Although Wojciech Has had already featured strong female characters in his films, (notably Maria Wachowiak’s Lidka in 1958’s Farewells), his fourth feature Goodbye to the Past – also known as Partings, a direct translation of the Polish Rozstanie, and ironically subtitled ‘A Sentimental Comedy’ – was his first to revolve specifically around a female protagonist.
She’s Magdalena (Lidia Wysocka), a middle-aged Warsaw-based actress who has already amassed plenty of memories to rummage through – and a contemporary Polish audience would have similar memories of Wysocka herself, a major domestic stage and screen star prior to WWII. The film sees Magdalena returning to the wellspring of many of these memories, as she travels to her hometown for the first time in many years in order to visit her ancestral home following the death of her grandfather and hear the reading of his will; she’s his sole surviving descendent.
It rapidly becomes clear why she rarely goes back home and that this will most likely be her final visit, as she now couldn’t be more of a fish out of water. Far from the idyllic rural retreat of her formative years (she says in voiceover, ‘I feel as if I’m flipping through a book from my childhood’), the town is now regarded – and implicitly looked down upon – through sophisticated metropolitan eyes that she had yet to develop earlier. And while she meets up with people that she once knew well, she feels similarly detached from them, and for identical reasons.
Whereas she once appreciated the stolid certainty that the town and its people provided, she now recognises just how far they fall short of her ideal – no matter how much Has and cinematographer Stefan Matyjaszkiewicz go out of their way to make things look welcoming (the moment she revisits her old bedroom, a ray of sunlight breaks through the window, as if to cast new light on her memories). She also stays pointedly aloof from matchmaking attempts being made on her behalf by the elderly countess (Maria Gella) involving her aimless son Żbik (Adam Pawlikowski), and while the lawyer Oskar Rennert (Gustaw Holoubek) might normally be considered an excellent catch – and he’s certainly interested in her – he’s ultimately too associated with a past she’s trying to escape. ‘I imagine how ridiculous this place must seem to you,’ he tells her at one point – and as the local lawyer of many years’ standing, he knows the town and its people from top to bottom, lucrative expertise that will evaporate if he moves elsewhere.
There’s a nifty in-joke that lets us share her perspective when Magdalena very briefly encounters an instantly recognisable Zbigniew Cybulski in a restaurant. ‘Who is he?’ Oskar asks. ‘A famous actor,’ she replies, only for Oskar to look blank. Cybulski had become a major star prior to filming Goodbye to the Past, so in this respect Has’s original audience would have most likely taken Magdalena’s side – and his ultra-brief appearance is all the more potent in retrospect since he’d go on to play major roles in three out of Has’s four next films (How To Be Loved, 1962; The Saragossa Manuscript, 1964; The Codes, 1966), and would doubtless have appeared in more if it hadn’t been for his fatal accident in 1967.
Even the house itself, while outwardly solid and reassuringly familiar, is in a state of irreversible transition – formerly an aristocratic family home, it’s about to be rented out (there being no question of the professionally Warsaw-based Magdalena living there full time), although it will still be managed by Wiktoria (Irena Netto, who played the landladies in Farewells and One-Room Tenants and who offers a similar character study here), who’s less concerned about the identity of her employers provided there’s still employment on offer – to quote Annette Insdorf, ‘With a whisper of Chekhovian sympathy, Has shows how the working class is better equipped for the new world than those who were born into wealth.’
This change of ownership of a lavish property parallels the one in Farewells, albeit this time not triggered by Nazi occupation – and further echoes of Farewells, presumably intentional ones, can be seen in the casting of Holoubek and Pawlikowski in similar roles to the ones they played in that film. Indeed, in Holoubek’s case, there are also echoes of his reputation-making breakthrough in The Noose (1957), in that Oskar Rennert is also fond of a drink, albeit not to anything like the same self-destructive extent as that film’s protagonist Jakub.
