Cannes

Four Nights With Anna

Cztery Noce Z Anna (France - Poland)

By DEREK ELLEY

'Four Nights With Anna'

A Les Films du Losange release (in France) of an Alfama Films Prod. (France)/Skopia Film (Poland) production, in association with Telewizja Polska, Wild Bunch. (International sales: Elle Driver, Paris.) Produced by Paulo Branco, Jerzy Skolimowski. Executive producers, Ewa Piaskowska, Philippe Rey. Directed by Jerzy Skolimowski. Screenplay, Ewa Piaskowska, Skolimowski.
 
With: Kinga Preis, Artur Steranko, Jerzy Fedorowicz, Redbad Klijnstra, Jakub Snochowski.
(Polish dialogue)
 

Onetime enfant terrible of Polish cinema, and subsequently a wobbly emigre auteur in Belgium, the U.K. and U.S., vet Jerzy Skolimowski makes a small but commanding return to roots in obsessive-love drama "Four Nights With Anna." Helmed with absolute assurance from the get-go, but still marbled with moments of black comedy that faintly recall his younger, wilder works, pic has the metaphysical feel and control almost of a story from Krzysztof Kieslowski's "Decalogue" and is all the more impressive coming from a filmmaker who's just turned 70 and has been absent from the profession for almost two decades. Good reviews, and distinction of being Cannes' Directors' Fortnight opener, should propel this to modest business in arthouses worldwide.

Skolimowski quit the profession in 1991 following the debacle of "Ferdyduke," though the rot had been gradually setting into his career after the 1982 Jeremy Irons starrer "Moonlighting," shot in London. Keen to rediscover creative control, he's spent the past 17 years devoted to painting and poetry, before finding the right conditions to return to movies.

Inspired by a true story he read by chance in a newspaper, "Anna" centers on the obsessive love of a painfully shy, middle-aged crematorium worker for a nurse in the attached hospital of a small rural town. Opening reel is an attention grabber, as Leon Okrasa (Artur Steranko) is seen lurking in the rundown streets, buying an axe at a local store and ferreting around in a dingy basement where he incinerates a man's hand.

At this stage, nothing is known about the main character, who's almost being set up as a wacko serial killer. Michal Lorenc's chamber score, which is a big assist throughout the movie either in maintaining momentum or in building atmosphere, likewise prepares the viewer for a dark murder drama. Unexplained flashbacks, with an off-screen voice interrogating Leon and abstract images like a dead cow floating down a river, also stir curiosity.

Gradually the mists clear as Leon is shown caring for his bedridden grandmother and spying on a nurse, Anna (Kinga Preis), in the hospital's living quarters opposite. Piece by piece, the backstory is built up through flashbacks: how he witnessed her brutal rape in a barn one rainy day, reported the crime, but was himself jailed on purely circumstantial evidence.

Between these flashbacks unfolds an offbeat love story in which Leon, after drugging the sugar Anna always takes with her nightcap, steals into her ground-floor apartment while she's asleep. Initially, he just stares at her as she sleeps; as the four nights progress, he starts immersing himself in her life -- sewing a button on her clothing, leaving behind a ring, even turning up with flowers after she's collapsed drunk in bed after a birthday party. More and more he risks discovery and capture.

Even at a tight 95 minutes, pic is a highwire act in maintaining dramatic momentum since the entire movie takes place from one man's perspective -- especially since that one man is a reclusive loner with only a handful of lines in the entire script, and comes across as almost semi-retarded. Even the object of his affection is little more than that: for most of the running time, Anna, who's blonde but not especially pretty, is seen either from a distance or asleep in bed, with no backgrounding apart from the rape seen in flashback.

However, it soon becomes clear that the intention of scripters Ewa Piaskowska and Skolimowski is simply a one-sided love story. There's never any hope of the relationship progressing; the drama lies in whether (or when) Leon will be discovered and whether he was, after all, guilty of her rape back in 2003.

Helmer's period as an artist and poet seems to have served him well, more in the film's overall precision and small details than in its look. Cinematographer Adam Sikora's visuals are generally well-composed but rarely in a self-conscious way, and the wintry, rural setting, with dull colors, is familiar from scores of Central European movies.

Steranko, who had a supporting role as a doctor in Krzysztof Krauze's "My Nikifor," is well cast, with a face and eyes that pic manipulates, morphing from lovesick bunny to sinister intruder. Preis, little-known outside Poland, where she's done considerable work in TV and film, is fine as Anna, and conveys much through little in pic's closing scenes. Only other thesp with a role of any sorts is Jerzy Fedorowicz as Leon's oily hospital boss.

Camera (color), Adam Sikora; editor, Cezary Grzesiuk; music, Michal Lorenc; production designer, Marek Zawierucha; costume designer, Joanna Kaczynska; sound (Dolby SRD), Frederic de Ravignan, Philippe Lauliac, Gerard Rousseau. Reviewed at Cannes Film Festival (Directors' Fortnight --opener), May 15, 2008. Running time: 95 MIN.