Film on the border between Zanussi and Keslevsky “Quarterly Report” (or “Quarterly Balance”, to translate the name more accurately) is a rare film by Krzysztof Zanussi, which is almost impossible to find online. However, some time ago, one of the Ukrainian TV channels aired its version dubbed back in the USSR, not very good quality in the picture and, moreover, apparently, also cut down by 15 minutes. However, for a true sinophile and especially a fan of Zanussi - this is not an obstacle, especially since the film itself turned out to be very successful. First of all, the redundancy of musical accompaniment, the piercing motif of Wojcek Kielar makes the eye and the ear heard instantly recall the creative manner of the great compatriot Zanussi Krzysztof Keslevsky.
The film has several artistic motifs in common with the director of the Decalogue, and music is only one of them. The second and main motive, common to both Zanussi and Keslevsky, is the serious moral dilemmas that arise in life before the characters, coupled with the frequent inability to decide them according to conscience. The heroine of the “Quarterly Report” is looking for freedom on the side, outside the family, she is burdened by the moral relativism of the era of late “stagnation”, its duplicity and doublethink, which became fashionable among residents of the socialist camp. However, she is conscientious enough not to fall into outright betrayal of her husband and not get entangled in a conflict of obligations and freedom.
Maya Komarovska, the true muse of Zanussi, who he shot in almost all his films, is more poignant here than ever: the very “moral anxiety” about which was written in relation to Polish cinema of the 1970s, in her acting style is reflected as clearly as possible. This, of course, is Christina Yanda's not-yet-desperate heroine in All That's Mine (one of Zanussi's best films), but is close to mother and wife. Zanussi unrigoristically, subtly, unobtrusively shows that there must be some super goal in a person’s life to save him from the swamp of sucking philistines, and this is not the road to communism, discredited by millions of victims.
There is not a word about God in the Quarterly Report, but through the display of the heroine’s throwing, it becomes obvious how she needs Him, how she needs a purpose, a meaning of life. This film of Zanussi well proves how relevant the Polish cinema of “moral anxiety” is now in an idealess, desperate Russia, Russia of arbitrary power, the notorious “stability”, and in fact a new “stagnation”. In some ways, the transition from the more colloquial Zanussi to the more symbolic Kieslevsky painting “The Quarterly Report” well indicates the framework of the creative manners of both masters. Let the sketchiness, the incompleteness of the tape (perhaps due to the invasion of Soviet censorship scissors, who knows) “Quarterly Report” now looks more vivid and organic than one hundred percent verified melodramas of our time.
Something this tape reminded me of the most brilliant film of Dinara Asanova “The wife left”, where the theme of adultery also tested the moral boundaries of the era of “stagnation”. There are almost no camera delights of Slavomir Idzyak, who also worked with Keslevsky, the picture is quite realistic, however, the film is built on the visual opposition of the limited space in Martha’s life at home and on the work of airiness and freedom from the subject environment in scenes with the “lover”. For this reason, the film turned out to be very difficult, dualistic, ambivalent, and certainly not rigoristic (this movie Zanussi never suffered).
Summing up this short review, I will write the following: “The Quarterly Report” is clearly not a passing picture in Zanussi’s filmography, at least more aesthetically finished than the same “Contract”. Although, of course, it is difficult to judge it, given that the Soviet rolling version lacks 15 minutes, but still the weight of artistic statements on moral topics, the description of the moral instability of the inner world of a person during the period of “stagnation” are palpable here. Needless to say, in those years Zanussi did not remove the hacks, the times of the Black Sun, Persons non grata and Ether have not yet come...