Paweł Łozińki in his “The Balcony Movie” lets us ride the portal of his camera lens into life not simply in Warzaw, Poland where it was filmed but life itself. He spent over two and a half years filming passersby’s beneath his balcony asking them the meaning of life and how they cope with life. He takes the time to ask what we want to ask of people but simply don’t have the time. You might think of him as an investigative journalist into “real life”.
Over 65 days of shooting some 2,000 people were talked to in a friendly and understanding tone by Łozińki with the filmmaker making no judgements abdicating that responsibility to the viewers. There is no sense in offering you a complete inventory of the subjects nor cataloguing their life reflections as that would ruin the fun. There is some flippancy amongst the subjects but there is pain, suffering, regret, joy, fear, pride, homophobia, nationalism, love, gossip, philosophical discussions, religion and what makes his subjects fulfilled just to give you a taste of what to expect. Subjects range from criminals, priests, pensioners and even toddlers.
Łozińki is easy with the camera refraining from polemics and judgement but no doubt you’ll form your own opinion. With some of the subjects he forms an ongoing relationship. Even amongst the regrets and bitterness there almost always is hope. Was it Jean-Paul Sartre that wrote “The Human Condition”? Well Łozińki has filmed the human condition in a neat package for us and since there must have been massive film editing here he has given us his view of what counts through that editing and he has created a masterpiece that many of us could have made had we the time! You might want to say in 95 minutes he just may have covered countless philosophical tracts on the meaning of life. It is a secular confession of life.
The film can be screened on MUBI as of November 30, 2022.
RKS Film Rating 90/100.
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