A famous Polish journalist presents a problem for the powers-that-be when he displays his full political skill and knowledge on a television show featuring questions and answers on a world conference by a panel of journalists. His enemies take away his privileges when he is away. The shock of being "unwanted" parallels a deeper disappointment in his private life: his wife has an affair with a jealous young rival, and after 15 years of marriage and two daughters wants a divorce. She offers no explanations as he tries to untie these problems himself. All the moves he makes are the wrong ones. He takes on drinking heavily with students eager to attend his seminar after discovering the class has been canceled. The journalist, once suave and commanding, is reduced to silence.
Direction
Wajda's structural games with flashback and unreliable memory.
Acting
Zapasiewicz's controlled implosion from smug to hollow.
Writing
The script refuses to let you trust anyone's version.
Director
Andrzej Wajda
Zbigniew Zapasiewicz
Jerzy Michałowski
Ewa Dałkowska
Ewa Michałowska
Andrzej Seweryn
Jacek Rościszewski
Krystyna Janda
Agata
Roman Wilhelmi
Broński
Emilia Krakowska
Wanda Jakowicz
Kazimierz Kaczor
Editor-in-chief
Magda Teresa Wójcik
Joanna Cichoń
Jerzy Stuhr
Jerzy Porębowicz
Stefania Iwińska
Józefa
Halina Golanko
Halina Łukasik
Danuta Balicka
Judge
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Made during Poland's 'cinema of moral anxiety'—Wajda weaponized the ambiguity that state censors couldn't pin down.
The English title mistranslates 'Bez znieczulenia'—it literally means 'without anesthesia,' suggesting surgery on a conscious patient. That's the whole film.
PL
