THE HOURGLASS SANATORIUM [1973]
year:
- 1973
release date:
- 11 XII 1973
runtime:
- 119 min
directed by:
- Wojciech Jerzy Has
written by:
- Wojciech Jerzy Has based on the novel by Bruno Schulz
director of photography:
- Witold Sobociński
cast:
- Jan Nowicki [Józef], Tadeusz Kondrat [Jakub, Józef's father], Irena Orska [Józef's mother], Halina Kowalska [Adela], Gustaw Holoubek [doctor Gotard], Mieczysław Voit [blind conductor], Bożena Adamek [Bianka], Ludwik Benoit [Szloma], Henryk Boukołowski [fireman], Seweryn Dalecki [Teodor],
edited by:
- Janina Niedźwiecka
music by:
- Jerzy Maksymiuk
production design:
- Jerzy Skarżyński, Andrzej Płocki
produced by:
- Zespół Filmowy „Silesia”
executive producer:
- Urszula Orczykowska
awards:
-
• IFF Cannes Film Festival (France) 1973: Jury Award
• Fantasy Film Festival Trieste (Italy) 1974: Golden Asteroid
• Polish Feature Film Festival Gdansk 1974: best set design award for Jerzy Skarżyński and Andrzej Płocki
About the film
One of the most visually stunning and original Polish films. A poetic reflection on the passing of time and the irreversibility of death. A dream universe inlaid with splinters of childhood memories is brought to the screen, in which different elements are intermingled: the Austro- Hungarian monarchy, the Borderland subculture of Jewish towns and the dreams of a little boy.
Józef arrives to the Hourglass Sanatorium managed by Dr. Gotthard; his dead father is here, brought back to life but moved to another dimension of time. Józef is travelling through different loops of the past − the years of his childhood and fantastic dreams. His family home comes back to life, along with his father's shop and the Jewish town; there are images evoked by collections of stamps and the plot of a newspaper novel, as well as the unusual garden of Princess Bianca, who left with Rudolf − a friend of Józef’s. On re-entering the time loop, this world of Jewish towns and Jewish culture turns out to be destroyed and depopulated after the tragedy of the Holocaust.
Jan Słodowski, Leksykon polskich filmów fabularnych, Warszawa 1996
