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Passenger AKA Pasazerka (1963)
R0 - United Kingdom - Second Run DVD Review written by and copyright: Jari Kovalainen (4th December 2006). |
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The Film
 Polish cinema has produced many very talented directors after the horrors of WWII and Stalin´s death in the 1950s, when the country could finally act a bit more freely from the various political pressures. Andrzej Wajda is perhaps the most respected one from the “new wave”, and e.g. his acclaimed WWII-trilogy; “A Generation AKA Pokolenie (1955)”, “Kanal (1957)”, and “Ashes and Diamonds AKA Popiól i diament (1958)” is now released from “Criterion” in America (“Three War Films” box set). Roman Polanski was actually born in France, but he started his versatile career from Poland. Polanski has been working mainly abroad, but his “Knife in the Water AKA Nóz w wodzie (1962)” was a genuine Polish production, and still one of his best films (and he has done many). Even though Krzysztof Kieslowski directed several films and documentaries, he´s still best remembered for his last three films - known as the “Three Colors trilogy”; “Three Colors: Blue AKA Trois couleurs: Bleu (1993)”, “Three Colors: White AKA Trois couleurs: Blanc (1994)”, and “Three Colors: Red AKA Trois couleurs: Rouge (1994)”. For a while, Kieslowski was THE name in Europe, and I recall how successful his trilogy was almost everywhere. “Three Colors” helped the whole of European cinema at the time, and is very special for me too. Among these three familiar names there were many gifted directors that didn´t get all the headlines, but are respected among the film buffs. Graduated from the famous “Lódz Film School”, director/co-writer Andrzej Munk started to gain real recognition with the films like “Man on the Tracks AKA Czlowiek na torze (1957)”, but while filming “Passenger AKA Pasazerka”, he quite suddenly died in a car crash in 1961 - at the age of 39. After two years of hard work, the film was completed in 1963 with the help of the assistant director Andrzej Brzozowski (who shot some additional scenes), Wiktor Woroszylski (who wrote the additional narration) and with Witold Lesiewicz - who finally edited the film in the form that is presented on this DVD. Instead of creating new storylines or filling the missing gaps, the film is using stills with voice-over narration in certain scenes (all the scenes at the liner) to tell the essential parts of the story (outside the camp). This is briefly explained in the introduction, which is also part of the film. The first of these photo montages happens in the opening of the film, where the German woman Liza (Aleksandra Slaska) is returning to Europe with her husband in a luxury liner. She has been away for several years. While the ship is in the port of England, Liza suddenly sees a certain woman, who instantly brings all the painful memories from the past out in the open. In the series of flashbacks the old wounds are ripped open, when we move to one of the most horrifying events of the whole WWII; the Holocaust. Liza feels compelled to finally tell her story to her husband, and quietly the photo montage changes to the black and white cinematography of the infamous concentration camp in Poland - Auschwitz. Before Liza was just an ordinary German citizen, living after the war and happily married, she was one of the female SS overseers for Nazi Germany, working in a storehouse outside the death camp, where all the belongings of the prisoners arrive. From there, Liza had built a special relationship with one of the Polish inmates, Marta (Anna Ciepielewska), who is now working as her clerk. Liza had even let Marta´s “fiancée” Tadeusz (Marek Walczewski) join her at the storehouse. Via Marta, Liza tries to keep her humanity towards the prisoners and tries to place herself over the Nazi brutality that she sees every day. She tells her husband that she didn´t hurt anyone, and was merely obeying the leaders during the war time. She just did her duty, and basically tried to help the women when she could. But was there something else beyond this story? We also hear another - this time more private, side of the story, which is meant just for herself. Was Marta just a cleverly used tool for Liza, to get promotion from Berlin? Was it that - through this prisoner that she felt sorry for - Liza could gain some sort of power - and satisfaction? Was Liza even jealous for the genuine love that Marta could still feel inside the camp towards Tadeusz, when Liza just had her duty and no time for anything else? Many questions are raised during the “second act” of the film, and the answers are not easy to find. This is partly because the film is not in the form that the director originally intended (let´s face it; it´s not complete), and partly because the film probably doesn´t want to give all the “answers”. “Passenger” is about the guilt and the shame that left the permanent mark for many people during the Holocaust and which is never truly erased from the history of mankind. Most who perished in the camps were completely innocent of any crimes, but perhaps the main question of the film would be how “guilty” people like Liza were, who most likely wasn´t a fully dedicated Nazi, but who could still gain some satisfaction through power over her prisoners and who eventually was one part of the well executed killing machine - even in the minor role. Thousands of people from Nazi Germany “worked” in the camps. Were they all guilty? How guilty? Questions after questions… One thing is a fact, though; all of them were silent and they witnessed one of the biggest mass murders in our time. In “Passenger”, every viewer most likely will come to their own conclusions, and some things will be left as a mystery. Those Andrzej Munk took with him. “Passenger” is actually based on the TV-drama (for the record, even before that was the radio drama) that Munk directed (it was never recorded) and this was the story that Munk wanted to explore deeper. The story is told in a quite subtle - yet effective - way, by leaving out the over-sentimentalisation (if that even exists with the subject matter like this one) and shock effects, rather showing the brutality in a way that people like Liza saw it every day; families with children go quietly to the gas chamber, a soldier will carefully clean the crystals of the Zyklon B that he accidentally dropped, and a little girl is caressing a dog, while the soldier is smiling - for a second at least. Soon he probably remembers that these people “were not humans” to them. Many scenes were shot in the real Auschwitz, which obviously brings a certain documentary-feel to the film, and often the film feels like a semi-documentary with narration. There´s very little music and this certain silence feels quite eerie during the film - like prisoners were ghosts already, doomed. Their average life was to die, without any fanfares, or even screams. The fact that Munk himself died during the production leaves many questions open, not just from the story that he was about to tell with his film, but also by the man himself. He definitely was a unique filmmaker, but eventually how unique he would´ve become in the later years is something that we will never know. But like the old saying goes, his art will live on.
