Blind Chance
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Blind Chance | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Directed by | Krzysztof Kieślowski |
| Produced by | Jacek Szelígowski |
| Written by | Krzysztof Kieślowski |
| Starring | Bogusław Linda |
| Music by | Wojciech Kilar |
| Cinematography | Krzysztof Pakulski |
| Editing by | Elżbieta Kurkowska |
| Distributed by | Kino (USA) |
| Release date(s) | May 1987 |
| Running time | 122 min. |
| Language | Polish |
| IMDb profile | |
Blind Chance (Polish: Przypadek) is 1981 film directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski. The film is unique for branching out into three separate story lines, which are told in succession.
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
Witek (Bogusław Linda), sitting on an airplane, for some reason screams "No!" and the opening credits begin rolling as the camera zooms into his open mouth. A bleeding person is dragged across a hospital floor. As a child, Witek learns how to write. As an adoloscent, Witek dates Czuszka. As an adult, Witek goes to medical school but 'loses' his calling after the death of his father.
Witek decides to catch a train to Warsaw. There he crashes into a fellow drinking beer. Three different outcomes are shown depending on how Witek deals with the obstacles on his way to catching the train and whether or not he catches the train.
In the first scenario, Witek almost crashes into the fellow drinking the beer. He runs after the train and is able to grab onto the last car's handlebar just in time to pull himself aboard. On the train he meets Werner (Tadeusz Lomnicki), an old Communist. Witek decides to join the Communist Party. On a walk with Werner, Witek meets up with Czuszka (Bogusława Pawelec), his first love. The two hook up for sex, after which Czuszka is disappointed to find Witek has applied to the party. Witek unsuccessfully tries to solve a problem with an airline mechanic. Witek breaks up a sit-in at a hospital. As a reward, a party leader plans to send Witek on a special mission to France. On a walk with Czuszka, a policeman asks them for their papers. Since Witek is a Communist, he's allowed to go on his merry way, while Czuszka is detained. Witek pulls some strings to get Czuszka released, but she is not grateful. Witek assaults the party leader and leaves the party headquarters carrying a world globe.
In the second scenario, Witek slams into the fellow drinking the beer with such force that the mug slips from his hand and falls to floor, breaking and spilling. Witek doesn't stop to apologize, but he's still too late to be able to make a successful attempt at catching the train. The railway guard comes in and gets into a fight with Witek, who bumps him to the ground and runs off. The guard calls for back-up and Witek is arrested. A judge sentences Witek to community service. Witek joins the anti-Communist resistance and meets up with Daniel, a friend from his childhood, and his sister Wera. Witek applies for a passport to go to France, but his request is denied because they know he's anti-Communist. They offer to give him a passport if he rats out the underground's contacs in France. Witek goes home begins foreplay with Wera, but is called away to the resistance's lair. The place has been ransacked and the one person left there doubts Witek's loyalty.
In the third scenario, Witek almost crashes into the fellow drinking the beer but stops in time and goes around him, apologizing. He still tries to catch the train but fails. The railway guard shows up a few seconds later but now Witek has stopped to catch his breath. He notices Olga (Monika Gozdzik) on the platform (it's not clear if she was there in the previous two scenarios). Witek and Olga go back to his place where they have sex on the floor. Witek decides to resume his medical studies and soon he graduates and starts practicing at the hospital as well as teaching at the medical school. Olga tells him she's pregnant, the two get married. At the medical school, some students pass around a petition on behalf of the dean's son, who is accused of hawking illegal literature. Witek refuses to sign the petition, noting that the dean himself hasn't signed either. Witek doesn't want to get involved in politics at all. The dean offers him a trip to Libya to give some lectures on medical topics he has prepared. Witek accepts. On the train to catch the plane, Olga tells Witek she's pregnant with their second child. At the airport, Witek sees some of the people who were more important in the previous two scenarios. The plane taxies on the runway, Witek is comfortable in his seat. The plane takes off, but a few seconds later explodes.
[edit] Critical assessment
As an example of Kieślowski's characters intersecting with history, Kickasola points out that Witek, who has the same birthdate (though not year) as Kieślowski (June 27, 1956), "ponders the irony of his 1956 birth date."[1]
In 1981, Kieślowski announced he planned to develop the realist convention as "deeper, not wider."[2] With Blind Chance, Kieślowski "put his new philosophy partially into practice," but this film "still relies heavily on the political circumstances of Polish society to set the theme."[3]
Coates describes this film "as marrying a near-psychoanalytic 'Western' preoccupation with the effects of the death of the father ... to a typically 'East European' reluctance to renounce humanism by invoking such psychoanalytic scenarios as the Oedipal one."[4]
[edit] Influence
In their interviews on the Region 1 DVD, both Agnieszka Holland and Annette Insdorf identify Sliding Doors as a film influenced by Blind Chance. In both films, the outcome hinges on whether or not the protagonist catches a train, but in Sliding Doors, only two scenarios are presented (protagonist catches the train, doesn't catch it). Run Lola Run does not involve trains, but is similar to Blind Chance in that three scenarios are presenting hinging on how the protagonist negotiates a mad dash through a crowded space.
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- ^ Kickasola, Joseph G. The Films of Krzysztof Kieslowski: The Liminal Image New York: Continuum (2004): 8 - 9
- ^ Krzsystof Kieślowski, "Głeboko zamiast szeroko" Dialog 26 1 (1981): 110
- ^ Christopher Garbowski, Krzysztof Kieslowski's Decalogue Series: The Problems of Protagonists and Their Self-Transcendance New York: Columbia University Press (1996): 5
- ^ Coates, Paul. The Red & The White: The Cinema of People's Poland London: Wallflower Press (2005): 190
|
||||||||||||||
