Film
What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases
Bookmark this pageA Woman on Her Own (1981)
Director: Agnieszka Holland
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
One of the 'missing ten' films which ran into censorship trouble in Poland, not so much a cry from the heart as a hectoring scream of miserabilism. Agnieszka Holland traces the life, and love affair with an epileptic, club-footed no-hoper, of a prematurely-aged postwoman struggling to bring up her son. She lives in a rented cesspit of a one-bed flat by the railway tracks (the recurrent metaphorical image is of trains passing her by), sans TV set but replete with banging pans, totally unsympathetic landlord, and a chip the size of the Polish national debt. She faints from overwork in scene three, is made homeless in scene 17, then things start getting really bad. The three lead actors show considerable ability, but collapse, like the audience, under the farcical catalogue of woe they are required to endure.Author: WH
Cast & crew
Director: Agnieszka Holland
Cast: Maria Chwalibóg, Slawa Kwashiewska, Boguslaw Linda, Jerzy Trela, Pawel Witczak, Magda Teresa Wojcik, Krzysztof Zaleski full cast
Duration: 110 mins
Most popular on this site
Top Stories
Has David Cronenberg turned tame?
Has director David Cronenberg veered too far from his radical and bloody roots with new film 'A Dangerous Method'?
Pop-up cinema for Valentine's Day
Side-step romantic clichés with some alternative Valentine’s viewing
The 10 worst date movies
Just in time for Valentine's Day, we present ten of the least romantic films ever made
Where to watch this year's Oscar-nominated films
Find out where to watch 2012's Oscar-nominated films in London cinemas
10 unlikely badboy biopics
Featuring Phil Collins, Jeremy Clarkson, Nick Clegg, David Starkey and a host of other unlikely subjects
What do you think?
Post your review now