 "A great director goes to great lengths..." | 2009-07-10 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3ZMC6NFTXEKO |
Krzysztof Kieslowski was a Polish filmmaker from Warsaw (1941-1996) that brought great pride to a country that has had to overcome many hardships in order to survive. This is one of the reasons I love the Polish people. Another is that I grew up with them in my native Chicago, Illinois. They are a resilient, strong, and intelligent people. Above all, they are amongst the most caring and generous souls I have ever met. It is fitting then that they had a brilliant filmmaker who stayed in Poland through thick and thin to document their lives.
I was thinking of how I might describe Krzysztof Kieslowski's`The Decalogue'. My thoughts kept coming back to the American series `Twilight Zone'. We know it is a series of ten episodes. Each one is a loose study of one of the Ten Commandments. We are also aware that each episode has a character that resides in the same group of Warsaw apartment buildings. Yet, none are carried over into subsequent episodes. Finally, it is clear that `The Decalogue' was filmed in 1988. So let us go a bit deeper. It is something Kieslowski would insist upon based on his character studies.
Krzysztof Kieslowski co-wrote each segment of `The Decalogue'. His collaborator was Krzysztof Piesiewicz; a lawyer who Kieslowski felt added a different perspective to compliment his own style. Kieslowski directed every movie. I originally thought that he was consulted on every aspect of the filming, as like a Coppola might be. However, I found out that Kieslowski invited nine different Cinematographers to participate. He gave each one total freedom on their movie. He remarked in an interview that this brought freshness to each episode. He said that he was particularly concerned that the crew not be bored.
The characters in the movies run the gamut from young to old, clever to naive, and intelligent to foolish. However, each has a common thread running through their lives. Each must make a decision that may change their lives. This is reflected in each of Zbigniew Preisner's dramatic and sensitive scores. The movies are intense and there is little in the way of action-based sequences. Some of the episodes may bring sadness, while others tend to make one reflect on the subject matter.
I favored the first and last episodes. In particular, Decalogue X has a nice comedic touch throughout and it is a great way to end the series. Kieslowski certainly emphasizes that point with the last lines uttered in the Decalogue. It is his signature and a fond farewell to a wonderful project. Included below are a few lines of my initial reaction to each of the ten movies.
I
Henryk Baranowski Krzysztof
Maja Komorowska Irena
Wojciech Klata Pawet
A brilliant, inquisitive child takes every opportunity to learn. Every day and each moment that passes bring questions to his fascinated mind. Those around him provide insight and enlightenment, if only to give pause to his incessant thirst. Such is the world of a child. Yet, lessons are learned throughout life, and sometimes, the experience can be as harsh as the coldest winters.
II
Krystyna Janda Dorota
Aleksander Bardini Ordynator
Olgierd Lukaszewicz Andrzej
Desire is an inferno not easily controlled by mere mortals. Add anxiety and deadlines to the mix and one can only hope to handle the flame without being burned. This is precisely what one self-absorbed individual is seeking to accomplish. Standing in the way is a wise and resourceful individual who might be the solution, but also garners her scorn. The results are predictable only in the fact that nothing is certain and God still has the best curveball in the game.
III
Maria Pakulnis Ewa
Daniel Olbrychski Janusz
Joanna Szczepkowska Zona Janusza
Sometimes we believe what we want to believe for selfish reasons. Then again, manipulation is not often successful without a willing victim. Regardless, the outcome is never certain until the hours pass as if acts in a play lit by the moon and staged in the shadows.
IV
Adrianna Biedrzynska Anka
Janusz Gajos Michal
How fully has a life been lived when its meaning can be replaced with a sentence? What we know can sometimes be the furthest thing from the truth, if we convince ourselves it is so. This Decalogue examines the value we place on our relationships. Quite often, the outcome tests the very foundations they are built on. Moreover, to be sure, that is why they are laid in the first place.