Video
UK-based “Second Run” presents the film in non-Anamorphic 1.66:1 (sections with stills are windowboxed), which is not the OAR of the film. The film was originally shot in 2.35:1 (French “Dyaliscope”), but no such print was located at this point. “Second Run” is quite open with this and explain the situation on their website's home page (neither the film's producers nor the Polish National Archives were able to provide the 2.35:1-version). It´s of course sad to hear that a cropped version was used and it´s not even Anamorphic, but the print still looks decent, with a fairly good detail level and no major print damage. Certain amount of film artifacts run throughout the film and the B&W print leans more to the darker side, but you can enjoy the film via this presentation. Surprisingly, the cropping didn´t really bother me, which is partly because of the subject matter (which quite frankly takes your focus away from the technical issues in some degree). Still, I hope that we´ll see the film in 2.35:1 at some point, and probably then it´s time for the re-release by “Second Run”. I spotted one digital “glitch” at the timecode approx. 14:42 minutes (it appeared in 2 players). “Dual layer” disc is coded “R0”, and runs 58:27 minutes (PAL). There are 12 chapters. Apparently the US VHS-release by “Hen´s Tooth Video” is 2.35:1, but not sure about its quality.
Audio
One audio track, the original Polish Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is included, with optional English subtitles. The dialogue is clear and even when there is minor hiss in the background, it doesn´t really bother. Like the print, there´s room for improvements in the audio front also, but nothing is significantly wrong.
Extras
“Second Run” has included a proper extra on the disc; “The Last Pictures AKA Ostatnie Zdjecia” -documentary, running 46:42 minutes. This is a documentary about Andrzej Munk and is written/directed by the assistant director of “Passenger”, Andrzej Brzozowski in 2000. It´s in Polish, including optional English subtitles and the aspect ratio is 4:3. This B&W documentary (some parts in colour) is like a “second movie” itself, and it´s a great companion piece for the main feature. It tells of the early history of Munk, partly in the turmoil of WWII and political world in Poland and the rest of the documentary is mainly surrounding Munk´s last production “Passenger”. The documentary also shows clips from the real Auschwitz and the historical events are strongly present, since people talk about the camp also in an historical light, not just part of the film production. We hear interviews and comments from Brzozowski himself (who also passed away in 2005), as well as some other members of the “Passenger”-crew; assistant director Anna Dyrka- Brzozowski, actress Anna Ciepielewska, makeup artist Teresa Tomaszewska, and also a few clips (which looked like vintage ones) from the cinematographer Krzysztof Winiewicz and lead actress Aleksandra Slaska (“Liza”). It also features interesting comments from directors Andrzej Wajda and Roman Polanski (speaking in Poland). “The Last Pictures” is an interesting film itself, perhaps not an average documentary that you see on the DVD-releases, but more like tribute film for a friend by Brzozowski, who lets the people talk quite freely, and portrays the picture of Munk via his colleagues and film crew, and also by his own telegrams and letters. In some ways, it underlines the certain mystery that is probably still surrounding Munk, but we´ll learn something about this director. It lacks information about his other films beyond “Passenger”, though. Based on “Second Run”, it´s not broadcast outside of Poland. 20-page booklet is featuring essays on the film and Munk by academic Ewa Mazierska and “Life Is Beautiful” essay (about Munk) by film critic/writer Stuart Klawans.
Overall
“Passenger” is a strong film - even in its semi-complete form, which gives plenty to think about, not just about the Holocaust, but about us humans, guilt and conscience. At this very moment somewhere in the world, some “ordinary” man/woman is abusing power, and living with that for the rest of his/her life, probably thinking; how guilty was I, since I just followed orders? The presentation by “Second Run” is lacking when it comes to the transfer and audio itself, but the long documentary helps to even the score. For more info, please visit the homepage of Second Run.
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