Four Nights with Anna

There was a distinctly Eastern European feel to this enjoyable film from Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski, which is reminiscent in its silence, its voyeurism, and its perverse sense of morality, of country man's Krzysztof Kieslowksi's famous Decalogue series.    

The story appears simple, but in fact has a couple of layers.    At its most straightforward, it is about a middle-aged hospital crematorium operator who is fascinated by a young nurse who lives in the residence opposite.  Of course her window is observable from the pathetic crematorium op's rundown house just outside the hospital grounds, so he spends his nights watching her, and ultimately, sneaks into her room four nights in a row (after drugging her).   However, our protagonist is motivated by a pure love of a sort, and while in her room he spends his time sitting quietly beside her, fixing her clock, mopping her floor, etc. and nothing more.

Skolimowski beings to weave in another plot element, of the same nurse being raped in a barn (we are for a long time kept in the dark about the chronology of this event), and as the story unfolds, we realize the crem op witnessed the rape, and is being questioned about his involvement by the bullying local police. 

I'll leave the plot description at that so as not to spoil (though realistically no one will ever see it).   I liked this film a lot, for its languid-though-not-painfully-so pacing and its non-verbal narrative style (there are probably no more than 100 words in the film), for conveying the agony of its protagonist's life, and for its commentary on love.  Recommended.