Arkadiusz Jakubik is an artist of multiple talents. As a graduate of the Academy of Theatre in Wrocław, he made his debut at the Warsaw Operetta. He performs on the stages of musical and impresario theatres, directs performances, writes musicals and radio dramas. Jakubik has also played in films including a few expressive parts in popular TV series as well as a few acclaimed supporting parts in feature films.
Jakubik's role of a notary in the famous Wesele (Wedding, 2004) by Wojciech Smarzowski won him a nomination for the Polish Film Award Orzeł for 'the best supporting actor'. However, Jakubik aims higher than that. At this year's edition of the Polish Film Festival in Gdynia, he showed The Simple Story About Love and …won the Independent Cinema Competition.
As if giving the answer to the questions about the origins of such a success, the director explains:
I perfectly understand narrators-scriptwriters who tell this 'simple story' before our eyes. I also know well the world that their protagonists live in. The first experience I have gained at the film set was that of an actor. Whereas the occupation of a theatre director, which I have been performing for some time now, complements this initial experience. There is a combination of the main protagonists' features in me. I am half Aleks, a young actor, and half Patryk, a director at the threshold of his career, 'the hope of Polish cinematography'. Perhaps, there are just trace elements of Marta in me… Summing up, I know the environment and the world I show in this movie very well. As a director or a scriptwriter, I have managed to tell a few stories well
(press materials)
The story itself is really simple. A boy meets a girl in a train going to the sea coast. Will they manage to make a deep emotional bond over a few-hour trip? When one begins to tell this simple story on the big screen, it becomes more complicated. A couple of scriptwriters travel to the sea coast by train. Once they used to be passionately in love and today the emotions have burned out. Can the relationship be saved? Patryk, a young but already acclaimed director, comes across their joint screenplay and decides to film it. The first scenes of the film plot are played at a rehearsal room while shortly after the action moves to the train which consists of a locomotive and two passenger carriages. Marta and Aleks try to convey the truth about emotions in the compartments and corridors but the director and the bored crew do not help but rather interfere with their task. In addition, they are preoccupied with their own issues: Aleks' marriage is on the verge of a break up, Marta has doubts about her future relationship with Patryk. Wouldn't following the footsteps of the protagonists that they play be the best solution?
Life, plot and story behind the making of films merge together into one whole in a Fellini-esque composition. Jakubik is not concerned with distinguishing between specific plots. He evidently plays with the viewer's consciousness where the film protagonist is frequently taken for an actor who plays it and the other way round. Depending on the viewer's intuition, Jakubik freely mixes not only plots but also film genres. A Simple Story About Love moves back and forth between romantic comedy, thriller and melodrama. It also takes on the form of a story - beginning with an experimental quasi-theatrical performance to reportage on a film set or even a television advert. Jakubik outlines the characters of the protagonists with merely a few phrases and camera movements. The film is also filled with social digressions: director turns out to be a tragicomic braggart, the crew abuses alcohol but proves to be indispensable while the actors do not focus on their role playing while on the film set. Arkadiusz Jakubik himself enters the film set in the role of a scriptwriter in order to pull the strings. Agnieszka Matysiak, privately his wife, cooperates with him as a co-scriptwriter.
And so, A Simple Story About Love proves not quite so simple. It is a rather complex story, offering extensive possibilities of presenting the director's and actors' skills. Since the mood of the film oscillates between gentle irony and sentimentalism characteristic of a melodrama, the acting tasks are quite challenging.
Even though there are some dramaturgic lapses in the film, these are minor drawbacks which do not affect the perception of the film as a whole. The film has a good editing and tempo. One certainly cannot get bored during the screening. The credit for this quality should be given not only to the director and well-written dialogues but also actors who have created original performances. Magdalena Popławska is equally credible as an awkward and shy student as well as a strong young actress aware of her talent and beauty, involved in relationships with two men. Rafał Maćkowiak intriguingly presents different faces of Aleks: the one of a young and immature boy and that of a young adult aware of his needs and ambitions. Playing the part of a pretentious film director, Bartłomiej Topa avoids overacting and accordingly does not create a caricature of the protagonist. What is more, he tries to give the protagonist some qualities which gain not as much as fondness but the viewer's understanding.
Iwona Cegiełkówna, Kino magazine (No 11/2010)
- Prosta historia o miłości (A Simple Story About Love), Poland 2010. Directed by: Arkadiusz Jakubik, screenplay: Maciej Sobieszczański, cinematography: Mirosław Jakubik, original soundtrack: Jarosław Wójcik, set design: Włodzimierz Szyrle, costume design: Agnieszka Kaczyńska, Liliana Zabłocka, film editing: Paweł Laskowski, sound editor: Jacek Kuśmierczyk. Cast: Magdalena Popławska (Marta), Rafał Maćkowiak (Aleks), Bartłomiej Topa (Patryk), Andrzej Andrzejewski (assistant), Jacek Lenartowicz (lighting man), Henryk Gołębiewski (technician), Edyta Olszówka (Ewa), Ewa Lorska (make-up artist), Agnieszka Matysiak (She), Arkadiusz Jakubik (He). Produced by: Studio Filmowe Tramway - Agencja Artystyczna OFF - Monternia.pl - Telewizja Kino Polska - Teatr na Woli - Studio Melange - Genetix Studio. Distributed by: SPInka. Premiere in the cinema theatres: November 19, 2010.
Author: Konrad J. Zarębski, November 2010. Translated by Roberto Galea, December 2010.