Poulencs The Human Voice Bartóks Bluebeards Castle (2018)

Running through Bartóks disenchanted tale whose haunting music was initially condemned as unplayable and the expression of despair in Poulencs monologue the director Krzysztof Warlikowski perceives a shared dramatic thread a shared feminine consciousness and a shared sense of imprisonment and suffocation for the woman who penetrates the confines of Bluebeards castle and Elle the woman who clings to a telephone conversation with a man as the only thing worth living for are condemned to share the same fate And this man she speaks to does he really exist Unless the director has interpreted Cocteaus words to the letter and the telephone has become a terrifying weapon that leaves no trace makes no noise