Osa Archivum Catalog

Views of a Retired Night Porter

Summary: Kieslowski's porter retired. Andreas Horvath went to see what happened to the man whose favorite pastime was checking up on others. In Krzysztof Kieslowski's poignant 1977 documentary short, Night Porter’s Point of View, the protagonist, a typical exponent of the communist system, reveals his sometimes hilarious, sometimes shocking attitudes. Driven by paranoia, misanthropy and a profound distrust in the human race, the night porter's favourite pastime is keeping an eye on others, even when he is off duty. These were the people, once feared in Communist Poland, on whom the regime depended. In 2005 Austrian filmmaker Andreas Horvath finds the now retired night porter alive and relatively well in a Warsaw suburb. He lives on the minimum pension in a characterless one-room apartment, the most memorable feature of which is a glaring poster depicting a Hawaiian idyll. His views have not changed much in 30 years – but Poland has, and so, without the support of a corrupt regime, the former night porter's tirades seem strangely out of place. This film is the swan song of a long gone era and one of its unswerving representatives.

Item Type	Current Location	Call Number	Status	Shelving Location	Public Note
DVD-ROM	OSA Film Library	FL Record 1529	Available	-	-
Digital film	OSA Film Library	FL Record 1529 (HU_OSA_00003162.mp4)	Available		Access Copy, MP4 format