The Third Part of the Night

The Third Part of the Night
Original Polish release poster
Directed by Andrzej Żuławski
Written by Andrzej Żuławski
Mirosław Żuławski
Starring Małgorzata Braunek
Leszek Teleszyński
Jan Nowicki
Music by Andrzej Korzyński
Cinematography Witold Sobociński
Edited by Halina Prugar-Ketling
Production
company
Polski State Film
Release date

  • 4 January 1971 (1971-01-04) (Poland)
Running time
 105 minutes
Country Poland
Language Polish

The Third Part of the Night (Polish: Trzecia część nocy) is a 1971 Polish avant-garde horror film directed by Andrzej Żuławski.

Plot

The film is set during the occupation of Poland during World War II. German soldiers slaughter Michal's wife, son and mother. Michal and his father avoid death by remaining in the forest. Michal decides to join the resistance but before his first meeting, the Gestapo kill his go-between and chase him. During his escape he gets into an apartment of a pregnant woman and helps her with the childbirth. The woman appears to be a doppelganger of his murdered wife. Michal gets a job in the typhus center, where he is guinea pig for lice after being immunized to make more vaccine. He goes to the hospital to end a misery of a man mistaken by him and tortured where he seems to see his own body and is finally reconciled with himself.

Cast

Release

Home media

The film was released for the first time on DVD by Second Run on March 19, 2007.[1]

Reception

Ben Sachs from Chicago Reader awarded the film 4/4 stars. In his review on the film, Sachs wrote, "A sustained nightmare about societal and personal breakdown, it presents one man's descent into madness during the Nazi occupation of Poland, though the story is hard to follow (perhaps by design). Żuławski divulges important information about the characters in short, unexpected bursts, and the plot moves sinuously between the hero's present, past, and dream life. Moreover, the camera is almost always moving hurriedly around the characters, as though the director were having trouble keeping up with his own subjects. These devices can make a viewer feel lost, much as the hero feels in his own experience."[2]

References

  1. ↑ "Trzecia Czesc Nocy (1971) - Andrzej Zulawski". Allmovie.com. AllMovie. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
  2. ↑ Sachs, Ben. "A young Pole battles Nazis and madness in The Third Part of the Night". Chicago Reader.com. Ben Sachs. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
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