Night Train (Pociag) [1959]
Jerzy Kawalerowicz’s Night Train begun like a classic Hitchcockian mystery thriller;
but, by the time it got over, the tone and theme had subtly shifted towards
human drama and even trenchant social critique – and therein lay the charm of
this engaging but largely under-watched Polish film. A mysterious looking man (Leon Niemczyk), who
may or may not be a murderer, and a beautiful lady (Lucyna Winnicka) with some
troubles of her own – both completely strangers to each other – coincidentally
become mates in a tiny first-class cabin on a night train. Obvious sexual
sparkles soon start flying, with the situation getting tad more complicated
when a frustrated married lady in the adjoining cabin starts making brazen
advances to the man. Meanwhile, the compartment is abuzz with the sordid
details about a guy who is on the lam after murdering his wife. A fine mix of
atmosphere, moodiness and fatalism pervaded the noirish first half – coupled
with a jazzy, discordant score, and then the police arrive and take the man
into custody. Things then gradually started taking a divergent turn, which ended
up adding further dimensions to the tale in this smartly paced and deftly
handled movie. The fact that nearly the entire movie took place inside the
cramped train compartments added a palpable sense of claustrophobia to the
visuals; near the end, in a brief but memorable foot-chase sequence, horde of
passengers break free from the prison-like confines of the train, and
symbolically, also from their past shackles, only to be back before long – and
such cheeky genre-bending moves as this accentuated the director’s wry
commentary on post-WWII Polish society.
Director: Jerzy Kawalerowicz
Genre: Thriller/Psychological Thriller/Mystery
Language: Polish
Country: Poland
2 comments:
This is an acute sense of claustrophobia that contributes to the tension, and it made me think of Polanski's KNIFE IN THE WATER. Great that you mentioned that dissonant, jazzy score and the fatalist underpinning. A much underrated work, and a fabulous review in support.
Thanks a lot Sam. Yeah, the deep & engulfing sense of claustrophobia further accentuated its sense of doom & fatalism. Yet another psychologically arresting film from Poland, a country renowned small but excellent outputs in terms of cinema - like other East European countries (Hungary, Czech Rep, Romania et al).
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