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The Hourglass Sanatorium (1973) Sanatorium pod klepsydra

Posted By: MirrorsMaker
1080p (FullHD) / BDRip IMDb
The Hourglass Sanatorium (1973) Sanatorium pod klepsydra

The Hourglass Sanatorium (1973)
BDRip 1080p | MKV | 1920x1040 | x264 @ 8549 Kbps | 124 min | 8,75 Gb
Audio: Polish DTS 5.1 @ 1509 Kbps | Subs: English (embedded in MKV)
Genre: Art-house, Drama, Fantasy

Director: Wojciech Has (as Wojciech J. Has)
Writers: Wojciech Has (as Wojciech J. Has), Bruno Schulz (story "Santorium pod Klepsydra")
Stars: Jan Nowicki, Tadeusz Kondrat, Irena Orska

A visionary reflection on the nature of time and the irreversibility of death. A young man embarks on a journey to see his dying father and succumbs to a procession of hallucinatory encounters on the grounds of a mystical, dilapidated hospice. The film’s screenplay draws from more than 20 stories by Jewish author Bruno Schulz, one of the most renowned Polish prose stylists of the 20th century. The resulting film is a tour de force of atmospherics and otherworldly set design. Reading Schulz’s works through the prism of his death during World War II, Has adds reflections on the Holocaust.


The late Polish director Wojceich Has is better known for his amazing "The Saragosa Manuscript" which has a Chinese box structure of nested stories. However, this film (known to english audiences as "The Sandglass"), tops its predecessor in fantastic imagery. Based on several stories of Bruno Schultz, this film might be the most successful recreation of the inner psyche ever commited to celluloid.

A man journeys by dilapidated train (where most of the passengers look like corpses) to visit his ailing father who is kept in a crumbling ornate sanatorium. He is told by a doctor that time exists differently there and his dying father may recover. The man experiences a flood of dreamlike visions of his past and the small Jewish town he was raised in. The father is seen both ill and as a giddy philosopher in an attic full of birds. At some point we get the creeping sensation that it is the man himself who is dying, not the father as a blind train conductor reappears like a death figure. The increasingly baroque episodes become the rich compost of a graveyard.

The film can also been seen as a requiem for the Eastern European Jewish culture that was wiped out by WW2. It isn't an accident that the protagonist is named Joseph and his father Jacob. Many of the films episodes evoke Jewish symbolism.
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Did I watch this film or did I dream it. This may be your initial response after watching "the Hourglass Sanatorium". Those who are fans of Fellini, Jodorowsky, Peter Greenaway and Andrej Zulawski will feel right at home. Originally the film was based on a novel, and the story deals with a man who takes a train to see his sick father at a sanatorium. The sanatorium feels Gothic and abandoned. Time seems to be non existent there. Since time has slowed down the father goes on living and the son gets lost in the many rooms of the sanatorium. His journey is as comical as it is frightening. Memories and history become reality and the main character walks throughout many strange scenarios from the past and from his childhood. A simple action like crawling under a bed, can transfer him to a different time and place. Among the strange images in the film which are the most breathtaking are, the Jewish Rabbis breaking out into a song number, people who are part human and part wax figures, dead zombie like soldiers, people in strange bird masks, elephants, and odd philosophical discussions. This is one movie that is so complex and confusing that if you miss 1 minute (or even if you don't miss anything) you'll feel lost. After the film was over, I was left scratching my head; it was like I had just woken up from a bizarre dream. This is one of the most breathtakingly surreal film experiences I have ever had. Film is a visual art, so words can't come close to describing "the Hourglass Sanitorium". You have to see it for yourself!
(click to enlarge)
The Hourglass Sanatorium (1973) Sanatorium pod klepsydra
The Hourglass Sanatorium (1973) Sanatorium pod klepsydra
The Hourglass Sanatorium (1973) Sanatorium pod klepsydra
The Hourglass Sanatorium (1973) Sanatorium pod klepsydra
The Hourglass Sanatorium (1973) Sanatorium pod klepsydra

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