dekalog : nine
for info on the entire dekalog series, including a short film about love & a short film about killing—plus special dekalog trivia! —click here .
the film sufi: dekalog 9: “thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife. ”
dekalog: nine roman and hanka have a loving marriage, but his impotence has led to her having an affair. the unbearable situation drives roman to extreme measures both physically and mentally, testing their love and his own will to live .
dekalog: nine is ultimately about faith and trust, a commitment to the sanctity of marriage, even when forces beyond one’s control threaten to disrupt life’s best laid plans. how kieslowski deals with everything so effortlessly is a marvel… and infinitely enlightening .
together with ‘dekalog: one’, this is the finest episode of the series dealing with (extra) marital affairs between a couple with genuine emotions and unparalleled sensitivity to its characters ~ 5 * / a + [ dir. krzysztof kieslowski | 1988 | poland | drama | 60 mins | not rated ] dekalog: nine / © telewizja polska s. a. # dekalog # decalogue # krzysztofkieslowski # kieslowski # criterioncollection # bluray # affair # marriage # emotion # sensitivity # poland
together with the first episode, this represents the very summit of ‘dekalog', a series with many peaks. shot by piotr sobocinski, who photographed kieslowski' s later three colours: red (1994), dekalog: nine is a masterful drama dealing with the (extra) marital affairs of a couple, roman (piotr machalica) and hanka (ewa blaszczyk) .
kieślowski, krzysztof, and krzysztof piesiewicz, dekalog, in iskusstvo kino (moscow), march - december 1993 .
“dekalog” opens at the ifc center in new york on september 2nd, at cinefamily in los angeles on september 17th, and will be followed by a national roll out. the criterion collection will release “dekalog” on blu - ray and dvd release on september 27th. don’t sleep on this one .
in dekalog: nine, any eroticism is left out (after all, this was made for polish television), with kieslowski focusing on his characters instead. he gives roman and hanka unparalleled sensitivity, allowing them to develop emotionally through the course of the hour, with the intricate plotting giving us a sense of the psychological ambiguity that would besiege them as they deal with their set of marital issues .
soundtrack of
dekalog ix
by krzysztof kieslowsky dekalog is a 1988 polish television drama series directed by krzysztof kieslowsky. it consists of ten one - hour films, each of which represents one of the ten commandments and explores possible meanings of the commandment —often ambiguous or contradictory—within a fictional story set in modern poland. music by zbignew preisner
oh, there’s one other connecting thread. all but two of the 10 films feature a silent young man (artur barcís) who appears in different guises—student, hospital orderly, homeless dude—and just stares balefully in the direction of that film’s protagonist, almost always at some decisive moment. this device risks coming across as a bit precious, but it provides a welcome sense of mystery to some of the more straightforward entries (notably dekalog eight and dekalog nine) and strengthens the feeling of continuity. (even though the 10 films employ nine different cinematographers, they share the same utilitarian look; only the two shot by the great piotr sobocinski, who’d be oscar - nominated a few years later for his work on red, stand out visually .) truly, dekalog is a single grand entity, greater than the sum of its sometimes stupendous parts. think of it as the televisual and / or cinematic equivalent of joyce’s dubliners, providing a monumental, probing yet playful snapshot of warsaw in the late 1980s. then hunker down and burrow in .
originally made for polish television, dekalog focuses on the residents of a housing complex in late - communist poland, whose lives become subtly intertwined as they face emotional dilemmas that are at once deeply personal and universally human. the series’ ten hour - long films draw from the ten commandments for thematic inspiration and an overarching structure, and grapple deftly with complex moral and existential questions concerning life, death, love, hate, truth, and the passage of time. shot by nine different cinematographers, written alongside longtime collaborator krzysztof piesiewicz, with stirring music by zbigniew preisner and compelling performances from established and unknown actors alike, dekalog arrestingly explores the unknowable forces that shape our lives .
verdict: together with ‘dekalog: one’, this is the finest episode of the series dealing with (extra) marital affairs between a couple with genuine emotions and unparalleled sensitivity to its characters .
