Blind ChanceIs there a deciding point in one's life, where chaos and chance dictates the outcome? Had some small detail gone differently, would that life turn out very different? How would one even know for sure? Blind Chance is the story of a young man named Witek (Bogusław Linda), who is struggling to find himself after the recent passing of his father. The seemingly imperceptible turning point in his life comes as he races to catch a train to Warsaw, where his futures split into three possibilities, each one dramatically different than the other, all over the matter of a few seconds difference.
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Blind Chance is a film which is about branching realities, but it is not a science fiction film. It is more like a fantasy, but only in the most literal sense, as one interpretation is that it is a fantasy of Witek's. More than a fantasy, though, it is a contemplation, a drama which has an undercurrent of regret throughout, exemplified from the start by Witek's existential scream--unqualified until the film unfolds. Seemingly disconnected memories of Witek's plant the seeds of clues, fleeting instances which color the experiences of this man at a crossroads in his three disparate futures. From the memories of his father teaching him to make numbers, leaving him with ink on his hands, to a former camp friend suddenly taken away by his father, these kinds of instances later emerge as crucial in one timeline or another. Moments like those where his father tells him he had wanted him to become a doctor, only to leave him a message following his death that he didn't want Witek to become a doctor for his sake, is relevant in another. He recalls a schoolgirl crush, which becomes a love affair in yet another one. These moments are like elements in a great sequence, a chemical reaction which produces something totally different when unified under varied circumstances, a metaphor which is ultimately the same as life itself.
While the existential fracture happens at the moment when Witek rushes to catch the train to Warsaw, without this prior knowledge, it appears just as if the film were a reasonably normal plot--there is no pronounced cue or giveaway to make this apparent as the decisive moment on the first go around. Witek, feeling sorry for a prisoner of the communist part--in charge of the Polish government at this time--tries to aid his escape, and then befriends an elderly communist and idealist named Werner (Tadeusz Łomnicki), who in turn acts as a mentor to Witek and motivates him to join up with the communists. Witek is reunited with his crush from his teenage years, a girl named Czuszka (Boguslawa Pawelec), as he becomes further entrenched in the organization. An accidental informing on Czuszka to Witek's patron in the party grooming him for leadership--a politician named Adam (Zbigniew Zapasiewicz)--results in Witek's disillusionment with this institution, and finally leaves him stranded at an airport, intending to fly to Paris on a fateful voyage. It is here that the film takes a step back, as though in Witek's mind, the thoughts of what could have been were playing out. The film slows to a crawl for a moment, and we are flashed back to that train station years before in Warsaw, only to have the events play out just a little differently, so subtly that the only benefit of differentiation we have is the gift offered by the director, Krzysztof Kieślowski--more clues, like how Witek collides with a man drinking a beer, or just how far he provokes a station guard. Pushing the guard too far gets him a sentence of community service, which ends up putting him in league with the revolutionaries opposing the communists. And being apologetic for colliding with those in his path ends up reuniting him with his lover, Olga (Monika Gozdzik), whom he marries and starts a family with. A few seconds--a multitude of different outcomes.
For the varied differences in Witek's futures, there are constants, similarities which mean that some elements were always going to be one way for Witek. Like Werner, Witek also becomes close with two other older men--a priest working with the revolutionaries named Stefan (Adam Ferency), and the dean who takes him back into medical school, Dziekan (Zygmunt Hubner). All three men are essentially surrogates for Witek's recently deceased father, and Witek gravitates toward them because he is still grieving for his loss; Witek's grief motivates the regret which is at the root of Blind Chance. In all three episodes, Witek becomes committed to causes, be it the communist government, the revolutionaries, or his own neutrality, but finds himself betrayed in one way or another by all three. He becomes intimate with three different women, romances which supersede his alliances and spur something deeper in his soul than ideologies. With Czuszka, Witek is overly concerned with her past, nearly interrogating her, trying to answer some deeper need for truth by confession. With Werka (Marzena Trybała), the married sister of his camp friend, their relationship is developed by their open disclosures to one another and long talk into the night. And with Olga, he feels the security and sense of independence for reasons we better understand by the benefit from seeing how Witek's life would have been without her already. Even the outfits Witek characteristically wears in each episode are like ideological uniforms he has been adopted to represent his mindset between one reality versus the other. From the officious government suit, the rebellious black shirt and jeans, to the secure doctor's coat, all three are external representations of the internal needs Witek feels following his choices in these tripartite lives.
Perspective and dramatic irony are significant themes in Blind Chance, necessarily influencing our interpretation of each episode, laid out in a defined order and not by random circumstance. In fact, although unpredictability is the conceit of Blind Chance, there is the inescapable sense that these events are not random, but subtle choices which reverberate with increasing intensity from that crucial moment. Witek's drive to rise up and elevate himself motivates him to race harder to catch the train, and puts him into a rising position in the government. Witek's frustration and indignation with authority causes him to violently collide with the man drinking the beer, not offer an apology, and then become aggressive with the station guard. And Witek's sensitivity and sympathetic side--appropriate for a doctor caring for patients--leads him back into the vocation he claims to have lost. As with Witek, there is the unmistakable sense that these minute sentiments which affect us speak more loudly in the long run than we realize, and our subconscious needs guide us toward the destination we need to reach, whether we are aware or otherwise--and that regret is an exercise in madness, antithetical to our unexpressed needs.
