Thursday 16 May 2013

Night Train. Jerzy Kawalerowicz. Second Run DVD release. First time in UK. 27 May 2013

 

Night Train (Pociag) 1959, Jerzy Kawalerowicz
Courtesy of Second Run

sybillecastelain@yahoo.co.uk

1 comment:

  1. Artavazd Peleshyan’s The End came to my mind when watching Night Train as I recently saw that 8mns short as part of Death on Screen @ the Welcome Collection. Strangely enough, Peleshyan and Kawalerowicz share the same Jewish Armenian origins. Their trains are a fabric of improbable social meetings.
    In Kawalerowicz’s train, the holiday goers are on their way to the Baltic Sea. When the culprit is found and escapes the train, those previously passive passengers rush off the train, while a non-ending piercing barking dog fills the soundscape, chasing the killer and lynching him to unconsciousness. Perhaps a search of revenge from a painful experience of Polish past. When the camera turns over towards the immobile train, we witness an empty train, all doors and windows open: the dream escape from the Nazis echoes with horror. Arriving at the Baltic Sea, passengers get back to their “normal” life while the sound of a Paquebot fills the fresh air constantly as if resting time is not yet now…
    The strong contrasted photography is simply moving.

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