sirbrannon

Blind Chance (Przypadek, 1981) is the first of Kieslowski's films to trade upon explicitly religious themes and seems to mark the beginning of the great director's turn toward introspection and the spiritual realm that so characterizes his later work (especially Decalogue and the Three Colors trilogy). The Polish title could be literally translated "coincidence," an appropriate if possibly ironic title for a three-part film about a young man whose life course appears to be solely determined by his ability or inability to catch a train. Kieslowski has his doubts about such coincidences, for he described the film as "a description of the powers which meddle with our fate, which push us one way or another" (Kieslowski on Kieslowski, ed. Danusia Stok 113). Incidentally, this film inspired Peter Howitt's film Sliding Doors (1998) and Tom Tykwer's Run Lola Run (1998), but to my mind, Kieslowski's is a superior film. The original tends to be the best, and he is a true original.

Terrible...just terrible. I kept waiting for something to happen, for something to make sense, for something that didn't seem like a very weak screenplay being very poorly executed by some reasonably talented people. But no. It never happened. I should have followed my instincts and turned it off 20-minutes in, but my inner cinephile made me keep going. My hope was replaced by a spring of utter disappointment. If it serves as any indication, at one point I actually turned to my partner and said, 'I want someone to stick needles into my eyeballs.' Of course I'm exaggerating, but at least I would have had to forego finishing the film. And for those of you who don't accept simple gut-level reactions and demand that people back-up their negative critiques: 1) the characters were completely under-developed and offered nothing with which viewers could relate, 2) the acting was quite weak and unconvincing, which is a surprise and disappointment considering some usually excellent members of the cast, 3) the narrative was full of holes and almost seemed (to me) to just hope that the audience would be too 'taken' by attractive Colin Firth and Heather Graham that they wouldn't notice, 4) the sound was terrible, 5) the soundtrack was terrible, 6) I have trouble with any movie that replaces plot and character development with an ambiguous montage suggesting the formation of a relationship that we're supposed to accept and believe in as meaningful and legitimate, 7) especially when said montage takes place over a really crappy song in the background. I could go on, but it's just not worth it. Neither is watching the film, so if you haven't, in a word--DON'T. JUST SAY NO.