Recommended for: Fans of a dramatic film tinged with the politics of the day in Poland, about one man's varied fates from a seemingly insignificant instance, yet one which causes the potential of his life to be split into a three alternate futures. It is a story which touches on our own desires to see how our future could have been, but acknowledges that these events in life happen for a reason, even if it is barely perceptible at times.
While the existential fracture happens at the moment when Witek rushes to catch the train to Warsaw, without this prior knowledge, it appears just as if the film were a reasonably normal plot--there is no pronounced cue or giveaway to make this apparent as the decisive moment on the first go around. Witek, feeling sorry for a prisoner of the communist part--in charge of the Polish government at this time--tries to aid his escape, and then befriends an elderly communist and idealist named Werner (Tadeusz Łomnicki), who in turn acts as a mentor to Witek and motivates him to join up with the communists. Witek is reunited with his crush from his teenage years, a girl named Czuszka (Boguslawa Pawelec), as he becomes further entrenched in the organization. An accidental informing on Czuszka to Witek's patron in the party grooming him for leadership--a politician named Adam (Zbigniew Zapasiewicz)--results in Witek's disillusionment with this institution, and finally leaves him stranded at an airport, intending to fly to Paris on a fateful voyage. It is here that the film takes a step back, as though in Witek's mind, the thoughts of what could have been were playing out. The film slows to a crawl for a moment, and we are flashed back to that train station years before in Warsaw, only to have the events play out just a little differently, so subtly that the only benefit of differentiation we have is the gift offered by the director, Krzysztof Kieślowski--more clues, like how Witek collides with a man drinking a beer, or just how far he provokes a station guard. Pushing the guard too far gets him a sentence of community service, which ends up putting him in league with the revolutionaries opposing the communists. And being apologetic for colliding with those in his path ends up reuniting him with his lover, Olga (Monika Gozdzik), whom he marries and starts a family with. A few seconds--a multitude of different outcomes.
For the varied differences in Witek's futures, there are constants, similarities which mean that some elements were always going to be one way for Witek. Like Werner, Witek also becomes close with two other older men--a priest working with the revolutionaries named Stefan (Adam Ferency), and the dean who takes him back into medical school, Dziekan (Zygmunt Hubner). All three men are essentially surrogates for Witek's recently deceased father, and Witek gravitates toward them because he is still grieving for his loss; Witek's grief motivates the regret which is at the root of Blind Chance. In all three episodes, Witek becomes committed to causes, be it the communist government, the revolutionaries, or his own neutrality, but finds himself betrayed in one way or another by all three. He becomes intimate with three different women, romances which supersede his alliances and spur something deeper in his soul than ideologies. With Czuszka, Witek is overly concerned with her past, nearly interrogating her, trying to answer some deeper need for truth by confession. With Werka (Marzena Trybała), the married sister of his camp friend, their relationship is developed by their open disclosures to one another and long talk into the night. And with Olga, he feels the security and sense of independence for reasons we better understand by the benefit from seeing how Witek's life would have been without her already. Even the outfits Witek characteristically wears in each episode are like ideological uniforms he has been adopted to represent his mindset between one reality versus the other. From the officious government suit, the rebellious black shirt and jeans, to the secure doctor's coat, all three are external representations of the internal needs Witek feels following his choices in these tripartite lives.
Perspective and dramatic irony are significant themes in Blind Chance, necessarily influencing our interpretation of each episode, laid out in a defined order and not by random circumstance. In fact, although unpredictability is the conceit of Blind Chance, there is the inescapable sense that these events are not random, but subtle choices which reverberate with increasing intensity from that crucial moment. Witek's drive to rise up and elevate himself motivates him to race harder to catch the train, and puts him into a rising position in the government. Witek's frustration and indignation with authority causes him to violently collide with the man drinking the beer, not offer an apology, and then become aggressive with the station guard. And Witek's sensitivity and sympathetic side--appropriate for a doctor caring for patients--leads him back into the vocation he claims to have lost. As with Witek, there is the unmistakable sense that these minute sentiments which affect us speak more loudly in the long run than we realize, and our subconscious needs guide us toward the destination we need to reach, whether we are aware or otherwise--and that regret is an exercise in madness, antithetical to our unexpressed needs.
Recommended for: Fans of a dramatic film tinged with the politics of the day in Poland, about one man's varied fates from a seemingly insignificant instance, yet one which causes the potential of his life to be split into a three alternate futures. It is a story which touches on our own desires to see how our future could have been, but acknowledges that these events in life happen for a reason, even if it is barely perceptible at times.