FOUR NIGHTS WITH ANNA
Poland, 200, 87 minutes, Colour.
Artur Steranko, Kinga Preis.
Directed by Jerzy Skolimowski.
In the 1960s and the early 1970s, Jerzy Skolimowski was a significant Polish director who worked at home and then outside Poland. He was noted for some absurdist humour and some dark and satiric themes. In the early 1980s, he made Moonlighting with its Solidarity Movement background. He has not made a film in 16 years although he has appeared as an actor, most recently in David Cronenburg's Eastern Promises.
His directorial 'comeback' is a grim, low-key drama, set in Poland in the recent past but depicting a dingy setting with decrepit buildings and rather squalid surroundings. It is full of pathos as its central character, Leon, a mentally challenged outsider, brought up by his grandmother, who works with the hospital furnace and odd jobs, leads a pathetic life, in the fullest sense of the word, unfulfilled and in need of some compassion.
The title might sound like an erotic fantasy. And, in a different sense, this is true. Leon is infatuated with a local nurse. He follows her in the streets. Watches her in the supermarket. But, seriously and desperately, he looks from his window into hers in the nurse's quarters and then surreptitiously gets into her room at night after mixing drugs with her medicine. This up close stalking is 'innocent' in its way. He means her no harm and there is no sexual assault. In fact, in the past he witnessed her being raped, reported it to the police but was tried for the crime and sent to prison himself.
This is a sad film, well-made and acted, a grim slice of disappointing life.
1.The work of Jerzy Skolimowski over the decades? Grim films? Madness? Comedy of the absurd? Crime?
2.The Polish settings, grimy and dirty, the poverty, the hospital, the nurses’ quarters, offices, the police precinct, the furnace and the buildings for works? The streets, supermarkets? An atmosphere of realism? The atmospheric score?
3.The structure: Leon and his life, the flashbacks to the rape, the court case, imprisonment? Explaining his behaviour towards Anna?
4.The drab town, Leon and his stalking Anna and her friend, his room, the furnace, the hand from the hospital, buying the axe? The organisation of his work? The doctor? The accusation about stealing the ring? At the supermarket, watching Anna? At work, his finally being fired, his self-defence? The retrenchment, his signing the document? The severance pay?
5.The flashback: fishing, the dead cow in the river, witnessing the rape, Anna’s fear, his running away, phoning the police, being interrogated, the anger of the policemen, the cigarettes on the floor, his picking them up? The court, his being found guilty, circumstantial evidence, the sentence? His life in jail, the physical and sexual assault? The workers criticising him?
6.The title, Anna, on the poster, being watched by Leon? The nurse? The four nights and the irony of his stalking behaviour? Watching Anna, in the street, the supermarket, climbing into her room, keeping vigil, her being asleep, not touching her? The dangers? The effect on him? The night of the party, buying the ring, his anxiety, dropping the ring, hiding under the bed, retrieving the ring? Anna getting up, dressing, going to work? The return? The helicopter, taking the sick man away? Leon being caught? His being mentally impaired, the court and the police and their action? The explanation about his grandmother, bringing him up, illegitimate, her dying, the funeral? His making the window so that he could look out to see Anna?
7.Anna, ordinary, in the photo, in real life, in the street, the supermarket, in court, her leaving, her visiting Leon – and acknowledging that he had not raped her? But that she would not return?
8.Leon, the experience of prison, being released? A future?
9.The pathos of the film, the locations, people’s occupations, mental difficulties, the sexual difficulties, Leon as a truly pathetic man? Needing pity and support?
