In the film by Krzysztof Zanussi, two fundamentally different lifestyles collide.
One is embodied by the host, Yan, who receives a guest, his fellow student Marek.
Yan's hero runs a meteorological station in a small village, lives far from the comfort of city apartments, very close to nature and art. His days are filled with reading, listening to music, family worries about his wife and father. He collects water from the well, goes to the bathhouse, invents some new device. He follows his soul. Later we find out that the hero almost died and, having survived the trauma, is glad to live a calm and measured life in unity with nature, family, his hobbies, scientific research and simple communication with the inhabitants of the village.
Marek is a guest in the rural world. He is a successful scientist, receives prestigious positions, enjoys foreign business trips. His world is filled with material benefits: a car, an apartment, money. He is a city dweller, accustomed to the hustle and bustle and comfort.
Their realities collide, so that each eventually stays with his own. The director himself claimed that this is one of his most sincere films, and both characters are jealous of each other.
Of course, Zanussi reconciles them at the end of the film, showing that both cannot remain the same after their interaction: the city dweller is blinded by nature with energetic sunlight, and the villager sets up a scientific experiment, seeing what his friend showed him. It is customary to seek balance in everything, and Zanussi is looking for it in the finale of the picture.
Is there this balance?
Each of the heroes has its own story, its own life scenario.
It is worth looking at both from the standpoint of purity of intent. Receiving his guest, Yan innocently invites him to share his world. He warns from the doorway: don't expect comfort, but immerses him in a hunt, a bath, clean air, silence in which music sounds more beautiful, unhurried evenings and days. The attributes of wealth and social success brought by a friend: imported shaving foam, equipment, things - arouse his curiosity.
The guest enjoys the way of life offered to him, and then confesses: well, you can't do it all the time. Like, Yan is such a talented scientist, how can he vegetate in the wilderness?
Behind the straightforwardness and frankness worthy of being called a friend, another layer appears.
The guest came for two reasons.
Firstly, he wanted to get a free consultaion from his talented friend: his formula wouldn’t work. Secondly, he was instructed to "drag out" a comrade from the village by a senior colleague, who had already despaired of luring him to scientific work with the promise of a good life.
- You know that he is ready to issue you a warrant for an apartment in Warsaw right away?
- Yes, yes, he wrote something about it a long time ago
This is their exemplary dialogue.
To the guest's frankness that he is sorry to see how he buries his talent in the village, living as a pensioner, the host responds with the same frankness. Having examined his scientific achievement, which glorified him and gave a start to a sweet life, Yan found out that another group of scientists had made a discovery earlier, and Marek knew about it and just used their best practices, while not helping them.
The true essence of Marek is revealed. This leads to two conclusions.
The first conclusion: the viewer may well ask the question: "Is the opportunity to use Oldspice worth such solutions? What is such fame and such material success worth?"
Second conclusion: Marek is not a Yan’s true friend and may never have been one. He doesn't know anything about Jan's experiences and life. Marek shows an increased interest in Jan's wife, while he is exclusively occupied with himself and his career, and his visit to Jan, and all their communication can hardly be called sincere.
And it seems as if the director himself did not want to notice this. And if this story is somehow based on the Zanussi’s life, then the reason for this "inattention", the desire to smooth it over, is curious.
Perhaps Zanussi was in Jan's place? Then such a collision would be too unpleasant.
Or Zanussi may have been in Marek's place?
Crystal Structure, like Zanussi's Spiral, Constant, and Shield Colors, is busy juxtaposing two different worlds. Like the collision of Plato and Aristotle, the ideal and the material.
"Structure .." invites you to a whole world of contradictions and deep reflections not only about the way of life, but also about friendship, in the simple interiors of a heated house surrounded by prickly winter.
