Two Men and a Wardrobe

The first shot alone makes "Two Men and a Wardrobe" an unforgettable short film. Out of the ocean rise two men carrying a wardrobe. They slowly make their way to the beach, where they rest for a moment. Then they go to town, still carrying the wardrobe.

Their time in the city is unhappy. The wardrobe makes them an object of ridicule and scorn. They are thrown out of public transport, a restaurant, a hotel. They are shunned by a woman and beaten up by thugs (one of them played by Polanski himself.) After the assault, they sit down in a storage field, piles of empty barrels suggesting unfulfilled dreams. Then a policeman chases them away. All because they are two men with a wardrobe.

Due to the complete absence of dialogue, we don't know for sure why they are carrying around that cumbersome piece of furniture. I would say the answer is in the title. The wardrobe is an inseparable part of the men's being, because 'two men and a wardrobe' is the identity with which they have been placed into this world. They have no choice but to carry it around with them, and because of that they have to suffer. It's clearly a metaphor. For poverty, perhaps, or homosexuality, or being Jewish (always a safe bet with Polanski).

The handling of the wardrobe betrays that "Two Men and a Wardrobe" was still an etude (Polanski was twenty-four and still in film school when he directed the short). At times it plays an obviously symbolic role, at others it is merely a prop for Tati/Étaix-like sight gags. All along the tone wavers between good-natured slapstick and brutish social commentary. But if "Two Men and a Wardrobe" does not yet show Polanski as the assured filmmaker he would later become, it certainly points in the right direction.