Pora umierac

I saw this last month at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. Director/writer Dorota Kedzierzawska wrote this film role specifically for the films lead actress 92 year old Danuta Szaflarska. Szaflarska has had a 60 year career in film beginning with the early days of Polish film of post World War II. Szaflarska's character Aniela, reflects on some of those memories of that war when Germans commandeered her grand old house to use as a military base. Set in Poland this is the story of Aniela who lives alone in a rundown old wooden house that saw many grand parties and lovely times in years past. It, like her is now an aging old relic of things that have outlived their expectancy. A developer wants to buy it and tear it down to build a modern apartment building on it's site. Aniela has a 50 year old son (Krystof Globisz) who occasionally checks in to see how his ornery old mother is doing. He is often accompanied by his overweight 10 year old daughter (Patrycja Szewczyk) who Aniela finds as a spoiled, demanding, undisciplined brat. Aniela blames her husband's wife (Marta Waldera) for her son and granddaughter's laziness. Aniela is often taunted by and bothered by local kids. Her next door neighbors run a music academy for kids out of their home that she spies on daily. This film could almost be a one woman stage play as the other characters are in mostly peripheral roles and the setting is almost entirely within the house. Actually a one woman-one dog stage play because as much as Aniela is the starring role her co-star is her faithful dog who is her confidant and protectorate and has nearly as much screen time as Szaflarksa. Excellent cinematography by Arthur Reinhart and very effective shot entirely in black and white. This film probably wouldn't play well to American audiences under 50 year old who demand that all their films be in color and find anything in black and white to be antiquated and slow and boring. The dog is certainly entertaining and charming and pet lovers will find this film irresistible but it was one of my main problems with the film as I found the dog scenes excessive and frequent extended bouts of barking irritating. The story of the house and Aniela's life and family could have been better developed but I liked the film. Szaflarska was awarded Best Actress of the 32nd Polish Film Festival in Gdynia when this film played there last year. It's a drama with plenty of tasteful comedy and I would give it a 8.0 out of 10 and recommend it but it will only find an art-house audience.

I just saw this film at Cinequest Film Festival 18 in San Jose, CA. Although my tastes personally range towards quirky comedies, and dark thrillers, I have to say that I found this film to be a wonderful and delightful movie (not words normally spoken by one of my film tastes). It carried back to the grand days of film-making, as it is done in crisp black and white (which makes it work all the better). 91 year old actress (at the time) Danuta Szaflarska, is fantastic as the spry old woman, who is both stubborn, yet introspective.

The story focuses on the character, Aniela, and her life in what once was a grand and beautiful house, now running down, but still home for her. On one side of her house are scheming neighbors, apparently in cahoots with Aniela's unappreciative and greedy son, as developers attempting to buy the property to build apartments. On the other side is a nice family who host a rather noisy local children's music club. Aniela is stuck in the middle - but has her faithful companion dog to mirror her emotions, while also adding his own personality. The interaction between Aniela and the dog is enough alone to make this film enjoyable. As it goes, even for being 91, Aniela is no fool - as she spys and learns of her neighbors' ways and true intentions. She is always ahead of the game, as the film moves ahead, and some surprises may yet be in store for those who are not wise to her thinking and abilities.

A fantastic film that should be seen by any film lover. I hope to see it again a few more times.

Aniela, played by remarkable Polish veteran stage and screen great Danuta Szaflarska, is as much a sprightly, unyielding relic of the past as the big dacha-style house surrounded by tall trees in which she lives alone with her impetuous dog, Philadelphia. Across the way, spied from a glassed-in porch through old opera glasses, she disapprovingly observes a boorish fat nouveau-riche man in a big new house, and over in a corner, a shabbier building occupied by a struggling music school, whose outdoor horn lessons she also deplores, talking to "Phila" in a running monologue.

The world is distorted, unfriendly, remote, but Aniela is lively, cheerful and defiant in the face of it all. Her first words on-screen (as rendered in the excellent subtitles), spoken to an impolite woman doctor she decides not to deal with, are "Kiss my ass."

