Hourglass Sanatorium - **

Directed by Wojciech Has. Starring Jan Nowicki, Tadeusz Kondrat, Irena Orska, Halina Kowalska, Mieczyslaw Voit, Gustaw Holoubek, Poland, 119 mins, cert 15.

Released in UK on DVD by Mr Bongo Films on the 19th March 2012, RRP £12.99 (DVD).

Coming eight years after the monumental black and white bore that was THE SARAGOSSA MANUSCRIPT, writer/director Wojciech Has has fashioned a surreal, philosophical adaptation of Bruno Schulz’s SANATORIUM UNDER THE SIGN OF THE HOURGLASS. Whilst technically brilliant, in fact a marvel of camerawork and production design, its intellectual bent will leave many sagging under the weight of its pretentiousness and sluggish pace.

Painstakingly restored the movie is a joy to behold visually, courtesy of cinematographer Witold Sobocinski, with each frame alive with an abundance of colour and vivid imagery the likes of which Terry Gilliam can merely take to bended knee and give worship to. Accompanied by a wonderfully discordant score from composer Jerzy Maksymiuk and a haunting atmospheric vibe, similar to the vibe that David Lynch would go on to make his own, there’s much to admire about THE HOURGLASS SANATORIUM outside of the plot.

The plot feels needlessly convoluted and random and one can only image that this will appeal to only those that either have a rabid love of Polish cinema or deliberately embrace the obscure for no other reason than to feel snobbish about more commercial fare. They will no doubt praise THE HOURGLASS SANATORIUM with big and important sounding words when in fact outside of the main story arc they will be as clueless as the next person.

Set in pre-World War II era the film opens with a young man called Józef (Jan Nowicki) travelling on a dilapidated train crammed with an odd assortment of people including a blind train conductor (Mieczyslaw Voit). His destination is a sanatorium in the middle of the Polish countryside where he is to visit his dying father Jakub (Tadeusz Kondrat). Upon arriving he finds the grounds untended and the building in a state of disarray both outside and in. Undeterred he enters and is met by an indifferent nurse (Janina Sokolowska) and his father’s doctor (Gustaw Holoubek). Józef discovers that time runs differently at the sanatorium, slowed down in order to maintain his father’s life signs.

He soon meets with his childhood friend, a young boy called Rudolph (Filip Zylber), whose postage stamp collection triggers episodes within the narrative all of which could be childhood memories in which the adult Józef is very much treated as an infant. This leads to encounters involving spooky mannequins re-enacting the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, references to exotic birds and colonial black mercenaries.

There’s an abundance of female boobs on screen and it seems that no woman can be shown on in the movie without either one or both of her mammaries showing. In writer/director Has’ movie women appear to be sexualized, objectified or promiscuous.

If it wasn’t for the astonishing visuals chances are you’ll give up watching. From the arresting and dreamlike opening image of a bird flying, to the decrepit and decaying sanatorium of the title, there is much to admire in terms of the visuals and terrific production design. Crammed with unusual and haunting images such as the clockwork mannequins it’s a shame that the philosophical bent the plot arc takes ends up leaving the viewer with nothing else but exquisite frames of film on which to hang their boredom and frustration.

Sean Cockwell

GORE IN THE STORE
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5 STAR FAB - 1 STAR RUBBISH