Lampa

Polanski has pretty much disowned this short, which is strange as it's not at all bad, although perhaps this was one of his Lodz works which was most heavily prescribed and censored by the film school. It is certainly one of the only Polish pictures of his that does not appear to covertly criticise the regime.

Polanski's cinematic technique was really coming along here. This is one of the most claustrophobic and haunting of his early works. His camera prowls around the set in the same way it would years later to great effect in The Tenant. He also creates a wonderful sound collage out of the opening music and the noise of the doll maker working.

This is a typical student piece, with a single, memorable idea that can fill a short but wouldn't work in a full-length film. It's also arguably the most like his later work of all his shorts. In particular, it reminds me of Rosemary's Baby and The Tenant in that there is a kind of ambiguity as to whether we are really witnessing supernatural events, or if this is just something explainable that appears sinister.

Lampa is a nice little short, and one many young directors would be proud of. It's perhaps not very subtle, or maybe the subject matter could be considered silly, but it seems strange to me that Polanski would write this one off altogether.