''The Hourglass Sanatorium'' ( pl, Sanatorium pod klepsydrą) is a 1973 Polish

surrealist film Surrealist cinema is a modernist approach to film theory, criticism, and production with origins in Paris in the 1920s. The movement used shocking, irrational, or absurd imagery and Freudian dream symbolism to challenge the traditional function of ...

directed by

Wojciech Jerzy Has Wojciech Jerzy Has (1 April 1925, Kraków – 3 October 2000, Łódź) was a Polish film director, screenwriter and film producer. Early life and studies Wojciech Jerzy Has was born in Kraków. Has himself was agnostic. However, his fam ...

, starring

Jan Nowicki Jan Nowicki (5 November 1939 – 7 December 2022) was a Polish actor. Biography He appeared in 90 films and television episodes since 1967. Nowicki died on 7 December 2022, at the age of 83.Gustaw Holoubek Gustaw Teofil Holoubek (21 April 1923 – 6 March 2008) was a Polish actor, director, member of the Polish Sejm, and a senator. Holoubek participated in the September Campaign and was a prisoner of war during the Nazi German Occupation of Po ...

. It is also known as ''The Sandglass'' in English-speaking countries. The story follows a young

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

man who visits his father in a mystical sanatorium where time does not behave normally. The film is an adaptation of

Bruno Schulz Bruno Schulz (12 July 1892 – 19 November 1942) was a Polish writer, fine artist, literary critic and art teacher. He is regarded as one of the great Polish-language prose stylists of the 20th century. In 1938, he was awarded the Polish Academ ...

's story collection ''

Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass ''Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass'' is the English title of ''Sanatorium Pod Klepsydrą'', a novel by the Polish writer and painter Bruno Schulz, published in 1937. Plot introduction The novel takes the form of a collection of dreaml ...

''. It won the

Jury Prize A jury is a sworn body of people (jurors) convened to hear evidence and render an impartial verdict (a finding of fact on a question) officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a penalty or judgment. Juries developed in England duri ...

at the

1973 Cannes Film Festival The 26th Cannes Film Festival was held from 10 to 25 May 1973. The Grand Prix du Festival International du Film went to ''Scarecrow'' by Jerry Schatzberg and '' The Hireling'' by Alan Bridges. At this festival two new non-competitive sections w ...

Plot

Joseph (

Jan Nowicki Jan Nowicki (5 November 1939 – 7 December 2022) was a Polish actor. Biography He appeared in 90 films and television episodes since 1967. Nowicki died on 7 December 2022, at the age of 83.sanatorium A sanatorium (from Latin '' sānāre'' 'to heal, make healthy'), also sanitarium or sanitorium, are antiquated names for specialised hospitals, for the treatment of specific diseases, related ailments and convalescence. Sanatoriums are often ...

. When he arrives at the hospital, he finds the entire facility is going to ruin and no one seems to be in charge or even caring for the patients. Time appears to behave in unpredictable ways, reanimating the past in an elaborate artificial caprice. Though Joseph is always shown as an adult, his behavior and the people around often depict him as a child. He befriends Rudolf, a young boy who owns a postage stamp album. The names of the stamps trigger a wealth of association and adventure in Joseph. Among the many occurrences in this visually potent

phantasmagoria Phantasmagoria (, also fantasmagorie, fantasmagoria) was a form of horror theatre that (among other techniques) used one or more magic lanterns to project frightening images, such as skeletons, demons, and ghosts, onto walls, smoke, or sem ...

include Joseph re-entering childhood episodes with his wildly eccentric father (who lives with birds in an attic), being arrested by a mysterious unit of soldiers for having a dream that was severely criticized in high places, reflecting on a girl he fantasized about in his boyhood and commandeering a group of historic wax mannequins. Throughout his strange journey, an ominous blind train conductor reappears like a death figure. Has also adds a series of reflections on the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

that were not present in the original texts, reading Schulz's prose through the prism of the author's death during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

and the demise of the world he described.

