god i love surrealist cinéma. it's like someone sat down and said what if we make baby sensory videos but for adults. sure the imegery and the symbolism and how it all comes together to form a story is impressive but we're just sitting there watching it like a child watching cocomelon. there's a little goblin that awakens and yells OOOOOH PUZZLE and it holds me captive trying to jam what i'm seeing into a cohesive picture

The Hourglass Sanatorium (1973)

The Hourglass Sanatorium (Wojciech Has, 1973).

The Hourglass Sanatorium (1973), dir. Wojciech Jerzy Has

The Hourglass Sanatorium [Sanatorium pod klepsydrą] (1973)

While dream odysseys are nothing unusual in film, Wojciech Has’ surreal journey through time and memory captures better than most that strange feeling when something so odd feels so real and immersive for the dreamer. From the first frames, it’s clear that there’s something different about this sanatorium where Józef goes to visit his father. He cannot access the door but must instead clamber in through the window: an unusual prelude to even stranger things to come. Józef’s father is, after all, convalescing from… death. He exists, but only because of the timey-wimey nature of the space, which allows Józef to probe the past, memories of his father and other visions. They meld together fluidly, and even as a child he is portrayed by an adult actor. Aside from Józef the only constant is a spectral train conductor who appears at intervals. The end result is an uncanny but poignant reflection on life, memories both collective and personal, and reconciliation with the death of loved ones.

Production design really helps to place this strange world specifically. The sanatorium itself, cobwebbed and moody, abandoned to the ages but ageless in its treatments, feels like something that might have appeared in an early Tim Burton film, one of those when he gave a shit. Traversing the dreamspace Józef is transported everywhere from an exotic expedition to a decrepit attic to a hall of creepy waxen historical figures. But it always returns to that simple bed frame where his father lies, the center of all this wandering.

THE RULES

SIP

Someone says 'time'.

Someone opens a door.

Bird imagery in a scene.

BIG DRINK

Abrupt transition to a new situation.

Exciting new headgear.

Sanatorium pod Klepsydrą 1973

watched The Hourglass Sanatorium (1971) today.

Sanatorium pod klepsydrą (The Hourglass Sanatorium |  Wojciech Has | 1973)

零 ( Fatal Frame | Mari Asato | 2014)

Crimson Peak (Guillermo del Toro | 2015)

The Hourglass Sanatorium

(1973)

The Hourglass Sanitorium  (1973)

The Hourglass Sanatorium (Wojciech Has, 1973).

The Hourglass Sanatorium (1973), dir. Wojciech Jerzy Has

THE HOURGLASS SANITORIUM (1973) dir. wojciech has

The Hourglass Sanatorium

directed by Wojciech Has, 1973