Skolimowski's first overseas film brought another triumph. “The Departure,” a new-wave film starring the famous Jean-Pierre Léaude (known for his many roles in François Truffaut's films) as the lead, received the Golden Bear at the festival in Berlin. The energetic and subtly humorous story is accompanied by expressive jazz music by Krzysztof Komeda.

Léaud plays the young hairdresser Marc, who dreams of a career in car-racing and keeps planning on how to get in possession of his beloved Porsche or the money to buy it. Marc meets two women who are going to play an important role in his life: a beautiful girl who will become his companion, and an elder wealthy lady who sees him above all else as an attractive boy. In “The Departure,” Skolimowski, though in a lighter manner, touches upon the topics that interested him in the first films about Andrzej Leszczyc: the clash of youth with the limit-imposing reality of adults.

An article about the director HERE.