[My] present opinion of Wajda grows, but does not differ, from what I thought 18 years ago. Wajda has now, quite evidently, the confidence that comes from extensive experience (he also directs in the theater) and from praise. To me, he is still honorably ambitious, still concerned with art that flourishes out of social tensions; also, he is still maladroit in method and selection, imitative, "unrecognizable" except in his excesses and faults….

Without Anesthesia (1978) is a metaphoric, perhaps binary, film…. Politically Without Anesthesia doesn't say much more than that one can be in favor or disfavor, arbitrarily: the politics of the protagonist, a journalist-teacher, is not clear. But then neither is the marital split. The wife suddenly departs for a younger man without even leaving her address, and she takes their child with her. Why does she behave in this abrupt and cruel way, to a husband who clearly...