Blind Chance

Original title: Przypadek

1987
15
1h 54m

IMDb RATING

7.7/10

12K

YOUR RATING

Witek runs after a train. Three variations follow on how such a seemingly banal incident could influence the rest of Witek's life.

Play trailer1:21

1 Video

52 Photos

Drama Romance

Witek runs after a train. Three variations follow on how such a seemingly banal incident could influence the rest of Witek's life.Witek runs after a train. Three variations follow on how such a seemingly banal incident could influence the rest of Witek's life.Witek runs after a train. Three variations follow on how such a seemingly banal incident could influence the rest of Witek's life.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.7/10

12K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 2 wins

Videos1

Trailer 1:21

Official Trailer

Photos52

+ 47

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
Although the movie was made in 1981, it had its premiere in 1987. The delay was because of state-imposed censorship due to the film's political content.

Quotes
1. Werner: I intend to give you my current thoughts on an idea I've been committed to for 40 years. Every generation yearns for light. It needs reassurance and faith that the world can be better and a fairer place. This yearning which is older than Marx and younger than Marx, is like a drug. Early in life it brings joy, because the light seems so near and within reach. At life's end it brings bitterness, because the light has grown once again. In these 40 years I've lived through many things and the light seems further away than ever before, and thus I shouldn't encourage you, but you can be sure of one thing: without bitterness and this hope, life would be pitiful indeed.

Alternate versions
The film was scheduled for release in 1981, but was suppressed by the Polish government due to its criticism of Communist regime. The film was eventually released in 1987 with some of the politically sensitive material cut (these cuts totalling roughly 9 minutes). The film has since been released in a uncut form, however one of the scenes involving Witek being beaten by the train guard remains lost.

Connections
Featured in Arena: The Ten Commandments of Krzysztof Kieslowski (1990)

User reviews42

Review

Featured review

9/10

A meditation on chance and fate

Blind Chance (Przypadek, 1981) is the first of Kieslowski's films to trade upon explicitly religious themes and seems to mark the beginning of the great director's turn toward introspection and the spiritual realm that so characterizes his later work (especially Decalogue and the Three Colors trilogy). The Polish title could be literally translated "coincidence," an appropriate if possibly ironic title for a three-part film about a young man whose life course appears to be solely determined by his ability or inability to catch a train. Kieslowski has his doubts about such coincidences, for he described the film as "a description of the powers which meddle with our fate, which push us one way or another" (Kieslowski on Kieslowski, ed. Danusia Stok 113). Incidentally, this film inspired Peter Howitt's film Sliding Doors (1998) and Tom Tykwer's Run Lola Run (1998), but to my mind, Kieslowski's is a superior film. The original tends to be the best, and he is a true original.