The Hourglass Sanatorium (1973)
(Sanatorium pod klepsydra)
Country: POL
Technical: col 124m
Director: Wojciech Has
Cast: Jan Nowicki, Tadeusz Kondrat, Halina Kowalska, Gustaw Holoubek
Synopsis:
A young man travels by train to visit his father at a crumbling sanatorium run by a doctor who experiments with keeping moribund patients alive by appropriating time from unaccomplished events in history. Before long the visitor finds himself lost in a welter of personnages and incidents ranging from the Jewish ghetto of his youth to an early eighteenth century colonial past.
Review:
Like any narrative constructed according to the logic of a dream, this can tend towards the soporific, so the director throws in some female flesh whenever the attention flags. It is reminiscent of Dr Caligari with a bit of Amicus horror thrown in. What one has to concede is the time and care taken over a mise en scène which has its hero stumbling from one episode to the next while still appearing to remain within the precincts of this gloriously dilapidated Overlook Hotel. His adoption of the role of ferryman at the end confirms one's suspicions that what we have witnessed are the feverish reminiscences and unaccomplished fantasies of a dying man. Whether it justifies the time spent with him lies within the judgement of the beholder.
(Sanatorium pod klepsydra)
Country: POL
Technical: col 124m
Director: Wojciech Has
Cast: Jan Nowicki, Tadeusz Kondrat, Halina Kowalska, Gustaw Holoubek
Synopsis:
A young man travels by train to visit his father at a crumbling sanatorium run by a doctor who experiments with keeping moribund patients alive by appropriating time from unaccomplished events in history. Before long the visitor finds himself lost in a welter of personnages and incidents ranging from the Jewish ghetto of his youth to an early eighteenth century colonial past.
Review:
Like any narrative constructed according to the logic of a dream, this can tend towards the soporific, so the director throws in some female flesh whenever the attention flags. It is reminiscent of Dr Caligari with a bit of Amicus horror thrown in. What one has to concede is the time and care taken over a mise en scène which has its hero stumbling from one episode to the next while still appearing to remain within the precincts of this gloriously dilapidated Overlook Hotel. His adoption of the role of ferryman at the end confirms one's suspicions that what we have witnessed are the feverish reminiscences and unaccomplished fantasies of a dying man. Whether it justifies the time spent with him lies within the judgement of the beholder.
(Sanatorium pod klepsydra)
Country: POL
Technical: col 124m
Director: Wojciech Has
Cast: Jan Nowicki, Tadeusz Kondrat, Halina Kowalska, Gustaw Holoubek
Synopsis:
A young man travels by train to visit his father at a crumbling sanatorium run by a doctor who experiments with keeping moribund patients alive by appropriating time from unaccomplished events in history. Before long the visitor finds himself lost in a welter of personnages and incidents ranging from the Jewish ghetto of his youth to an early eighteenth century colonial past.
Review:
Like any narrative constructed according to the logic of a dream, this can tend towards the soporific, so the director throws in some female flesh whenever the attention flags. It is reminiscent of Dr Caligari with a bit of Amicus horror thrown in. What one has to concede is the time and care taken over a mise en scène which has its hero stumbling from one episode to the next while still appearing to remain within the precincts of this gloriously dilapidated Overlook Hotel. His adoption of the role of ferryman at the end confirms one's suspicions that what we have witnessed are the feverish reminiscences and unaccomplished fantasies of a dying man. Whether it justifies the time spent with him lies within the judgement of the beholder.