Search - Blind Chance on DVD

A work of genius on several levels

Richard J. Brzostek | New England, USA | 02/25/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Blind Chance" is my favorite film directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski. The story is deep and meaningful, yet also has a timeless quality that makes the story very memorable. A young Boguslaw Linda plays the main role in the film with an outstanding and sincere performance. The film shows three alternative situations and how small details can make a man's life take various paths.

In one scenario the man becomes a Communist party member, another an anticommunist, and yet in a third a good husband and doctor. The people from one reality are in the background of another, but because of the main course of action taken is different, they do not play a central role in the other time line. I found it absolutely fascinating to see how his lives play out and how he ends up at the same fate, regardless of which life he leads.

"Blind Chance" is an intellectual and psychological movie and may appeal to many people. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a little more than just a regular story. It is a work of genius on several levels and not to be missed.
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Simple twist of fate

Flipper Campbell | Miami Florida | 08/25/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

""Blind Chance" (made in 1981) explores three possible outcomes of a young traveler's attempts to catch a fast-moving train. Paranoia runs deep in this, the most political of Krzysztof Kieslowski's early feature films (its release was delayed for years because of censors). Boguslaw Linda is terrific as the resourceful medical student slapped around by fate. This is one of four recent additions to Kino's Kieslowski collection -- along with "No End," "Camera Buff" and "The Scar" -- all of which show that the Polish master's writing and directing skills arrived almost fully formed when he turned to feature films. Each of the films benefits from a powerful central performance. They are products of the 1970s and '80s, a time of vast sociopolitical changes in Poland, but are not timepieces or simplistic attacks on the communists. The color images (full frame, enhanced for widescreen TVs) and sound are adequate. Subtitles are clear."

Interesting and important film

R. A Burt | Gainesville, FL | 09/03/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"While the protagonist of this film does not escape from Poland to France, it's clear that Kieslowski's move to Paris did benefit his filmmaking. Blind Chance is not, in other words, as fine as film as Red, Blue, or White. Still, it's worth seeing if you like any of htose films, and it's an important film partly because it is the obvious inspiration for Tom Tykwer's Run, Lola, Run (the screenplay for Tykwer's Heaven was written by Kieslowski). Also of note is an opening shot of a close of a man's mouth while he is screaming, an obvious allusion to Roman Polanski's The Tenant. Both films share an interst in political paranoia (Polanski's character is regarded as a foreigner and Pole in The Tenant even though he is a French citizen) and chance (Polanski's character is it by a car). While Paris supplied obvious resorces for Kieslowski and for (the vastly underrated and still largely unknown to U.S. filmgoers) contemporary Polish filmmaker Andrej Zulawski, it has interestingly not done so for Polanski."