V
Miroslaw Baka Jacek
Krzysztof Globisz Piotr
Jan Tesarz Taksowkarz
Choices are the freedom to make your own way. The will to bring harm is perceived as better than what? Is life so boring? Then it must be served a just dose of reality. However, isn't that what you ran away from in the first place? So is it back where you started, or ahead to the unknown. Getting what you desire can taste very harsh. Moreover, it turns out to be anything but free.
VI
Grazyna Szapolowska Magda
Olaf Lubaszenko Tomek
Stefania Iwinska Gospodyni
What you see...is it what you really want to get? On the other hand, as it has been reported "Ask for what you want, you just might get it" Additionally, the `object of our affection' can turn into the `obsession of the object' if one isn't careful. Earle wrote "he may just live long enough to become a man, if he can survive the tempest of youth'.
VII
Anna Polony Ewa
Maja Barelkowska Majka
Wladyslaw Kowalski Stefan
Boguslaw Linda Wojtek
Missed opportunity. We are always in a hurry and run past the open doors. Our instinct for survival is suppressed only by our emotions. They can make miracles happen or lead us into disaster. However, one surety exists: we cannot flee them.
VIII
Maria Koscialkowska Zofia
Teresa Marczewska Elzbieta
What becomes of the past? All we know is that it can be resurrected at a moments notice. That is the power of the mind. Most anything can push memories to the forefront. A glance. A gesture. Perhaps, the past is reawakened in a familiar story. Whatever the case, if it calls at your door, be sure before you invite it in. This time, you can change it.
IX
Ewa Blaszczyk Hanka
Piotr Machalica Roman
Sometimes, we have to go to the edge to see what is really in front of us. Had we been looking, we could have seen it coming from behind. The difference is measured in the miles logged running to avoid truth, at all costs.
X
Jerzy Stuhr Jerzy
Zbigniew Zamachowski Artur
Two brothers, two distinct lives. Ah, if one is conservative, the other must be liberal. If one is rich, the other is poor. How deep does it go? Moreover, what might it take to make them alike? Nothing you say? Oh but it is so simple and has been around forever...
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 "Dark, Mysterious and Yet Eventually Giving Way to Spring" | 2009-01-17 |
| - Reviewed By lynnellingwood |
| Krzysztof Kieslowski was a filmmaker from Poland who made his name in the 1980's. I first encountered his work in Blue which was not well received in the United States and was regarded as rather cutesy and sentimental. I saw it and loved it however. In fact I couldn't get it out of my mind. Later, White and Red came out and each time the film received a better review and the filmmaker was given a second look at by American critics. I saw much of The Decalogue when it was shown at the Dryden Theatre at the George Eastman House in Rochester, NY. The theatre is a museum and a movie theatre for older or art films. The curator at the time was European and knew many European films and filmmakers. The Decalogue was not shown widely in the US because it was a television production in 10 episodes. Even trying to see it in a theatre 2 at a time meant a dedication for a week I couldn't fulfill. I was happy to get this DVD for Christmas and relive the episodes that I had seen before and see the ones I missed. My favorite? Probably the last episode, which contains considerable comedy and humor after many dark episodes. Two brothers inherit from their father a valuable stamp collection of Nazi stamps circa 1933. The urge to apprise their value turns them not only into greedy hostile men but they become surrounded by greedy, hostile men who have the goal of stealing the collection from them It is a great episode emphasizing the fact that having what you thought you wanted can ruin your life. The other episodes are just as good and intriguing. A young man wanders through a seemingly calm quiet summer day and ruthlessly murders a taxi driver without sound reason. Kieslowski doesn't let him off the hook as the man takes a long time to actually die and the young man has several chances to stop. On the other hand, the death penalty the man suffers is quick and clean. But is it moral and right? Other episodes address morality and belief in other ways. The episodes are thought provoking and never let the viewer off the hook in easy ways. I found the extras on the DVD well worth watching also. Kieslowski was a director during the time of martial law and the end of communism. In Poland, he had to be very careful about what the government saw in his films. In a TV interviewing show called 100 Questions, Kieslowski must take questions from a TV audience who seem primed to ferret out if there is any criticism of the government in his films. Other directors fled to other countries, Kieslowski either couldn't or wouldn't go. He artfully has to tell his audience that the only reason he was a director is that he was sent to film school for it, has no political criticisms in his films, and only wants to tell personal truths. It is not an easy time and good insight into a communist regime albeit a mild one at this time. I highly recommend this set and urge fans of foreign film to purchase it. |
