Night Train

Night Train is a 1959 film directed by Jerzy Kawalerowicz, written by Jerzy Kawalerowicz and Jerzy Lutowski. However Kawalerowicz was part of Polish Film School, he was more focused on universal themes than Andrzej Wajda or Andrzej Munk which focus on Polish dilemma.

This film is a mix of melodrama and thriller with the Hitchcockian atmosphere. We have there multicity of hero's couples and “romanticization” of film reality. We see that in Stalinist period in Poland feelings were lacking. During this time individualism was not valued, but the productivity or collectivity. But after the “Polish Spring” of 1956 Kawalerowicz could show that people really need it. The action of the film takes place in the train and we can say that in this train travels the whole Polish society of the year 1958 . We have there cross-section of the society with all stratification. In the sleeping car we have  the elite, in the others wagons people are more poor. This film speaks about spiritual condition of Polish society in 1958, that is lonely and lacks individual feelings.

“This film tells about hunger, about the longing for feelings, not necessarily for love. The girl has a hunger for life, the man – because of her – starts to feel lonely. Everybody is unhappy in a certain sense with what they have, people want to have ways out, some unclear perspectives. All of the characters of Night Train feel this longing. It is as if a single melodrama was split so that it could concern many characters” – Jerzy Kawalerowicz said of his film.

In this  film we have a classic unity of time, place and action, but it is realistic movie. This film was made in really moving train. It is a metaphor of journey through life. A journey that has no clear purpose.

Lucyna Winnicka, the main actress, said: “The title train became a metaphor of our life path, which leads from one place to another." I think that the strong point of this movie is that: the picture doesn’t revolve around war memories, it’s a purely human affair”. Very suggestive is the film's culmination and pursuit of  the killer. “Night Train” presents a vision that is not very optimistic - the group of humans is characterized mostly by cruelty and aggressive thoughtlessness which grows in the presence of a crowd. The killer in this film redeems the passengers after his capture, we see them in relief.

In the film, we have a dynamic image of the camera. The viewer is a passenger. Important in the film there is jazz music and acoustics like: screams. The film is full of tensions. It has no great morals. That is life, and that's all. The film carries a universal and timeless content. In fact because of that reason, the film was accused of cosmopolitanism. The critics wrote about “a virtuosic realization”, “acute psychological portraits of characters” and “giving universal meaning to trivial events”. The critics say that Kawalerowicz has created an allegory of misfits among a society of passengers, a society that is predictable, suspicious of individuality, and eager to punish. 

Kawalerowicz’s picture won a Golden Duck for best Polish film. In 1959 at the International Film Festival of Venice Lucyna Winnicka received a special distinction for best actress. (TR)