wants him to change. His attitude, so unnormal in the unnormal world, is what Ewa distrusts. Zalewski cannot enable her a showbiz carrier which she dreams of. Ewa is split between her love and the model of happiness imposed by the society and she decides to leave the protagonist since she chooses the latter. Jan finds consolation in a young girl, a teenager, thanks to whom a spectator may hope that independence of mind will revive in the new generation. This is the optimistic accent in the film. "Do you love her still No? All right, now you can do anything." - In Oliver Stone's Wall Street the protagonist, played by Charlie Sheene, finishes with his girlfriend and the jet set world having chosen fidelity to his own way of thinking, honesty and prison. Similarly, Jan Zalewski does not change and the artificial world cannot defeat him.Andrejew’s film was first- is it possible that Stone might have taken inspiration from his ideas? However, there is one question which springs to mind, as one of the critics pointed out: Would the last human want to save such a world?
Olaf Swolkień
reprinted from Zielone Brygady 1/95