703 Ratings

Blind Chance

Przypadek

Poland, 1987

Drama

Synopsis

First suppressed, then censored by the Polish government, Blind Chance was Krzysztof Kieślowski’s first work of metaphysical genius. A compelling drama about the difficulty of reconciling political ideals with personal happiness, Kieślowski suggests chance rules our lives as much as choice does.

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Blind Chance Directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski

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Awards & Festivals

Cannes Film Festival

1987

Locarno International Film Festival

1987

Toronto International Film Festival

1989

International Film Festival Rotterdam

1996

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Cast & Crew

Critics reviews

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A crucial work in Krzysztof Kieslowski’s filmography, expanding on the political themes of his 1970s films with the metaphysical themes that would define his films from DEKALOG to the Three Colors trilogy. It’s also the most entertaining Polish film of its era, exhibiting a mix of showmanship and formal mastery that recalls the best of Hitchcock. Kieslowski is having great fun here, playing with time and space, and the film invites us to have fun with him.

Ben Sachs

September 22, 2017

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The biggest headlines in the early days of this festival trailed Blind Chance, suppressed by Polish authorities for six years after filming. Its three-part story, about a medical student who becomes a Communist apparatchik, an underground resistor, and an apolitical equivocator in three versions of the same life-trajectory, is handsomely shot and politically trenchant. This kaleidoscopic triple allegory set the stage for more restless and grand national allegories to follow during the fortnight.

Nick Davis

May 17, 2017

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If the schematic nature of Kieslowski’s beautiful but stone-heavy symbology can put you off – just look at those jugglers – then attend to the sense of melancholy grandeur, suggesting a spiritualism that’s never articulated and an auroral feeling about the arc of life that’s nearly Blakean.

Michael Atkinson

November 27, 2015

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What are people saying?

Ghostman's rating of the film Blind Chance
Ghostman

A brilliant masterpiece by one of the greatest filmmakers ever. A bold anti-authoritarian political statement and exploration of one's life and fate, Blind Chance is a most beautiful & human film. It's a disgrace that it was censored and suppressed. And it's a crying shame Kieslowski didn't get to live longer to make more films.
January 24, 2019 18:54
- 2
- 0
Jason's rating of the film Blind Chance
Jason

Put off for many years. The decisive-moment fractals thing is always a turn off, by virtue of its philosophical risibility. I loathe few films more than Run Lola Run and Sliding Doors. These films entirely misunderstand real-world contingency. Could be a problem here, if you subject the film to a reading it doesn't require. It is best when it shows us how flexible man is in relation to his inflexible systems.
January 05, 2016 21:01
- 1
- 4
J. O.'s rating of the film Blind Chance
J. O.

A great film dealing with the ambivalence of one's future. Fantastic cinematography, and a pioneered sense of non-linear storytelling that has undoubtedly been adopted by many films.
January 24, 2019 16:35
- 5
- 0
josé neves's rating of the film Blind Chance
josé neves

DCP. 3 hypotheses which are so many small fiction variations by a demiurgical authoritarianism of a filmmaker who would later assume a formal sophistication before lifeless existential parables. However, this performative schematism is still supported by a realistic option, without whimsy grandeur, especially in the 1st part, more fragmented in its structured editing and, therefore, more soulful.
July 11, 2018 15:42
- 0
- 1
Mtume Gant's rating of the film Blind Chance
Mtume Gant

Kieslowski's first masterpiece. So much to process with this picture. Its truth is haunting. The master of tone in this one also squeezes your heart as he reminds us in every choice we make, even the one to abstain we will have to face the consequences.
January 24, 2019 18:13
- 2
- 0
Alexander Dunkelberger's rating of the film Blind Chance
Alexander Dunkelberger

How much of life depends on chance, and how much is our own doing, is the essential question at the heart of this film. Three different possible outcomes all dependent on a train. Sadly all them lead to pain and suffering, in some form or another, so maybe it isn’t all chance, and some of us are fated to disaster and death. It contradicts its own answers as much as it asks its questions.
November 29, 2015 22:33
- 1
- 0
Burcu's rating of the film Blind Chance
Burcu

The film presents three separate storylines, told in succession, about a man running after a train and how such an ordinary incident could influence the rest of the man's life.
January 24, 2019 17:26
- 3
- 0
Cinema Omnivore's rating of the film Blind Chance
Cinema Omnivore

6.9/10, my review - https://wp.me/p1eXom-3yF “BLIND CHANCE has earned its name more for its political compliance and narrative gimmick than for its own worth."
July 31, 2018 16:43
- 0
- 0