Events ______________

MARRIAGEABLE GIRLS (Dziewczyny do wzięcia)

dir. Janusz Kondratiuk / 1972 / Poland / 45 min


Every Saturday eligible single girls from the suburbs arrive in Warsaw hoping to have fun. They hope to break from the monotony of their daily lives, find a guy and perhaps even start a serious relationship. With this intention – to find a husband and a little bit of cosmopolitan glitter – (remove one day) three marriageable girls arrive in the capital. They are quite unattractive, dressed in trashy clothes, and they struggle to convince themselves about their exceptionality and charm. They meet two guys at a café who are equally undecided and embarrassed. In order to encourage themselves and to make a good impression on the girls, the men order several portions of Sultana crème, leaving them all with a severe stomach upset… Kondratiuk’s characters are boring, clumsy and terribly average. Their search for contact with one another is pathetic and highlights their unrealized dreams. The director watches them penetratingly, coolly and dispassionately. With it’s specific style of narration and a bitter, ironic sense of humour, Marriageable Girls resembles the early films of Miloš Forman as well as other directors of the 60s Czech ‘new wave’.

London