Innocent Sorcerers

Andrzej Wajda’s 1960 Polish New Wave film follows a detached young hipster as he drifts through flirtations and near-romances in Warsaw nightclubs, apartments, and boxing gyms. Set amid youth culture, jazz, motorbikes, and the influence of Western popular culture, the film focuses on contemporary life rather than the historical and political subjects associated with much of Wajda’s work.

The film was initially dismissed by critics and by Wajda himself, but has since been recognized as an important work of postwar Polish cinema. Krzysztof Komeda provides the energetic jazz score and appears in a cameo as himself, while Zbigniew Cybulski also makes an appearance. The film’s imposed happy ending, added by censors late in production, is the one element that undercuts its otherwise lively and modern sensibility.

When: November 22

Showtimes: 3:00 pm

Venue: Harvard Film Archive

Director: Andrzej Wajda

Cast: Tadeusz Łomnicki, Krystyna Stypułkowska, and Wanda Koczeska

Run time: 83 minutes

Country and year: Poland, 1960

Format: DCP, black and white

Language: Polish with English subtitles

DCP source: Jessica Rosner

Series: Part of “Once There Was History ... Andrzej Wajda at 100,” presented November 21–December 14, 2026

Tickets: Price not available