'Time to Die' is an ironic title that suggests a dejection utterly foreign to this feisty and charming old lady. The film was largely conceived by Kedzierzawska as a perfect vehicle for her star Szaflarska, a tiny, indomitable woman who at 91 seems to skip up and down stairs and dance across rooms, her strong voice never faltering. (Seen at a festival screening at 93, she was equally sprightly.) But this is not just a vehicle for the star; the house, the dog, and the surrounding impingements are equally important--as is the camera, shooting in black and white; DP Artur Reinhart is another star whose work here dazzles and entrances. He makes much use of refracting lenses that convey at once a sense of the old windows of the house and of Aniela's own quirky vision, which can quickly shift to musings on the past. She not only sees her son (Krzysztof Globisz), now a big pasty-faced man with a peevish, fat little daughter (Patrycja Szewczyk), but a more idyllic image of that son as a handsome boy (Wit Kaczanowski Jr.) playing on the swing that still hangs from a big tree below.

'Time to Die' excels in many areas, not only in its extraordinary star, its gorgeous black and white images, and its rich sense of place, but in its ability to convey a sense of time savored minute by minute. Like many old people Aniela may not sleep much. Anyway she seems never to lose consciousness or even to stop talking to "Phila" or on the phone or to her son or to people outside. There's even a naughty urchin they call Dostoevsky (Kamil Bitau) because his first name's Fyodor, who's going to be studying drums at the music school but meanwhile climbs up to the second storey thinking to steal something. She's friendlier to him than to the rich boor from next door, who she sends packing, with Philadelphia snarling obediently after him. There are also nosy Kafkaesque city bureaucrats, and everybody wants Aniela's house or her land.

In time she finds out her own son's intentions are hardly as honorable as she'd assumed and she has to decide on some course of action. Is it "Time to Die"? No, not yet. But of course this is a kind of Endgame, and Aniela, cheerful and mobile though she is, still remains an Old Stancher in the Samuel Beckett sense, alone with her beautiful memories, out of touch and out of sorts with a new world of which she rarely approves and which is not very kindly toward her.

Though slight in content by some mainstream movie standards, 'Time to Die' is a rich and beautiful experience. It was interesting to see it at the San Francisco film festival right after the equally striking black and white film 'Frozen' (Shivajee Chandrabhushan). Kedzierzawska is working with material and with an actress she knows and the difference in emotional content was enormous. The cinematography also seemed to have more of a point to it since it so evocatively suggested a vision grounded firmly in the past but still alive in the present. Alive is the word, because the camera seems to breathe in this one. A long crane shot moving up and out of the roof at the end is a wise move to give a sense of ascent and also perspective. The extraordinary Danuta Szaflarska agreed with the director at an after-screening discussion that this film was one of the best opportunities she's ever had in her long and successful career. Not having seen other work by Kedzierawska one can't comment but surely this must be one of her greatest successes. Incidentally, this is one of the best performances by a dog you're likely to see.

I went to watch this movie with little expectations, mostly to complement my Polish learning, but came back fascinated. We are treated to a glimpse in the daily routine of this solitary old woman. More than that, we are offered the chance to look at her own personal world through her eyes. It inspires us with her fears, her joys, her memories and even her dreams.

Her routine does not become repetitive at all during the film: something new is always afoot, and the dog provides some counterbalance to her monologue. All other actors do a great job here, including the pet, but the old lady seemed so real that sometimes you wanted to answer back to the screen. However, the camera work is what most got my attention. It marvelously captures all the situations and the feelings involved in them, and presents them in texture-rich black and white. The visuals captivated me from beginning to end: the carefully chosen composition and angles, the impressive number of different textures and the use of lighting, as well as some camera tricks, like shooting through glass, made me feel like I was watching a collection of very beautiful and evocative pictures on top of which the characters moved like paper figurines.

Unfortunately my Polish is not very good, yet, so I missed about half of the dialogue. I'm hoping to see this movie subtitled to a language I understand better, but I recommend watching this movie even if you don't get a single word.