BLIND CHANCE
A film review by Gareth Rees
Copyright 1994 Gareth Rees
Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski Starring: Boguslav Linda, Tadeusz Lomnicki, Zbigniew Zapasciewicz Producer: Jacek Szeligowski Camera: Krzysztof Pakulski Editor: Elzbieta Kurkowska Music: Wojciech Kilar Duration: 122 minutes Poland 1981
A man sits in a chair screaming "No!." A bloody corpse is dragged through a hospital corridor. A young boy, emigrating from Poland, says goodbye to a friend. Two young lovers are talking by the side of a road. A student doctor is disturbed by watching an autopsy of her schoolteacher. A man makes a phone call to his dying father and is told "you are under no obligation." Krzysztof Kieslowski's film BLIND CHANCE sets up these mysteries--important events in the life of the protagonist, Witek--in the first couple of minutes, and then one by one resolves these initially confusing and isolated fragments into the story of a man's life (though we are made to wait until the very last seconds for a final connection to be made).
Kieslowski has always been fond of formal structuring devices in his films--the changing cinematic styles of CAMERA BUFF, the separated twins in THE DOUBLE LIFE OF VERONIQUE, the three colours of the French flag and the three ideals of the French revolution in his recent trilogy--and BLIND CHANCE exploits this potential for setting up comparisons, irony and unexpected connections to the full. Three times Witek runs through a railway station, desperate to catch the train to Warsaw. Three times we see him run down the platform and reach out his hand for the door. Three possible futures await. In one, he catches the train, is befriended by a Party member and enters the Communist Party himself; in another he knocks down a guard, is arrested, makes connections with an underground movement and becomes Catholic; in the third he misses the train and returns to his studies, marries and becomes a successful doctor. The three films of Witek running through the station differ in tiny details; in one he knocks a man flying, in another he just jogs his beer. From such tiny changes grow the shape of Witek's life. Chance seems to have intervened in the lives of other people in the film: two old Party members were both in prison at the same time, but now one is in disgrace and the other has a high position yet insists that it is only good fortune that has put him there.
But there are constants too. In each variation he meets a woman from his past, falls in love with her and is separated from her. He wants to do good, to help people, but it's never quite clear to him how to accomplish this in a country run by secret police, informers and totalitarian government. Three times Witek is offered a chance to visit France--which seems to offer some elusive chance at salvation--and each time events conspire to prevent him.
Such is the skill with which the film is structured that, although it ends in tragedy, the revelation of the last mystery completes the story so surprisingly and yet so well that we feel, yes, this is right, it has to end like this.
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