From the moment we are born, we are slowly taught how to behave, what social norms are and how to think about certain things. All so that you can ultimately find your place in society. But what if that wasn’t the case? If you believe artist Stanisław Szukalski, that would result in much more creativity. He invented his own alphabet at school and his father supported him in it, even when the school complained about it to him. He continued to use it and turned out to be very talented as a sculptor. His works were compared with those of Michelangelo and at the beginning of the last century he was well known. He received orders from world leaders, but despite all that success, he was forgotten. He moved several times and eventually ended up in Burbank, America, where he grew old.
Art collector Glenn Bray happened to come across a book by him and was fascinated. Not long after he saw a drawing in a shop that clearly came from Szukalski’s hand, he got into conversation and found that he was alive and even lived near him. He decided to make contact and visit. It would be the beginning of years of friendship and everyone who met him realized how brilliant Szukalski was. One of those people was the father of Leonardo DiCaprio, George DiCaprio and he decided to produce this documentary about Szuskalski with his son. While making it, they discovered that he was more complicated than the man they knew.
Bray decided in the 1980s to film Szukalski and let him tell his story, show his works and explain his theories. It resulted in more than 200 hours of footage, partly incorporated in this film. For an hour and a half, the viewer sees his impressive works, which are so detailed and different that it is hard not to be impressed. His life story is told in blocks of a number of years and that results in a very fascinating documentary. In addition to images, this artist also made drawings and paintings and even worked as an artist on the film classic King Kong. Szukalski was not an easy person and he saw himself as the best artist ever and spoke up when criticizing others. So a rebellious character, who also inspired others, and when he was back in Poland, there was even a kind of cult around him. He experienced the second world war and lost almost all his work and was slowly forgotten. He was also no longer able to pay for his art and had to settle for a normal job.
The controversy surrounding him as a person is briefly addressed, but remained slightly underexposed to really bring out the impact that, for example, George DiCaprio feels. His work is nowadays also used as a symbol for nationalist Polish marches, where the question is how he would respond if he were still alive. Whatever your opinion is of him as a person, the works of art that he has left speak for themselves. Even if you are not into art, this is a Netflix documentary that fascinates, because Szukalski was someone who dared to be different and happily propagated it.
[score9]