La tercera parte de la noche

Just watched the excellent Second Run DVD release of this film, and I was not disappointed. He must be one of the most underrated directors alive at the moment. In each of his movies (I have only seen two others) he manages to create an amazing cinematic velocity, you are not sure about the meaning and of the plot twists, but you are defenseless against the intensity of the camera-work, editing, performances and staging. He uses film in the way I usually find most interesting, to convey dream states and give fragmented views into other worlds, in that sense he is like Bergman when he was at his best. I can't help comparing the two since Bergmans recent passing and my seeing this film happened almost simultaneously...Watching this film is like experiencing someones nightmare, based in a gritty reality but at the same time far removed from it, and also managing to convey political issues in a non-realistic way. Which is the way I prefer, not ramming it down the audiences throats, but keeping it in the subtext for you to explore if you want.

A film which very much captures what a nightmare feels like; The film does a superb job of really immersing you into the moody and horrifying world and sends you on a confusing 'adventure' alongside Michal. It features some really amazing camera work, some of the best I have seen. But a lot of the religious and philosophical dialogue and themes just didn't click with me, and at times it can seem rather 'silly'. And the ending music seems almost insulting, like "look, we gotcha!" (Cue cool rock music)

Having seen two other movies by Zulawski, that forgotten artist, I'm starting to distinguish a style, some themes and his conception of human emotions. He doesn't care to develop a clear story, he has a way of surprising us continually through the exploitation of the characters which cover all the range of emotions. He can take any human and expose them to supernatural occurrences until they goes mad; they live in a constant nightmare. His actors occasionally go in a real trance and purge themselves of all emotions, crying and laughing simultaneously. It seems as if he is dissecting humans and beneath all that flesh and terror there lies a spirit, alone and in darkness.

Near the end someone cites the Apocalypse, and goes something like this: and then they will search for death and they won't find it. And that seems as the center point to the movies I've seen. In a way you can say he believes in an eternal return of the soul, but what he longs for is tranquility in death and so life to him is just a terrible passing, and so it is occasionally for many.

About the movie, well, it can be mistaken for some supernatural horror flick, some will be repelled by the style others will embrace it. But to me his movies are more of the overall experience and the way they linger in our subconscious as an infernal palace which we try to discredit and judge unreal, but which we inhabit.

Remarkably, this was Polish director Andrzej Zulawski's debut feature. Coming from a family full of actors, directors, poets, writers, and general great thinkers, Zulawski strides into this film with confidence, focus and a craft that takes the majority of directors years to perfect. I was interested in this film after reading about the rather strange plot line, and having a keen interest in Polish cinema, notably the work of Roman Polanski and Andrzej Wajda. And I'm pleased my I followed my curiosity, as the film is a hypnotic and nightmarish piece of cinema that encourages discussion, interpretation and repeat viewings, something that I find with only a few films, especially straight after the first viewing.

The film begins in a remote countryside house in Nazi-occupied Poland, where Michal (Leszek Teleszynski) stays with his wife and children, until the Nazis come along a murder everyone while Michal lies hidden in the woods. He journeys back to Lwow where he joins the resistance, almost instantly being tracked down and almost murdered. He manages to escape when the pursuers mistake an innocent bystander wearing similar clothes to be him and shoot him dead. Michal comforts the dead man's wife, while noticing that the mysterious woman bears an uncanny resemblance to his own dead wife. Being a typhus sufferer, Michal decides to put his misfortune to use and earns money becoming a lice feeder, strapping small boxes full of the bloodsuckers down his legs to let them feed, which are later used to develop a vaccine.

What stems from the relatively normal opening scene can only be described as a chaotic descent into instability, as the story moves along slowly and confusingly. The decision to use the same actress (Malgorzata Braunek) to play multiple roles is never clearly explained or made clear. The obvious and initial reason would apparently be the inability of Michal to let go of his wife's death, seeing her everywhere, but as the film goes on, you wonder about the mental stability of our hero, or even ponder if this (or indeed the whole film) is just a product of his typhoid-addled brain. Scenes randomly blend into the next, and you have no idea where the film is going or will end up. It is truly a mentally tiring experience, and all the better for it.

Zulawski seems to be fascinated with lice and the feeding process that the film depicts. He films in close detail, with some effectively loose- hand held work, how the lice are packed together in a tiny box, with a mesh screen in place to allow the creatures to feed through. Later, during the vaccination process, we are treated to a microscope POV of the lice being carefully placed on a petri dish one by one, only to be torn open by a pair of tweezers to extract their infected blood. Do the lice represent our protagonist, or the nature of the human race? Or perhaps it's a commentary on the war and the destruction of the Nazi party? No answers are clear with the film, and is best enjoyed as an interpretive piece of art cinema. I use the word 'enjoy' loosely, as when the climax approaches, it almost becomes a piece of psychological horror, one that genuinely disturbs in a way that only a true artist can achieve.

It will not appeal to everybody, but no matter what your view or opinion, it will no doubt have a profound effect on the emotions and the brain, and will linger for a long time.

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Just give me a movie with the name 'Andrzej Zulawski' attached to it and I can bet my money that the movie is going to be a once in a life time experience for you! I can't believe that his very first full length feature film deals with subjects like 'Surrealism', 'Existentialism', 'Dopplegangers', 'Borderline Psychedelic', 'Allegories' etc., Without a doubt Zulawski is one of the greatest filmmaker's that ever walked the earth and I'm so honoured and glad that I get to see his works and admire them.

