Director: Andrzej Munk and Witold Lesiewicz
Year Released: 1963
Rating: 1.5
The meager amount of footage from Munk's last film - he died in a car accident before he could finish it - is shown here by filmmaker Witold Lesiewicz, who adds some stills and voice-over narration to contemplate where the picture was headed and what Munk had in mind while making it. It's easy to mythologize a fragmented picture with potential from an established director, but the few fully-developed scenes here - mostly about a concentration camp officer and her cruel treatment of one particular woman (more Naziesque bullying, not exactly groundbreaking) - don't add up to a full and complete story, and the 'meditative' commentary does not bring this up to the level of, say, La Jetée (which also relied on stills to tell its story). I'm not saying the completed version of this couldn't have been very good, but giving me a few well-thought-out chapters from a not-yet-completed novel and telling me it's going to be a masterpiece doesn't make me a believer. Like Thomas, I need to feel the puncture wounds.
