Hipoteza
Wojciech Kilar
" The music Wojciech Kilar composed is a union of abstract ideas and variations on different musical themes "Written by Joep de Bruijn - Review of the music as heard in the movie
The 28-minute short TV film essay Hipoteza (Hypothesis, 1973) is an antithetic work by Krystof Zanussi. It is set at the beginning of the twentieth century and is not as captivating as numerous other films because of its dissatisfied quality in terms of rhetorical and philosophical content. However, there is still a character, a young professor working on a scientific breakthrough, in doubt, and through an accidental encounter with a woman trying to commit suicide, changes things through alternate reflections based on what the professor does. With this concept and more musings by the professor, linked to the alternate outcomes of coping with the woman trying to commit suicide, further aided by a voice-over and time-lapse, it reflects on childhood, on the war and on other subjects as it progresses.
The music Wojciech Kilar composed is a union of abstract ideas and variations on different musical themes, and through varied use - direct, reflective, illustrative, providing structure - in a film with parallel views, essayist sidenotes and symbolic observations, it becomes essential.
There are two different marches for two out of the three outcomes concerning the choice the professor makes as he witnesses the woman trying to commit suicide; a triumphal march as he saves her and a funeral march for the option in which he fails to save her and dies. The third outcome is underscored by a theme with staccato strings, harpsichord, piano and celesta, which is used for a different purposes; to directly address the dangers, but also the doubts and reflections of the professor. It is one of the best themes Kilar wrote in relation to conflicted feelings, and it is for this same reason Zanussi appropriately redesignated it to all episodes of the television series Opowieści weekendowe. Feelings of supplementary, subdued sorrow are communicated through a small set of minimal melancholic strings, appearing in a few short cues.
A single 2:20-minute cue - a mixture of the staccato theme for strings, celesta, piano, harpsichord and the triumphal march – was released on a CD compilation called Muzyka Filmowa 1. It is far from perfect in representing all ideas of an already short and evocative score.
(24-08-2025)
The music Wojciech Kilar composed is a union of abstract ideas and variations on different musical themes, and through varied use - direct, reflective, illustrative, providing structure - in a film with parallel views, essayist sidenotes and symbolic observations, it becomes essential.
There are two different marches for two out of the three outcomes concerning the choice the professor makes as he witnesses the woman trying to commit suicide; a triumphal march as he saves her and a funeral march for the option in which he fails to save her and dies. The third outcome is underscored by a theme with staccato strings, harpsichord, piano and celesta, which is used for a different purposes; to directly address the dangers, but also the doubts and reflections of the professor. It is one of the best themes Kilar wrote in relation to conflicted feelings, and it is for this same reason Zanussi appropriately redesignated it to all episodes of the television series Opowieści weekendowe. Feelings of supplementary, subdued sorrow are communicated through a small set of minimal melancholic strings, appearing in a few short cues.
A single 2:20-minute cue - a mixture of the staccato theme for strings, celesta, piano, harpsichord and the triumphal march – was released on a CD compilation called Muzyka Filmowa 1. It is far from perfect in representing all ideas of an already short and evocative score.
(24-08-2025)