Polish film is not a regular staple on my selection, which is a great remiss of me and surely will change after this one, from one of the leading maestros of Polish cinema school, it is my first encounter with Kawalerowicz, NIGHT TRAIN ostensibly is a Hitchcock-esque mystery with a beguiling noir sheen for the first glance, yet soon viewers will notice there is no McGuffin employed in the story except a promise that a murderer is at large, Kawalerowicz doesn't sink to atmospheric suspense to keep audience hooked in its narrative, and steers us through an overnight journey on a sleeping train where strangers shelter hidden agenda within a confined space.After the opening bird's-eye view of the flowing stream of passengers, our protagonist Jerzy (Niemczyk) is introduced in a foreshadowing surreptitious fashion among sundry other passengers, sporting shades, suspiciously requiring a first-class berth with two bunks for himself only, it promptly arouses our suspicion there must be something fishy about him. So is a mysterious and beautiful woman, later we know her name is Marta (Winnicka), with whom eventually Jerzy will share the berth, after the initial resistance. Now we have our femme fatale, and a newspaper article about a fleeing murder suspect also duly arrives, so a compelling film noir beckons. However, once various characters are shoehorned into the limited space, their interactions are more interesting for Kawalerowicz, Jerzy is pestered by a young wife (Szmigielówna) who has married to a much older and duller lawyer husband, and obviously is looking for any possibility of adultery, but he shows his courtesy in spite that his interest leans more toward Marta, the latter is also being badgered by Staszek (Cybulski), a young man she jilts as the different classes of their compartments connote the destiny.The theatrical highlight turns up when Jerzy is arrested by police who identify him as the said murder suspect, which apparently justifies our ongoing impression of him, well- groomed but is running away from something shady, it is Kawalerowicz's mastery to infuse these false impressions on us, which effectively anticipates the twist in the middle, when Marta becomes a significant witness to expose the real murderer. The chasing sequences are imbued with symbolistic gravitas where a cemetery is coincidentally at hand. And the passengers' collective endeavour rings stridently of how an individual can inadvertently lose oneself in the impulsion of being an executioner under the spur of self-acclaimed justice, even the receiving end is an alleged but defenceless murderer, Kawalerowicz overtly makes his stand clear.After that dramatic interlude, the film goes on as the train keeps heading to its destination, a coastal area for vacation, Jerzy and Marta finally reveal their real purpose of the journey. When the train stops, they must get off and continue their respect paths, their budding romance is nipped off by Jerzy's farewell gesture, they remain strangers who actually don't know each other's names. The ending, which is seen from the eyes of the female train conductor (Dabrowska), offers an objective view from someone who is way too familiar with the scenario and magically breathe out a poetic empathy. The two leads, Leon Niemczyk dependably conforms to his suave and impenetrable facades whereas Lucyna Winnicka stuns in her photogenic elegance and thanks to the singular flair added by monochrome, she sublimates into a symbol of ethereality we can never achieve in reality. NIGHT TRAIN is such an exceptional film defies our expectation and a phenomenal curio affirmatively raises our awareness of how awesome a Polish classic can be!

There's some of Hitchcock, Tati and Tarkovsky in this expertly directed slow burn of a film. Following the passengers on a train that travels through the Polish night, "Night Train" is a study in people watching. Featuring a cast of a dozen or so, "Night Train" works best when it does very little. Suspense films always benefit from revealing their information in a very drip-drip manner. Some do it better than others. The makers of "Night Train" may be accused of keeping things vague for a little too long. Fair point. I felt like that at some points during its' running time. However, when the final image flickered from the screen, I was left, not with a sense that I had been cheated, but with a sense that I had been witness to a very unique film experience. If anything, "Night Train" is part suspense film and part fake doc as it pays close attention to a number of brief, dramatically quiet, yet enjoyable moments shared between various passengers. Though focused primarily on 2 characters, "Night Train" features a number of background players - who line the corridors of the travelling train - chatting, flirting, philosophizing with each other. These secondary characters are all very memorable and interesting for one reason or another and, in an astonishing scene late in the film, they share a very powerful moment that takes them from euphoria to something approaching mild disgust. In the end, "Night Train" is less concerned with satisfying the requirements of a genre demanding twist after twist and more interested in observing humanity in all its' flawed glory.This film stays with you. I'm glad I watched it.

Sadly, I can't agree with most people who find this film to be Hitchcockesque in its representation of a thriller.To say this would be to say that your Jaguar is just like a Mercedes. They might both be fine cars, but they are in no way alike.The really quite simplistic plot travels at a slow and in many ways, inexplicable pace. There is little tension built up, and, for the most part, little mystery to be found.However, don't take any of this to be a retrograde description.The various small character subplots and interactions are wonderful. The whole journey has a quite haunting feel to it, which I find I am at loss to explain, because if I analyse the film, there is no real reason to this feeling. And yet, there it is.The beautiful and mysterious Lucyna Winnicka is utterly mesmerising.In so many ways this film shouldn't work with anything like the power it achieves, but somehow it does. If it captures you in the way it has me, then it will stay with you long after the event, from the strange individual passengers right down to the oh so ethereal soundtrack.I am without explanation, but I truly hope it gives you the feeling of something wonderful it gave me.

SPOILER ALERT -- SPOILER ALERT -- I realize I'm in an extreme minority, but I found this movie mind-numbingly tedious and boring. I've enjoyed lots of "artistic films" over the years, including Bergman and Fellini, but this was just awful. To equate people sitting and staring at each other with some sort of "art" is just absurd. Almost nothing happens in this movie, the characters are mostly unlikable and annoying, and there's not even an ounce of suspense (similar to Alfred Hitchcock? give me a break!). Maybe I just don't get Polish art films. I certainly didn't get this one. What actually does happen? A guy wearing dark glasses boards a train. A girl is in his compartment and refuses to leave it. He tries to have her kicked out, then suddenly changes his mind and lets her stay, even though he "wanted to be alone." For most of the movie, these two characters sit and stare at each other, or mutter a few words at each other. Someone else on the train has read a newspaper account of a recent murder, so I guess we're supposed to say, "Hey, gee, could one of these people be the murderer?" Why? No reason at all. For a really long time nothing else happens (of any importance). SPOILER ALERT * * * Then, suddenly, late in the movie, the train stops unexpectedly and a bunch of cops board the train, looking for "the murderer." Why? Don't know. They seem to think the murderer is in the compartment where the girl and the guy are. So they find him and take him into custody. But the girl says some other man originally had that compartment. The cops immediately decide to search for the "other man." This other man runs. They chase him. He jumps off of the train and everybody chases him. They catch him. Movie ends, right? Not on your life. Everybody gets back on the train, and again nothing happens. At this point I was tearing out my hair by the roots -- WILL THIS EVER END??? After nothing else happens for a while, the train stops and everyone gets off. The End. I absolutely do not understand how anyone could've watched this movie and been anything but bored out of their minds.