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The Hourglass Sanatorium – Yellow Veil Pictures (Blu-ray)

Theatrical Release Date: Poland, 1973
Director: Wojciech Has
Writers: Wojciech Has, Bruno Schulz
Cast: Jan Nowicki, Tadeusz Kondrat, Irena Orska, Halina Kowalska, Gustaw Holoubek

Release Date: May 30th, 2023
Approximate running time: 124 Minutes 24 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Widescreen / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVC
Rating: NR
Sound: DTS-HD Mono Polish, Dolby Digital Mono Polish
Subtitles: English
Region Coding: Region A
Retail Price: $39.98

"Józef visits his dying father at a remote mental institutions, where time itself doesn’t seem to exist, and the line between dreams and memories become indistinguishable." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 4.25/5

The Hourglass Sanatorium comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 33.8 GB

Feature: 23 GB

Though no information is provided about the source used for this transfer, at the end of the film, there is a 2011 copyright, which suggests that this is the same master used for the UK and Polish Blu-ray releases. That said, the source used is in great shape; colors and flesh tones look correct; image clarity and black levels are solid; and compression is very good.

Audio: 5/5 (DTS-HD Mono Polish), 3.5/5 (Dolby Digital Mono Polish)

This release comes with two audio options, a DTS-HD mono mix in Polish and a Dolby Digital mono mix in Polish. The DTS-HD track is a vastly superior audio track. Range- and clarity-wise, the DTS-HD audio track sounds amazing. Sound plays a large role in The Hourglass Sanatorium, and the DTS-HD audio track does an amazing job with the nuances of this film's soundscape. Included are removable English subtitles.

Extras:

Extras for this release include an Introduction Notes on The Hourglass Sanatorium by Annette Insdorf, Film Professor at Columbia University, and author of books including Intimations: The Cinema of Wojciech Has (6 minutes 52 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), Post Screening Notes on The Hourglass Sanatorium by Annette Insdorf (9 minutes 57 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an interview with film critic Sebastian Smoliński who discusses The Hourglass Sanatorium (20 minutes 3 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), reversible cover art, a spot gloss slipcover (limited to 2,000 copies), and a 24-four page booklet with an essay titled Sanatorium: From Bruno Schultz to Wojciech Has written by Annette Insdorf, and an essay titled The Dreamer is Still Asleep: Living Memory in Wojciech Has’s The Hourglass Sanatorium written by Samm Deighan.

Summary:

Though the screenplay for The Hourglass Sanatorium was primarily adapted from Bruno Schulz’s story collection Sanatorium under the Sign of the Hourglass, it is not a literal adaptation, and the film also adapts stories also written by Bruno Schultz into its narrative. Also, there is a clear foreshadowing of the Holocaust throughout Shultz’s literature, and it is in this regard that this film remains the most faithful to its source.

The narrative revolves around a young man visiting his dying father at a sanatorium where time unfolds in unpredictable ways and just around every corner lie memories that have languished far too long in the past.

To say that The Hourglass Sanatorium’s narrative is challenging would be a gross overstatement. In fact, there are so many layers to The Hourglass Sanatorium that trying to understand them all with one viewer would be a futile affair. Needless to say, this is the type of film that takes several viewings to fully appreciate all it has to offer. As mentioned before, the narrative is far from conventional, and it feels as though a series of random moments have been strung together. When examined by themselves, these individual moments lack the same potency they possess when viewed within the parameters of the story at hand.

Through his journey, the protagonist meets a nurse and doctor who run the dilapidated sanatorium where his father is being taken care of. Other characters he meets include a childhood friend whose stamp book ignites long-forgotten memories and a wax museum filled with realistic mannequins located on land in the wilderness. More characters he meets include voluptuous women with great appetites, rabbis who do a song and dance, and several visits from his recently departed father.

When it comes to the look of The Hourglass Sanatorium's visuals and production design, one would be hard pressed to find any flaws in them. The combination of these two elements ensures that there is never a shortage of atmosphere, and not to be overlooked is Jerzy Maksymiuk’s evocative score. And when it comes to the performances, the entire cast is great in their respective roles, especially Jan Nowicki in the role of Józef, the protagonist. His utterly convincing performance does a remarkable job of conveying a wide range of emotions. Ultimately, The Hourglass Sanatorium is an extraordinary piece of filmmaking that connects with you on an emotional level and lingers in your mind long after its final haunting image.

Yellow Veil Pictures gives The Hourglass Sanatorium its best home video release to date, highly recommended.