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| "Good series" | 2008-09-19 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3SFO2GSP5CVSM |
Art that can claim greatness deals with complex issues in complex ways. If the answers or questions posed were simple they could be framed in a single sentence, or a ten second film, then the art would not be its own best explanation. This thought stuck with me as I watched Krzystof Kielowski's complex and fascinating, if flawed, The Decalogue, illuminating aspects of the Ten Commandments from the third, transitional phase of his career, which included this 1988-89 Polish television series, filmed in 1987 and 1988, as well as the two subsequent feature films derived from episodes five and six, A Short Film About Killing and A Short Film About Love. Kielowski's filmic career can be divided into four parts. The first was his career as a documentarian, the second was his early fictive films, and the fourth and final part was his final films- The Double Life Of Veronique and the Three Colors Trilogy (Blue, White, Red). The Decalogue (Dekalog), released on three DVDs by Facets Video, after a decade and a half in the wilderness, is where Kielowski's potential for greatness first had more than a few flickering moments. No, unlike many critics who declare the whole series a masterpiece, I'll say it's certainly it's not. It has a few excellent to great episodes, a few good solid ones, and some mediocre ones, but without this proving ground, his later masterpieces would not have been possible.
The series is not a simplistic set of parables nor morality plays, but short stories, snapshots of Poland two decades ago. Yet, so many critics, then and now, got and get so much about the series wrong. Regarding episode two, Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert writes, `The film is about their separate moral challenges, and not about the two of them locked together by one problem.' This is absolutely wrong. The doctor has no moral challenge; he violates his ethical responsibility. The reason he does so is interesting, but his is not the problem the film is about. That Ebert conflates the two says something about his own beliefs, but nothing of the film. He then writes, of episode nine, `She did the wrong thing (adultery) and the right one (ending it); his spying was a violation of her trust- and then there is an outcome where pure chance almost leads to a death, which was avoidable if either had been more honest.' Well, no. There is no chance- pure or not, in the lover's pursuit of the wife nor in the husband's decision to suicide, and Ebert wholly misses the importance of the husband's impotence and the male ego. In the Christian Science Monitor, critic David Sterritt claimed the cinematography was `expressive,' even though it is the antithesis of that, as it is very static. Perhaps he confused these films with the Three Colors Trilogy? Of course, just as literary critics can be subject to off the rack blurbery, so can film critics, many of whom were as dense as Ebert and Sterritt.
But, it's not just American critics who miss out on the film's import. A Polish-Canadian film scholar named Christopher Garbowski, wrote in his book, Krzysztof Kieslowski's Decalogue Series, that the characters share a conscious or half-conscious desire to `transcend the details of their existence.' Again, wrong! Simply desiring a move away from one's lot is not in and of itself `transcendence.' When I read such things I sometimes wonder if a) the critics have even seen or read whatever thing it is they're reviewing, and b) do they even know the definitions of half the words they use? Yet, to be fair, critics are not the only ones who can botch assessments of works of art. The great American filmmaker Stanley Kubrick offered this treacle about The Decalogue: `These films have the very real ability to dramatize their ideas rather than just talking about them....They do this with such dazzling skill, you never see the ideas coming and don't realize until much later how profoundly they have reached your heart.' One of the very reasons this series fails the `masterpiece' litmus test is because there are too many times you can see exactly what is coming. The most obvious times are in episodes one, five, and eight, where the ends are known within the first few minutes, even though determinism is not central to the series as a whole, which refutes the argument that this blatant obviousness was intentional.
The Decalogue is its own best explanation, but what it conveys is not always the best it could be. Such is the lot of all art. But, without its failures and successes, the greatness that Kielowski achieved in his final portion of his career would not have been so sublime. Failure and success can thus be both complex and simple. Discerning the two from the two is called criticism.
