
It's 1982: Poland is under martial law, and Solidarity is banned. Ulla, a translator working on Orwell, suddenly loses her husband, Antek, an attorney. She is possessed by her grief, and Antek continues to appear to her. She seeks to free herself in her work, in her relationship with her son, in sex, and in hypnosis. In a subplot, Ulla refers the wife of one of her husband's clients - Darek, a jailed Solidarity strike organizer - to Labrador, a world-weary, aging attorney, wh... (Full plot summary below)
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It's 1982: Poland is under martial law, and Solidarity is banned. Ulla, a translator working on Orwell, suddenly loses her husband, Antek, an attorney. She is possessed by her grief, and Antek continues to appear to her. She seeks to free herself in her work, in her relationship with her son, in sex, and in hypnosis. In a subplot, Ulla refers the wife of one of her husband's clients - Darek, a jailed Solidarity strike organizer - to Labrador, a world-weary, aging attorney, who works to free Darek by various political manipulations and psychological ploys.
Leave your thoughts about No End.
| Reno Gazette-JournalMark RobisonA brilliant opening scene, but the political message is weak. |
| CinePassionFernando F. CroceThe aching of a moral crisis permeates every pore, from courtroom to bedroom |
| Chicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumThis 1984 feature by the remarkable Krzysztof Kieslowski has been described as his most explicitly political. |
| Ozus' World Movie ReviewsDennis SchwartzThe film was powerful enough in its political jibes to have made the state and the church and the opposition party condemn it. |
| Not Coming to a Theater Near YouRumsey TaylorA dated although nonetheless remarkable work of propaganda. |
| User ReviewEric HMesmerising, if only for the performance by Grazyna Szapolowska as the widow who moves through the film and ignites every scene. Beautiful and tragic at once she emanates power over the audience and one cannot turn away. I had not realised how much this film must have influenced some established mainstream films that we assume to be original. Obviously many of them owe a great debt to this story. Told unflinchingly by Kieslowski in a unshowy manner it still demonstrates moments of brilliant insights into the human condition. The pain and torture we must endure after such heartache runs through the the heart of this film. I particularly liked the little moments as always, such as the glass slipping through her fingers, the dog trying to get in the car, the dirt on her hands from the bumper whilst witnessing the accident, the hypnotherapy session where she sees him. All simple and yet so elegant. No hammering it through to the audience with big signposting saying 'Remember this for later!'. Why don't more films treat the audience with a tiny bit more intelligence or is the majority of film going to assume we are all thick. And just because a film is mainstream doesn't mean it has to be low brow. |
| User ReviewBudge BThe candlelit graveyard flows into the panorama of city lights, the dead now mere pinpricks of light in the passing of time. We observe the mundane artefacts of family life, the routines which still go on though this family's lifestyle has been fractured by the death, a few days ago, of the husband. His ghost watches on, unable to leave, unable to believe in the pain of separation. Wife and son struggle to cope, to establish their own routines, their own method of coping. They can believe in the pain, they just have to find ways to suppress it. Routines. Keep busy. She has to tidy up her husband's affairs - he was a lawyer, one who had been involved in political cases. This is a Poland about to break out of the stranglehold of Soviet domination, a Poland beginning to assert its own independence and affirm its own political dissonance. Law is political; politics is embodied in law. The wife has to make decisions about a case her husband had been handling. Can she become involved? Should she trust this political case to an old colleague? And her life goes on, troubled now by the arrival of an old suitor. She is still a very desirable woman, an intelligent woman, an educated woman, a woman with a future, not least in her son. And yet the past haunts and claws at her. She realises how much she loved her husband, how much it hurts to lose him. And this is a Poland with a future, a Poland which might only find consummation of the future in rediscovering the values of its past and throwing off the cloak of bereavement and widows weeds in which it is shrouded. And this is a legal system which has values, which can argue and assess, not simply process. A beautifully worked piece, emotional, forthright, intense. Kieslowski's world, here, has none of the glamour of the 'Three Colours'. This is a plain, bland world, where decisions have to be made, and where the oppression of the little decisions can be as significant as the political and legal denial of the right to make decisions or follow conscience. This is an absorbing narrative into which you are drawn and with which you can sympathise - a film you can watch again and again and absorb different nuances. The DVD is excellent, with highly informative interviews and the bonus of a Kieslowski documentary. Excellent value. |
| User ReviewGolia KA prelude to Blue and A Requiem for a beautiful death |
| User ReviewPrivate UWzruszyÅ?em siÄ? oglÄ?dajÄ?c tÄ? gorzkÄ? historiÄ?. |
| User Reviewchase _this is maybe the 15th Kieslowski film i've seen in 3 months, and was the one i went into knowing the least about- and in a way it is a personal favorite. almost all of the other films i've seen were better films, better stories, but there's something about the sadness, pace and performances in this one that i'm real into. |