The Noose

Wojciech Has’ dazzling feature debut, a bleak, mordantly funny, all too human portrait of an alcoholic.

One of the most powerful Polish feature debuts of the 1950s is staged in a baroque symbol-strewn style that Has would quickly make his own. A riveting Gustaw Holoubek plays long-term alcoholic Kuba Kowalski, who has a drying-out clinic appointment in several hours but finds his apartment too oppressive a place to wait in. Surely a trip to a nearby café won’t be a problem for him?