Like my in depth analysis on his movie 'Possession' I'm going to do the same with this and let you know my take on 'The Third Part of the Night'.

Plot: The movie starts with Helena (played by Malgorzata Braunek) reading from the book of Revelations to her husband Michal (played by Leszek Teleszynski), who's slowly gaining consciousness from being ill for the past six weeks and later upon the request of his wife goes out on a walk with his son Lukasz and his father, who's waiting outside the house refusing to meet his wife. While taking a walk and discussing with his father on his wife's behaviour on why she did what she did, his son, Lukasz strays away from him and runs towards his mother who's awaiting the impending apocalypse at the house. When Michal hears the gun shots, he runs towards his family but by that time it's already too late and his entire family gets slaughtered. Feeling devastated and guilty he decides to join the resistance with the help of one of his friends but at his first meeting the gestapo kills his go between man and starts chasing him. During his escape he hides at an apartment where coincidentally he see another man wearing the same trench coat and the police catches him thinking him to be the person that they were chasing. Michal stays silent during the period but the other person's wife(Marta) who's pregnant, not knowing what happened, tries to explain the gestapo but they just arrest him and take him away for questioning. Seeing this she gets into a panic attack and goes into labour and asks Michal who's standing at the sidelines while watching the whole incident, to help her with the delivery. Michal to his surprise notices that Marta is a doppelgänger of his dead wife Helena and starts to atone for his sins and his guilt for his dead family by helping Marta and her new born baby. In the process Michal succumbs to his own reality, reliving his past which is surreal, horrifying and borderline psychedelic. Let's delve into the mind of Michal and try to understand in detail why he sees what he sees and what exactly Zulawski is trying to convey us.

Doppelgängers: My understanding is that in reality there are no Doppelgängers in this movie. It's just Michal's mind playing tricks on him because of the horrifying event that happened at the start with his family. He sees his wife in Marta because of the guilt that he couldn't save his family and that he survived and he thinks that he got a second chance (to be precise, a 'miracle' in his own words) to take care of his family by employing himself in the development of vaccine for typhus by letting the lice feed on him.

Now the question arises why only Marta but why not in other women can Michal see his wife Helena? Like for example in 'Sister Kalra' or 'The Lice Breeder' etc., ?: To answer this, its because of the events that transcribed around Marta which duplicates his wife Helena's from the past. Zulawski has shown us those events in a non chronological order by showing us his past right after he encounters a similar event in his present. For example when he meets Marta for the first time and delivers her baby, he immediately recalls how he met Helena and the talk surrounding the birth of Lukasz, where Michal says he's not ready to be a father but only this time he wants the course of events to be changed by being ready when he claims the baby to be Marta's, her husband's and his. Similar events like how he became the 'lice-feeder' in his past upon Helena's request and how he turned out to be one in the present on his own will, how he replaced Helena's first husband and felt guilty about it and how he replaced Marta's in the present without any guilt, how Marta and her new born baby end up at the same attic where Michal had lived with Helena and Lukasz in the past while trying to hide from the gestapo, how Helena's first husband surrenders himself to the Germans and how his sister Klara does the same in the present etc., all these events tells us that Michal is reliving his past but only this time he's the one in the driver's seat trying to change the course of history, which he couldn't do in the end by succumbing to his own reality.

Metaphors surrounding Lice and other elements:

1. Concept of Lice: During my research I came to know that Zulawski's father, Miroslaw Zulawski used to work as lice feeder in the Typhus research institute during the World War II, so in a way he portrayed the sufferings of his own family during the World War II with the concept of Lice feeders and breeders. So people would take extreme measures to avoid getting into the van and going to concentration camps by getting themselves a permit as lice feeders though they dislike doing it and consider it to be a life degrading. Michal who is one of the feeders tries to create a vaccine by donating his infected blood which in a way he's trying to be human to his oppressors when they brought down chaos upon him. He suffers physically and psychologically the same way Helena's first husband did.

2. A Blind resistance by literally a blind leader.

3. Conversation with his father when he asks him what is more important ? "The things people sacrifice for each other or the things they share and want to save?" to which his father responds to by saying "To save? Nothing can be saved" and Michal trying to do both by sacrificing himself and saving Marta's husband in the end.

Ending: During the final sequence when Michal tries to save Marta's husband, he gets scared when he sees Helena's first husband in his place and tries to escape from the hospital only to find himself at a corner with a sheet covering the body on a stretcher and when he removes the sheet he finds the body to be himself and suddenly his reality starts to crumble taking us to his house in the country where the four horsemen awaits to unleash the apocalypse outside the house while Marta braids her hair similar to what Helena did at the beginning of the movie awaiting her death. I guess what Zulawski tried to explain us is that regardless of Michal's second attempt to save the family by changing the course of history he found himself at the same place where he did at the beginning of the movie, no matter what he did.

This is not your typical world war holocaust movie where we see soldiers killing hundreds of people and planes dropping bombs on cities etc., this is a movie where we see how a human mind descends into madness amongst the chaos surrounding him and Zulawski has picked one character named Michal, dissected his mind and showed his thoughts, now just multiply it with a million and look at the thoughts of each individual on how they've faced the surrealistic nature of the world around them amidst this chaos, the image itself is really a horrifying one!!

There can be n number of thoughts on the interpretation of different aspects of this movie especially the ending sequence because I'm not sure whether Michal's dead or not and if he is whether he's dead at his house in the country? Or at the hospital? And the director just portrayed us with his after thoughts while he slowly descents into limbo regardless of where is ?