Cast

Production

''The Hourglass Sanatorium'' is not solely an adaptation of ''

'', but also includes sequences from other works by

. Regarding the possibility of a film adaptation of a book written by Schulz, director

said: "Schulz's poetic prose was the reading of my early youth. It influenced my films. That is why the realization of ''The Hourglass Sanatorium'' was a must for me. My aim was not to make a literal adaption of the work, but rather to do justice to what we call the work's poetics: its unique, isolated world, its atmospherics, colours and shapes." The time period of the film is a mixture of elements from the turn-of-the-century

Galicia Galicia may refer to: Geographic regions * Galicia (Spain), a region and autonomous community of northwestern Spain ** Gallaecia, a Roman province ** The post-Roman Kingdom of the Suebi, also called the Kingdom of Gallaecia ** The medieval King ...

where Schulz grew up, and Has' own pre-World War II memories of the same region. The film was produced by Zespół Filmowy Silesia. Principal photography took place at the Wytwórnia Filmów Fabularnych studios in

Łódź Łódź, also rendered in English as Lodz, is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located approximately south-west of Warsaw. The city's coat of arms is an example of ca ...

Release

Despite being a major production, the finished film was met by reluctance from the Polish authorities. Not only was the crumbled sanatorium interpreted as a parallel to the poor condition of many institutions and manor houses in contemporary Poland; Has had also chosen to emphasize the Jewish aspects of the source material, and this soon after an antisemitic campaign the government had launched in 1968, which had prompted around 30,000 Polish Jews to leave the country. The authorities forbid Has to submit ''The Hourglass Sanatorium'' for the

, but the director managed to smuggle a print abroad so the film could be screened at the festival. The Cannes jury, led by actress

Ingrid Bergman Ingrid Bergman (29 August 191529 August 1982) was a Swedish actress who starred in a variety of European and American films, television movies, and plays.Obituary '' Variety'', 1 September 1982. With a career spanning five decades, she is ofte ...

, honoured the film with the

. The Polish premiere took place on December 11, 1973. The film is among 21 digitally restored classic Polish films chosen for ''Martin Scorsese Presents: Masterpieces of Polish Cinema.'' and has been released on blu-ray in a related box set by Milestone Cinema.

Reception

When ''The Hourglass Sanatorium'' was released in Poland it met with mixed reviews from the critics and it was mostly criticized by

literary scholar Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...

s. Artur Sandauer noted that the book was a great material for a film, however, he strongly rejected Has's adaptation since in his opinion it changed Schulz's story "of cosmic dimensions" into "grotesque

folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, rangin ...

". Jerzy Jastrzębski opined that Has's film evokes "a feeling of clear insufficiency". The film was positively reviewed by Konrad Eberhard and Adam Garbicz who claimed that it wasn't the film director's intention to adapt Schulz's prose in a literal manner but rather to capture its

eschatological Eschatology (; ) concerns expectations of the end of the present age, human history, or of the world itself. The end of the world or end times is predicted by several world religions (both Abrahamic and non-Abrahamic), which teach that nega ...

climate. In France, the film was very positively received with film critics such as François Mourin, writing for ''

L'Humanité ''L'Humanité'' (; ), is a French daily newspaper. It was previously an organ of the French Communist Party, and maintains links to the party. Its slogan is "In an ideal world, ''L'Humanité'' would not exist." History and profile Pre-World Wa ...

'', praising it for the costumes, set design and decorations, cinematography as well as the actors' performance. Jacques Siclier writing for ''

Le Monde ''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...

'' stated that the viewer watching the film experiences "an emotional and breathtaking shock". Richard Bégin described the film's "permeable atmosphere of transcience and deadness" generated by the dominant shots of ruins. The film also received recognition in Britain and the United States. Phelim O’Neill of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

'' considered Has's film as "another psychedelic classic" while Michael Wilmington of ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

'' gave the film 3.5 stars out of 4 commenting on the splendid and surreal adaptation of Schulz's literary work. In the 2015 poll conducted by Polish Museum of Cinematography in

, ''The Hourglass Sanatorium'' was ranked as the fifth greatest Polish film of all time.

References

Essay on the film
A Journey into the Underworld

External links

*
The Hourglass Sanatorium
at Culture.pl {{DEFAULTSORT:Hour-Glass Sanatorium, The 1973 films 1970s Polish-language films Films directed by Wojciech Has Films based on works by Bruno Schulz Films based on Polish novels Films based on short fiction Films shot in Poland Mannequins in films Surrealist films 1970s science fiction drama films Polish science fiction drama films 1973 drama films