The only character from whom Magdalena doesn’t feel alienated is Olek (Władysław Kowalski), thanks to the coincidence of them arriving at the same time, and it’s to him that she turns whenever she needs to hear a supportive voice – Has visually establishes his apartness from the community by showing him riding his white Lambretta past a funeral carriage drawn by black horses, and he’s equally out of place when surrounded by black-clad mourners who regard him with understandable suspicion. But Magdalena doesn’t – indeed, she and Olek will later establish a surprising amount of common ground, even if the considerable age gap (a full two decades in the case of the actors; most likely similar for the characters) will probably undermine any erotic connection. But such a connection is nonetheless more apparent between them than it is between Magdalena and, say, Oskar, despite the latter clearly wishing that there was one.
Like virtually all Has’s films, Goodbye to the Past had a literary source, in this case a novella by Jadwiga Żylińska, who is also credited as screenwriter (her only such credit), and who therefore authorised a significant change to the ending – in the novella, a key character dies before the end. And in retrospect the film clearly anticipates Has’s next two films – Gold Dreams (1961), whose protagonist is also played by Władysław Kowalski (and is virtually the same character), and especially the magisterial How to Be Loved (1962), with which it shares a protagonist who’s a successful actress, but gives her considerably darker and more emotionally draining memories through which to sift.
Michael Brooke, season curator
Accordion Harmonia
Director: Wojciech Jerzy Has
Poland 1947
13 mins
Digital
Goodbye to the Past Rozstanie
Director: Wojciech Jerzy Has
Production Company: Zespól Filmowy ‘Kamera’
Screenplay: Wojciech Jerzy Has, Jadwiga Żylińska
Based on the novella by: Jadwiga Żylińska
Director of Photography: Stefan Matyjaszkiewicz
Editor: Zofia Dwornik
Art Director: Jerzy Skarzynski
Costume Designer: Jerzy Skarzynski
Music: Lucjan M. Kaszycki
Cast
Lidia Wysocka (Magdalena)
Wladyslaw Kowalski (Olek)
Gustaw Holoubek (Oskar)
Adam Pawlikowski (Żbik)
Irena Netto (Wiktoria)
Danuta Krawczynska (Iwonka)
Maria Gella (countess)
Zbigniew Cybulski
Wladyslaw Dewoyno
Poland 1960
76 mins
Digital (restoration)
In cultural partnership with
This retrospective is presented in partnership with the ICA, which will also be hosting exclusive screenings of Has’ works.
The 23rd Kinoteka Polish Film Festival is part of the UK/Poland Season 2025.
Organised by
All restorations by
All films courtesy of
SIGHT AND SOUND
Never miss an issue with Sight and Sound, the BFI’s internationally renowned film magazine. Subscribe from just £25*
*Price based on a 6-month print subscription (UK only). More info: sightandsoundsubs.bfi.org.uk
BFI SOUTHBANK
Welcome to the home of great film and TV, with three cinemas and a studio, a world-class library, regular exhibitions and a pioneering Mediatheque with 1000s of free titles for you to explore. Browse special-edition merchandise in the BFI Shop.We're also pleased to offer you a unique new space, the BFI Riverfront – with unrivalled riverside views of Waterloo Bridge and beyond, a delicious seasonal menu, plus a stylish balcony bar for cocktails or special events. Come and enjoy a pre-cinema dinner or a drink on the balcony as the sun goes down.
BECOME A BFI MEMBER
Enjoy a great package of film benefits including priority booking at BFI Southbank and BFI Festivals. Join today at bfi.org.uk/join
BFI PLAYER
We are always open online on BFI Player where you can watch the best new, cult & classic cinema on demand. Showcasing hand-picked landmark British and independent titles, films are available to watch in three distinct ways: Subscription, Rentals & Free to view.
See something different today on player.bfi.org.uk
Join the BFI mailing list for regular programme updates. Not yet registered? Create a new account at www.bfi.org.uk/signup
Programme notes and credits compiled by Sight and Sound and the BFI Documentation Unit
Notes may be edited or abridged
Questions/comments? Contact the Programme Notes team by email