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| "Engages The Mind" | 2008-06-30 |
| - Reviewed By el-chingon |
Had it not been for a friend who has the time and the intellectual curiosity to seek out films like these, I would still remain blissfully ignorant that The Decalogue even existed. But thanks to her, I have something new to evangelize to friends and acquaintances.
I am not going to rehash the stories here. Other reviewers have done so, some in great detail. What I will say is that Krzysztof Kieslowski's masterpiece is a fascinating and often spellbinding set that engages the mind and stays with you long after you put it back in the box. The films are spiritual without being overtly religious and the viewer is forced to consider all the vagaries of the human experience. Zbigniew Preisner's penetrating and often melancholy score adds permanence to the impression made on the viewer by these remarkable films.
Though sometimes you may have to think hard about what the connection between a particular commandment and a particular story is, the connection is there even if that connection is tenuous. I like all the films to a certain degree, but if I had to pick a favorite, it would be Decalogue Ten. Title of least favorite would go to Decalogue Three.
As at least one reviewer said, you may find it useful to listen to Roger Ebert's commentary on this set before you begin viewing. I don't usually put much stock in a five-star review if only a couple of reviews of an item have been written. But in this case, with more than sixty reviews written by such a disparate group, near-unanimity actually means something. The Decalogue is one of the most thought-provoking films I have ever seen, and is a set I will watch many times more. |
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| "The mark of good films? They stay with you" | 2008-06-24 |
| - Reviewed By scott_fs |
At the present time, there are upwards of sixty reviews of this series of 10 films made for Polish television by the director Krzysztof Kieslowski. There are individual reviews for individual episodes, and, as could be expected, some episodes are stronger than others.
I'm going to comment on the whole package. I do agree with some of the reviewers that the quality of the films leaves something to be desired. However, the fact that these films are even available at all tempers my criticisms on the film quality. They are often dark with details hard to see (and is it ever sunny in Poland?) but they are watchable, and the setting (the iconic communist monolithic apartment complexes) as well as the cinematography is certainly more than OK, and inspired many times. The film quality doesn't detract from the stories at all. You'll get the message(s).
As far as the writing, the themes, the subject matter, well, you'll never see qualities exhibited by this series anywhere near American television ('The Mole' or 'Farmer Wants a Wife, anyone?). Serious, brooding, thought-provoking; this is television that you just can't expect to see anywhere on commercial television in the United States, sad to say.
Highly recommended. Buy a copy. You'll want your friends to watch at least a couple of the episodes. As I mentioned in this review's headline, this series will stay with you. Maybe one day the series will be remastered and the quality improved. Still, it's worth the price. |
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| "A Meditation on Morality" | 2008-02-22 |
| - Reviewed By breiel |
Krzysztof Kieslowski's "Decalogue" is a series of ten short films set in a block of towering flats in modern Warsaw. Co-written by Kieslowski and Krzysztof Piesiewicz for Polish television in the late 1980s, the ten one-hour-long episodes explore each of the Ten Commandments, although many of the Commandments actually overlap one another.
The series is profoundly meditative, without being boring. The actors are remarkably believable, especially when Kieslowski relies on close-ups of the face; the soul of their character is practically laid bare. Very intimate. I was particularly struck by the guardian angel or witness - a young man (Artur Barcis) - who appears in eight of the episodes, just before a Commandment is broken.
It's hard to say which episodes are the best. Each one projects a powerful moral message, forcing you to consider both sides of the issue and to realise these time-honoured laws have many ramifications in our daily lives, even today. My personal favourites include episodes 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 10.
Roger Ebert's commentary at the beginning is an excellent primer to those unfamiliar with Kieslowski and the synopsis behind "Decalogue", and I would recommend viewing it before the series.
Lastly, one need not understand the Polish language or culture to appreciate "Decalogue". For that matter one need not come from a Judeo-Christian background. "Decalogue" is a film full of emotion and intelligence that can be universally understood and appreciated by all. Absolutely beautiful!!! |
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