Przejscie podziemne (1974)

A school teacher from a small town in Poland comes to Warsaw to see his estranged wife, a window dresser, in the hope that she will return to him rather than give him a divorce.

Director:

Krzysztof Kieslowski

Writers:

Ireneusz Iredynski, Krzysztof Kieslowski

Stars:

Teresa Budzisz-Krzyzanowska, Andrzej Seweryn, Anna Jaraczówna

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Teresa Budzisz-Krzyzanowska	...	Lena (as Teresa Krzyzanowska)
Andrzej Seweryn	...	Michal
Anna Jaraczówna	...	Toilet Worker
Zygmunt Maciejewski	...	Form Teacher
Jan Orsza-Lukaszewicz	...	Beaten Man
Janusz Skalski	...	Decorating Man

Storyline

A school teacher from a small town in Poland comes to Warsaw to see his estranged wife, a window dresser, in the hope that she will return to him rather than give him a divorce.

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Genres:

Short

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Details

Country:

Poland

Language:

Polish

Release Date:

13 January 1974 (Poland)

Also Known As:

Przejscie podziemne

Filming Locations:

Warsaw, Mazowieckie, Poland

Company Credits

Production Co:

Telewizja Polska (TVP), Zespol Filmowy "Tor"

Technical Specs

Runtime:

29 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

After finishing the filming of the short in nine days (out of the ten days scheduled) Kieslowski was unsatisfied by the rushes and decided that they will shoot it all on one silent documentary camera stopping only to reload the film. Kieslowski also bought some extra film stock. Kieslowski ended up using twenty percent of that "documentary night" if not more on the final edit of the film.

User Reviews

The first Kieslowski Kieslowski.

This is the mature Kieslowski film in embryo. We see him leave his documentary style behind and strike out for new territory. First of all he collaborated with another writer, Ireneusz Iredynski. And then there is the fact that he is shooting better looking people, much better looking people

The story find two teachers from the provinces in Warsaw with a group of school children. The younger, movie star handsome teacher says he's going out for the night. In fact, he won't be back all night and will meet them in the train station in the morning. The older teacher gives him a wink and a thumbs up as he assumes, as does the audience that this will inevitably lead to a some sort of studly situation. The teacher goes into a vast underground passageway under a traffic circle in the center of Warsaw. After some confusion he finds the right shop and and the window dresser inside. He enters the shop and begins talking with the woman in a familiar and friendly manner. While the Kieslowski documentary technique, specifically identifies all the participants and their attributes as they are heavily involved with various bureaucracies and bureaucrats who have to know such things up front. Names and numbers, identity cars, marriage certificates and death certificates. Endless personal details.

Now Kieslowski is sparing with such details. The characters are never named nor the towns they're from. They have no 'back story'. They are just what you see and you learn things, like the precise relationship between the man and the woman, as its revealed in the normal course of things. In this case the man and woman are married. She's getting a divorce and he wants her back. Apparently he kicked her out of the house calling her a slut, but, considering subsequent Kieslowski works, very often men kick women out of their houses when the woman is halfway through the door holding a suitcase. The effect of leaving the past history as something of a black spot gives the view space to think, to consider, to ponder and to analyze: The magic of the later works.

This was supposed to be a ten day shoot and on the ninth day Kieslowski realized that what he was making was all wrong. On the last day instead he began all over again from the beginning and gave his actors a general talking to and had them speak their lines in their own words as if improvised and just followed them around the shop with a hand held camera.