Quand les anges tombent

It was his diploma production. The old woman is played by Polanski himself.

Some reviewers considered this very distinct among the other movies of Polanski, either earlier or made after. I dare to relate it to Nóż w Wodzie though (as I did with the other earlier films). Again there are the two worlds. Ours, remembered in twenty minutes, when you are too old and too aware that no hopes fulfill, no dreams come true, life is just nothingness. And theirs, the ones that live in another universe and come sometimes to visit us. And their visit makes sense to us only when no hopes, no dreams can support us anymore. Angels come only when you are too aware about the nothingness of your life. And they come exactly there, in the nothingness of your life.

Paul Tillich was right: you find God only after you have lost all.

When Angels Fall (1959)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

An elderly woman works a lousy job but she's capable of seeing things like no other. This short from Polanski has a lot of good moments but it really doesn't work well enough for the running time. The use of color was nicely done and the war scenes were very good.

Lamp, The (1959)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Surreal film from Roman Polanski about a doll maker. There's really no "story" here but instead we get various strange images. The images are nice but overall the film somewhat drags.

Fat and the Lean, The (1961)

** (out of 4)

Another Polanski short has him playing "Lean", a servant to the "Fat" man. I guess this thing was trying to be funny but it certainly wasn't. Some nice camera-work however.

This was Polanski's graduation piece when he finished film school at Lodz, and it bears some striking differences to both his previous shorts and his later features. At the same time, it shows a maturing of his style and certainly was his most ambitious work up to that point.

Perhaps the most obvious difference is its beauty and sentimentality. Polanski films can of course be deep and emotional, but they don't tend to wallow in emotional sentimentality. The bittersweet tale of an elderly toilet attendant daydreaming about the memories of her youth hits a similar note to Kurosawa's Ikiru or even Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life. This isn't a bad thing by any means. Polanski's attempt is a little obvious and heavy handed, but he demonstrates an ability to evoke emotions, and does create a truly beautiful film.

The fact that this was his graduation explains perhaps why Polanski seems to have been going for a universal appeal, as well as covering all his bases as far as technique and style go. There are touches of neo-realism, but mixed in with stylisation and pure fantasy. Significantly he also switches back and forth between monochrome and colour. For me one of Polanski's greatest strengths is his restraint in using colour. Look at Tess for example – a 170 minute film with absolutely no vivid colours until the final ten. And this same talent for colour composition is on display in his very first use of it, with plenty of deep greens and browns later to be offset by blood red.

More than in any of his previous shorts you really get to see here that Polanski simply had a natural talent for film-making. Where Angels Fall has a rhythm to it that some directors never achieve. Furthermore he tells a story across twenty minutes using only one line of dialogue – everything else is conveyed in characters and situations we can instantly grasp without words.

For me the biggest wrong note in Where Angels Fall is the war section. It shifts the narrative from the woman to the soldier, and events which she never witnessed – which is strange since the rest of the film is so intensely personal, in fact about half of it is point of view shots from the woman's perspective. This is also the most obvious and unoriginal part, making it look tacked on.

All in all, Where Angels Fall is a very well made and watchable short feature. It shows a side of Polanski rarely seen in any of his other work. On the other hand, it's not totally atypical Polanski, for example the public toilet where much of the action takes place is one of the earliest examples of his trademark claustrophobic interiors. If you're not put off by the sentimentality, it's a very enjoyable twenty minutes.

I acknowledge the uniqueness of this film, but that doesn't mean I enjoyed it. At least I'm being honest about it. The visuals were the most interesting facet, along with this old lady's face. Wow, what a face: a million wrinkles, most of them with a story. It was interesting that the present day part of this short film was in black-and-white and the flashbacks were in color. You would think the director would do the opposite. However, the director here is not your ordinary filmmaker. He's Roman Polanski, and this is one of his last short films before he began feature-length ones.

I've never heard of a female attendant in a men's lavatory, but that's what we have here. It's a depressing job, one in which one usually sits all day and has hour to contemplate. For this old woman, it was unpleasant memories of the past as each new customer reminds her of something tragic in her past.

The acting in here was poor but I'm sure young Polanski didn't have much of a budget to work with. It wasn't exactly like working with Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway.

Like most of his short films, there is little to no dialog.....but it's really not needed. However, the sudden scene shifts from her apparent memories to scenes which she couldn't have witnessed (i.e. World War I battle scenes) were confusing. Maybe it just didn't get it. However, I appreciated the sentimentality in here, even if I didn't understand some of it.

To those who haven't seen any of Polanski's short films, be warned: this is quite different from films you are used to seeing. They used to have "art houses" where they would show "arty" films like this. I wonder if they are still around?

One life in 20 minutes. Sad, but sometimes this is the truth. This short movie is about faith, is about destiny, and finally it is about broken dreams ... dreams which never die. For that old lady life is almost ended but her memories are now more powerful than ever because she has all the time to think at the past. In every man, in every person, which enters in that public toilette the woman saw ghosts from her past. This movie is very powerful through his images well captured by "Polanski's eye". Polanski has made a real masterpiece like almost all his movies are. (Please excuse my English because I know it is not very good)