184-185 The Hourglass Sanatorium & The Saragossa Manuscript

[Finch]

A young man, Józef (Jan Nowicki, O-Bi, O-Ba: The End of Civilization), takes a train into the middle of nowhere to visit his dying father, who he understands is residing in a sanatorium. On arrival he discovers a giant building crumbling into ruin, with the patients seemingly left to their own devices, and time itself behaving in strange, non-linear ways. A doctor then informs him that his father is both alive and not-alive, beginning an epic hypnagogic journey through the hospital and his own mind, with each room unlocking its own sinister, hallucinatory world. Adapted to the screen from a book of Bruno Schulz short stories by visionary director Wojciech Has (The Saragossa Manuscript), the film overcame fear and scepticism from the Polish authorities when Has smuggled the film out of the country to premiere it at Cannes, where it would go on to win the Jury Prize. The Hourglass Sanatorium has come to be regarded as one of the greatest Polish films of all time, with its surreal structure and staggering feats of production design proving hugely influential on arthouse and fantasy filmmakers alike.

4K UHD & BLU-RAY LIMITED EDITION SPECIAL FEATURES

New 4K restoration from the original camera negative, presented in Dolby Vision HDR
4K UHD and Blu-ray presentation of the feature; world premiere on 4K UHD
Uncompressed mono PCM audio
New audio commentary by Polish film expert Michael Brooke (2026)
Archival interview with production designer Jerzy Skarzynski by filmmaker Jerzy Wójcik (1997)
Accordion - acclaimed early short film from Wojciech Has (1947)
Newly improved English subtitle translation
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Time Tomorrow
Limited edition booklet featuring new writing by critic Ela Bittencourt
Limited edition of 5000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings

At the height of the Napoleonic wars, a Polish soldier seeks refuge in a deserted house in the Spanish town of Saragossa, and discovers a mysterious manuscript written in a language he doesn’t speak. When enemy Spanish officers arrive to arrest him, one of the soldiers realises that the book appears to tell the story of his grandfather, Alfonse Van Worden (Zbigniew Cybulski, Ashes and Diamonds), and his surreal, mystical adventures in the region several decades before. He starts to translate the text for the Polish soldier, and so begins a time-shifting, genre-hopping, ouroboros-like epic narrative, one that blends the gothic, quixotic and erotic, and in the process interrogates the very nature of storytelling itself. Championed by Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola, The Saragossa Manuscript has grown in status since its initial release from a cult oddity to a film widely regarded as one of greatest ever produced in Poland, and a work that cemented Wojciech Has as one of European cinema’s most visionary and idiosyncratic directors.

4K UHD & BLU-RAY LIMITED EDITION SPECIAL FEATURES

New 4K restoration from the original camera negative, presented in Dolby Vision HDR
4K UHD and Blu-ray presentation of the feature; world premiere on 4K UHD
Uncompressed mono PCM audio
The Saragossa Labyrinth - new visual essay on the cinema of Wojciech Has and The Saragossa Manuscript by Polish film expert Michael Brooke
Saragossa - archival making-of documentary made for Polish television on The Saragossa Manuscript, featuring Wojciech Has, cinematographer Mieczyslaw Jahoda, production designer Jerzy Skarżyński, and assistant director Barbara Sass-Zdort (1998, 29 mins)
Newly improved English subtitle translation
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Time Tomorrow
Limited edition booklet featuring new writing by author David Hering and archival writing by Annette Insdorf
Limited edition of 5000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings

Year: 1965
Country: Poland
Cert: TBC
Format: UHD + Blu-ray
Region: ABC
RAD185UHDLE
EAN: 5060974683673
Release date: 14/09/26

[denti alligator]

Excellent! Very exciting release. Glad this is UHD and lovely to have another commentary by Michael.

[Red Screamer]

I caught this recently and enjoyed it, though the relentless visual opulence tired me out at some point. The friend I saw it with, though, watched it again the next day. A nice restoration and getting schooled by Michael are two good reasons to revisit.

[Peacock]

It would have been so disappointing if this was another BD only release of the film, so kudos for upgrading to 4K!

[TechnicolorAcid]

I'll probably be double dipping this for the UHD quality, as it is very much a film that prides itself on extraordinary visuals, with the Michael Brooke commentary being a stellar addition, but I am a bit disappointed that none of Has' lesser-known films were packaged with Hourglass in a set dedicated to Has. I personally would've loved to see a UK of his exceptional How to Be Loved, which does have a US Blu-ray and a film I personally find to be much more impactful than Hourglass.

[MichaelB]

I gather Fran has already revealed on the Discord server that the original plan was to make this a double-bill release along similar lines to the twofer of The Inquisitor and Deadly Circuit (with the second film being a previously unreleased* Has title) but this fell through contractually at the eleventh hour.

(*previously unreleased in the UK, to forestall pedants; Has’s entire output is available in France on individual DVDs and in Poland in a very expensive Blu-ray box.)

[andyli]

Do you mean the HAS2 clue fell through?

[tenia]

I see it's a "new" restoration, which is a good thing as the previous one really was quite DNRed.

[andyli]

It's not brand new, having been making the rounds in festivals for the past few years, but Radiance's is the first release to feature this transfer. Should look much better than all existing Blu-rays as a result.

