When Witek and Czuszka were talking in one seen and he says something like "I want to know all about you". It seems like the discussion is focused on sexual history, but she seems ashamed and when she starts to go over locations, it seems like they must have been talking about something different. Am I clear on what they were discussing?
shareI think he meant sexual history. If you remember, he encourages her to give more details as she goes along, until he suddenly stops her by putting his hand over her mouth.
shareYes, the locations were places she'd had sex with the different guys,
I used to want to change the world. Now I just want to leave the room with a little dignity.
That was such an awkward scene, an almost authority figure vs. interrogated witness character to it. His chin held up high, as though simultaneously daring her to try and lie, whilst expecting nothing but the capitulation of truth—and meanwhile her body language and voice as though turning in friends under duress. It was like that conversation was being used as a mirror over the real underlying situation, that he was a member of the Communist Party, and she of the Underground—and that in a different twist of fate between the two of them, he might indeed have been interrogating her for real. It was a frightening scene, because in that moment I think we can see a bit of that, perhaps "fourth" un-explored reality which was a sub-twist on the first reality fork we see. I've been scouring the film for evidence of other "thin points" in reality like this, where slight variations on the main fork can be seen poking through in the performances and writing.
What an interesting concept that would be: to show larger forks of fate bundled together into the three primary storylines, involving the incident at the station, but then allowing minor perturbations in chance to bleed through, so that we can almost just see the millions of possibilities beyond the curtain of the narrative.
Interesting post about the scene and the possibilities within the film. I agree that in the scene there is the sense of a power imbalance between the lovers that conjures up the political context of Poland.
Also it is possible to see other possible life lines within the story. For example, in the third possibility, what if Witek had signed in support of the dean's son? That would have been another life straying off from the third prong.
Why problem make? When you no problem have, you don't want to make ...share
I also took it (someone correct me if this is quite wrong) that she was having an affair with the Dean. When she was released from prison, and Witek was waiting for her outside, the Dean came out first, crossed the road immediately and looked guilty when addressed. Czuszka appeared shortly after - implying that the Dean was involved in getting her released, which implies... well, knowing Czuszka's promiscuous history...
shareOhhh...good catch!
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