Gdy spadaja anioly (1959)

Director:

Roman Polanski

Writer:

Roman Polanski (scenario)

Genre:

Short | Drama

Plot:

A church bell chimes. An old woman stops to feed pidgins on her way to work in the men's lavatory in the basement of a public building...

Cast

Barbara Lass		(as Barbara Kwiatkowski)
Roman Polanski	...	Old woman
Henryk Kluba
Andrzej Kondratiuk		(as Andrzej Kondratiuk)

Also Known As:

When Angels Fall
When Angels Fall Down...

Runtime:

21 min

Country:

Poland

Language:

Polish

Color:

Black and White | Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Panstwowa Wyzsza Szkola Filmowa, Telewizyjna i Teatralna (PWSFTviT)

Trivia:

The idea for Roman Polanski's short movie (his diploma piece from Lodz Szkola Filmowa and his first one in color) was taken from a short story "Klozet Babcia", written by Leszek Szymanski and published weekly "Kierunki" in Warsaw, Poland.

The Old Lady In The Men's Lavatory

I acknowledge the uniqueness of this film, but that doesn't mean I enjoyed it. At least I'm being honest about it. The visuals were the most interesting facet, along with this old lady's face. Wow, what a face: a million wrinkles, most of them with a story. It was interesting that the present day part of this short film was in black-and-white and the flashbacks were in color. You would think the director would do the opposite. However, the director here is not your ordinary filmmaker. He's Roman Polanski, and this is one of his last short films before he began feature-length ones.

I've never heard of a female attendant in a men's lavatory, but that's what we have here. It's a depressing job, one in which one usually sits all day and has hour to contemplate. For this old woman, it was unpleasant memories of the past as each new customer reminds her of something tragic in her past.

The acting in here was poor but I'm sure young Polanski didn't have much of a budget to work with. It wasn't exactly like working with Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway.

Like most of his short films, there is little to no dialog.....but it's really not needed. However, the sudden scene shifts from her apparent memories to scenes which she couldn't have witnessed (i.e. World War I battle scenes) were confusing. Maybe it just didn't get it. However, I appreciated the sentimentality in here, even if I didn't understand some of it.

To those who haven't seen any of Polanski's short films, be warned: this is quite different from films you are used to seeing. They used to have "art houses" where they would show "arty" films like this. I wonder if they are still around?