[foe]

"The Saragossa Manuscript" 4K = HAS2 That seems to be the most plausible option now.
From the catalogue of his less-well-known films (HAS's filmography - ("TSM" + "HTBL" + "TSM" + "TD" + "TN")) I find "The Codes" (Szyfry) from 1966 and "An Uneventful Story" (Nieciekawa Historia) from 1982 truly spectacular. It would be great if they were released one day.

[tenia]

It's not brand new, having been making the rounds in festivals for the past few years, but Radiance's is the first release to feature this transfer. Should look much better than all existing Blu-rays as a result.

But it is a different restoration than the one that made the rounds around 2013-2015 ? That's the one I was referring to as the previous one.

[andyli]

It's not brand new, having been making the rounds in festivals for the past few years, but Radiance's is the first release to feature this transfer. Should look much better than all existing Blu-rays as a result.

But it is a different restoration than the one that made the rounds around 2013-2015 ? That's the one I was referring to as the previous one.

The 4K restoration is probably not that old. According to Il Cinema Ritrovato's web page,

Restored in 4K in 2023 by Wytwórnia Filmów Dokumentalnych i Fabularnych and Filmoteka Narodowa at Fixafilm laboratory, from the original negatives. Audio restored at Toya Studios laboratory. Funding provided by Polski Instytut Sztuki Filmowej.

[tenia]

Thanks for the findings.
My memory tells me the previous restoration was at least a 4k scan, but maybe I'm mistaken. Anyway, it's a newer one no matter what !

[ssjmichael]

I gather Fran has already revealed on the Discord server that the original plan was to make this a double-bill release along similar lines to the twofer of The Inquisitor and Deadly Circuit (with the second film being a previously unreleased* Has title) but this fell through contractually at the eleventh hour.

(*previously unreleased in the UK, to forestall pedants; Has’s entire output is available in France on individual DVDs and in Poland in a very expensive Blu-ray box.)

Is the second Has film cancelled then?

[Calvin]

I gather Fran has already revealed on the Discord server that the original plan was to make this a double-bill release along similar lines to the twofer of The Inquisitor and Deadly Circuit (with the second film being a previously unreleased* Has title) but this fell through contractually at the eleventh hour.

(*previously unreleased in the UK, to forestall pedants; Has’s entire output is available in France on individual DVDs and in Poland in a very expensive Blu-ray box.)

Is the second Has film cancelled then?

That was certainly the implication

[MichaelB]

I intended no such implication; HAS 1 referred to a single double-bill release that for contractual reasons ended up as a single-bill one.

[Calvin]

I intended no such implication; HAS 1 referred to a single double-bill release that for contractual reasons ended up as a single-bill one.

I was referring to Fran's post on the discord: "I am sorry about Has - we had intended a double bill (hence the teaser clues) but alas the other titles ended up having rights issues for some reason. And this was at the point of contract so really late in the day. But I think the wider slate makes up for it!"

I don't think I'm the only one who has interpreted that as meaning that The Hourglass Sanatorium is the only Has film that made it but I guess time will tell.

[andyli]

Michael is closely involved in these Has releases so his clarification is as good as official reassurance that Saragossa is safe. Who knows, HAS2 could still be a double bill (assuming that rights issue affecting HAS1 is a one-off thing).

[MichaelB]

If anyone's curious about the bona fides of the new restoration, I can now confirm that while the 2011 version was overseen by original cinematographer Witold Sobociński, the 2023 version was posthumously supervised by both his grandsons, Piotr Jr and Michał—who are admirably qualified, as they're distinguished cinematographers in their own right (as was their father, the late Piotr Sr; it's very much the family profession!).

And I don't for one millisecond imagine that they're about to undermine one of their grandfather's proudest achievements, although the colours seem fractionally more vibrant this time round, no doubt a by-product of superior scanning technology. (I can't comment on anything else, as I've only seen an MP4 reduction sent to me for commentary-syncing purposes.)

[swo17]

The Saragossa Manuscript announced for September

[MichaelB]

Stating the obvious, this is not the notorious 2K wax-museum version that’s bedevilled all previous Blu-ray releases. I saw this new 4K version on the big screen last year, and it looked terrific.

[TMDaines]

Nice. Now for some more Has Blu-rays to liberate them from the big, expensive Polish boxset...

[TechnicolorAcid]

Praying this and Hourglass sell out fast because that can hopefully mean that more Has can hopefully be licensed out to Radiance, at the very least I would expect a release of How to Be Loved to be somewhere in the pipeline since it’s the only other Has film to get an HD beyond Poland to my knowledge. Also nice to see a 4K restoration of this get released since I didn’t even know there was one!

[Peacock]

How To Be Loved is on sale right now, but I’ll hold off in case Radiance get to it someday.

Anyway, looking forward to the 4K’s of Saragossa and Hourglass!

[TechnicolorAcid]

How To Be Loved is on sale right now, but I’ll hold off in case Radiance get to it someday.

It ranks as my personal favorite Has, if only because of the tremendous performances that anchor the whole film, especially from Barbara Krafftówna who has one of my personal favorite female performances in any film