The randomness of this coincidence felt especially eerie given Cosmos\u2019s <\/em>focus on randomness and coincidence. After discovering the murdered bird, the novel\u2019s protagonists begin seeing signs of some grand, overarching, and sinister design all around them. My sense of deja vu would increase tenfold by the time I finished the novel a couple weeks later, when news broke that the 75-year-old Zulawski had died of cancer. Cosmos <\/em>was now the final novel and final feature from two of Poland\u2019s most important and influential artists of the last century. <\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Zulawski scholar Daniel Bird (who also provided the film\u2019s English subtitles), Cosmos <\/em>was not meant to be any kind of grand retrospective on his career, since he didn\u2019t know at the time that he was sick and had plans to make future films. And yet, watched first in the immediate wake of his passing, and now ten years later, I can\u2019t help but see it as such. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Zulawski\u2019s modernized version of Gombrowicz’s story \u2014 which transports the action from a Polish pension <\/em>in the Carpathian Mountains to a French-run bed and breakfast in the seaside town of Sintra, Portugal \u2014 is overflowing with his signature obsessions: romantic longing so intense it sends people into epileptic seizures and causes them to violently expectorate; love triangles that lead to madness, murder and suicide; stomach-churning closups of overripe or rotten food, insects and other slimy substances, human deformity; head-spinning surrealist dialog rife with all manner of monologue, diatribe, wordplay, obscenity, and nonsense; references to culture both high and low, from Charlie Chaplin to Luc Besson, Jean-Paul Satre to Star Wars<\/em>, Henri Bergson to The Big Bang Theory <\/em>(apparently Zulawski was quite fond of Sheldon); and the constant breaking of the fourth wall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s that last touch that gives Cosmos <\/em>such a strong sense of retrospection and finality. References to his own past work abound, from a cheeky dig at the title of his third feature, The Most Important Thing Is Love<\/em><\/a> to a synopsis of Gombrowicz’s first novel, The Possessed<\/em>, which just as well describes Zulawski\u2019s most famous picture, the coincidentally (?) titled Possession<\/em><\/a> <\/em>(\u201cHim <\/em>and her, like an apple split in half\u201d) to a climactic appearance of one his favorite visual motifs, the Eye of Providence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Similar to Zulawski\u2019s 1977 unfinished sci-fi opus On the Silver Globe<\/em><\/a> and his 1984 erotic drama La Femme Publique, Cosmos <\/em>ends by peeling back the cinematic curtain, as behind the scenes footage plays during the credits. At Locarno\u2019s post-screening Q&A, Zulawski explained that his decision to step behind the camera after a decade and a half away sprung from his desire to \u201creturn to the origins of film.\u201d Per Bird, via a special feature video included in the film\u2019s Arrow Blu-Ray: \u201cTo be \u2018true\u2019 in cinema, Zulawski felt it was necessary to acknowledge its falseness\u2019\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this, Gombrowicz’s novel made for the perfect vehicle, as it too constantly calls attention to its own artifice through its meta-narrative structure and flourishes (for example: the lead character is named Witold). Cosmos <\/em>looks at how the search for meaning in an absurd universe often leads us to constructing our own meaning out of the chaos. If there\u2019s a better metaphor for filmmaking, I haven\u2019t heard it. The fictional Witold in Zulawski\u2019s version spends much of the time turning his experiences into a novel, only to ultimately realize it\u2019s not a novel he\u2019s creating, but a film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The headiness of this material, combined with the hysterical intensity of the film\u2019s tempo and the disturbing content of its story (no actual animals were harmed, but bird and cat lovers will want to steel themselves before watching) make Cosmos <\/em>a difficult watch \u2014 stateside critics were generally positive, although most reviews contain phrases like “impenetrable layer of gibberish<\/a>\u201d, “paradoxical aftertaste<\/a>\u201d, and \u201cpure nonsense<\/a>\u201d \u2014 so it\u2019s not surprising it remains underseen and underrated, even as Zulawski\u2019s reputation amongst American cinephiles has grown exponentially over the past several years (thanks, for better or worse<\/a>, to the rediscovery of Possession<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ten years later, the mysteries of Cosmos <\/em>continue to confound. Zulawski couldn\u2019t have asked for a better swan song.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Cosmos” is streaming on Kanopy<\/a> and Kino Film Collection<\/a>, and is available for digital rental or purchase<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/cosmos2-1024x576.webp\")
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