Winter Twilight

^director Stanisław Lenartowicz
^screenplay Tadeusz Konwicki
^{director of photography} Mieczysław Jahoda
^music Adam Walaciński
^with Włodzimierz Ziembiński, Maria Kierzkowa, Zygmunt Zintel, Ligia Borowczyk, Bogusz Bilewski, Maria Ciesielska

JAN OLSZEWSKI, STANISŁAW LENARTOWICZ – TOWARDS A DEFINITION OF STYLE [STANISŁAW LENARTOWICZ – PRÓBA DEFINICJI STYLU] ‘KWARTALNIK FILMOWY’, 1963, NO. 6

The author has made a psychological film by renouncing ‘literature in film’ (…) The hero’s experiences are therefore not ‘acted’ or ‘expressed’ or explained by the plot. Rather, they are ‘externalized’ and contained in strictly cinematic material: in significant objects and settings, camera work, visual compositions, and nowhere else (…) Lenartowicz is innovative in that he draws on the models of expressionism but, at the same time, no longer cares about the classic plot structure. The film describes the surrounding world, and so, indirectly, the inner life of a man. What’s more, the description becomes more and more intense; images become more unusual, deformed.

HENRYK TRONOWICZ, SILENCE SPEAKS VOLUMES [WIELOMÓWNOŚĆ MILCZENIA], ‘KINO’, 1985, NO. 3

Quite undeservedly, ‘Winter Twilight’ remains deep in the shadow of the Polish Film School. Lenartowicz draws on the rich reserves of symbols typical of a cult of religious faith, as well as on designata of symbols in a political cult (…) His concept has stood the test of time, and the camerawork of Mieczysław Jahoda, the undeniable co-author of this original and outstanding experiment, deserves a separate study.