When a depressed person tries to fight a strong alcohol addiction he comes across numerous temptations. The biggest one seems to be the allurement to reminisce. He’s being haunted by the past and though hurtful memories about actions under the influence should discourage from reaching for a bottle, he finds them so overwhelming that only vodka is able to allay them. Wojciech Has, the author of the masterpiece The Saragossa Manuscript, gave us striking testimony of an alcoholic fighting the whole world that is pinning him down.
Wojciech Has was a director who exquisitely adapted literary works into a movie medium. Before he managed to interpret heavy volumes written by Jan Potocki and Bruno Schulz and translate them into The Saragossa Manuscript (1964) and The Hourglass Sanatorium (1973) Has started with short narrative story written by famous Marek Hłasko. Both Has and Hłasko worked on the screenplay about one day of a heavy drinker who decides to change his life completely and kick the habit.
We get to know thirtysomething Kuba Kowalski (amazing Gustaw Holoubek) in the autumn morning, right after he makes a decision. Krystyna (Aleksandra Śląska), very much in love with Kuba, offers him a helping hand and promises to take him to the medic and transact some special pills. From now on the protagonist is going to struggle with loneliness (Krystyna won’t pick him up until 6 pm) clinging on to the thought that in the evening his saviour will show up and lead him to the salvation. Kuba can’t deal with his rotten feelings and continuous telephone calls therefore he goes out.
He loses himself, his subjectivity in the city – he’s trying to be anonymous, just like everyone else, because he’s tired of being known as “that drunkard”. We follow him and sightsee dreary town perfectly shot by prominent Polish cinematographer – Mieczysław Jahoda. What’s interesting, in The Noose we barely hear names of cities or places, and so it’s not said where the action takes place nor from where Kuba moved to that town (but the movie was shot in Wrocław and Kłodzko, just so you know). It might indicate protagonist’s lack of interest in what and where is happening or the condition of the boozer in which he’s no idea where he is. Moreover, at the bar Kuba says to his fellow drinker (Tadeusz Fijewski) it’s even irrelevant what they names are since everyone knows who they are – drunkards.
The movie has a special ambience – melancholic and poetic – created by rather slow action, lachrymose music (mostly diegetic) and most of all miserable characters that hold long talks shot in close ups and half-close ups. The actors look into the distance, somewhere beyond the camera and thanks to close shots we observe their conscientious acting, sweat and tears washing over their suffering faces. They speak beautifully and sadly about absurdity of human existence and immanence of memories. Especially moving is one of the bar scenes in which Kuba presents his life as a bad dream, wonders about its invidious character and ask the harmonist (Zygmunt Zintel) what to do to forget all the hurtful things. The paradox is the man’s advice and his conviction that vodka is the best remedy and that everything elapses after drinking. “There is no worse dream than life and it elapses too” – he says.
The Noose portraits a tragedy of a man who’s willing the best for himself and his girlfriend, who hopes for a big change and total turn in life. Unfortunately, his addiction makes him see alcohol and death all around, so that his strength is being largely surpassed. Constant dilemmas put him in a vicious circle where the alcohol abuse is the problem and the remedy.
Polish Cinema Review 