Screens

Kieslowski’s movie is told not so much in customary narrative structures, but in glimpses, hints, and intimations. On the same day in 1968, two women are born, one in Poland, the other in France. Though the two share many characteristics, they live worlds apart. Yet each senses the other and has intuitive knowledge of the other’s presence.

Chopped to ribbons by the American distributor upon its initial release, Wenders’ sprawling Odyssean epic is only now seen in its true form, in a positively Homeric 295 minute version.