in honor of janus films’ new restoration of krzysztof kieślowski’s dekalog, now playing in limited release, fandor keyframe shared this video essay about the ten hour - long films bound together by the ten commandments .
in honor of janus films ’ new restoration of krzysztof kieślowski’s dekalog, now playing in limited release, fandor keyframe shared this video essay about the ten hour - long films bound together by the ten commandments. originally made for polish television in 1988, the ten films focus on the residents of a housing complex in late - communist warsaw, poland. their lives intertwine as they face moral, ethical, and emotional dilemmas. though the series was shot by nine different cinematographers, as the above essay shows, the overall vision was unified .
originally made for polish television in 1988, the ten films focus on the residents of a housing complex in late - communist warsaw, poland. their lives intertwine as they face moral, ethical, and emotional dilemmas. though the series was shot by nine different cinematographers, as the above essay shows, the overall vision was unified .
this new digital transfer of dekalog was sourced from the 35mm original camera negatives provided by telewizja polska and stored at filmoteka narodow. when possible, the restoration of each episode was supervised and approved by its respective cinematographer .
rather than leading the viewer to think and wrestle with complex moral issues, this is like a little morality play; in which selfish actions produce great pain and suffering amongst those closest to them. dekalog nine, is far from being the best of the series, it lacks the complexity and intrigue of the best of the works. it is still memorable in its own way though, because of the rawness of the human tragedy which underlies it. another wonderful thing in this episode is the hauntingly beautiful soundtrack music by zbigniew preisner, which seems to perfectly amplify the emotional darkness of the characters .
polish music icon zbigniew preisner, who first worked with the dekalog director on 1985’s no end and went on to contribute to all of his subsequent films. here, we present a selected playlist of preisner’s most memorable work for kieślowski .
just as everyone’s personal ranking of, say, the coen brothers’ movies will be wildly different, so will everyone’s opinion regarding which dekalog films are the standouts. not a single one is bad, though, and some quick poking around suggests that just about everybody considers at least four or five of them superb, even if folks don’t always agree on which four or five. dekalog six, about a young man who becomes voyeuristically obsessed with an older neighbor and inspires her obsession with him in turn, ranks among the greatest studies of toxic romance ever made. (the feature - length expansion, a short film about love, is also terrific, but has a radically different and much weaker ending .) dekalog five juxtaposes a truly brutal murder and the murderer’s subsequent execution, to equally nauseating effect. the most tender is dekalog three, in which a woman corrals a married ex - lover into helping her find her missing husband on christmas eve; the most disturbing and thought - provoking is dekalog four, centered around a letter written by a dying mother that’s discovered by her adult daughter two decades later. the series even concludes with a (jet - black) comedy, as if to counterbalance the general intensity .
there are few cinematic experiences that you’ll have in your lifetime that will equal krzysztof kieslowski ‘s “ dekalog. ” it’s ten hours of some of the finest filmmaking you’ll ever see, and with its return to the big screen, it’s not to be missed .
dekalog: ten jerzy and artur’s father dies, leaving behind a valuable stamp collection, which, they discover, is coveted by dealers of varying degrees of shadiness. the more involved the brothers get in their father’s world, the more dire and comical their situation becomes .
dekalog: six a teenage postal worker, tomek, routinely spies on his older neighbor magda, a sexually liberated artist who lives in the apartment across the courtyard from his. as their private worlds merge, fascination turns to obsession, and the line between love and curiosity becomes violently blurred .
dekalog: seven as a high school student, majka bore a child, ania, whom majka’s mother, ewa, has been raising as her own. now that majka is ready for motherhood, ewa refuses to let go, leading majka to kidnap her own daughter, with unexpected emotional consequences .
dekalog: one krzysztof, a semantics professor and computer hobbyist, is raising his young son, paweł, to look to science for answers, while irena, paweł’s aunt, lives a life rooted in faith. over the course of one day, both adults are forced to question their belief systems .
dekalog: four a father and daughter, michal and anka, have a unique intimacy, that the college - aged anka is beginning to feel conflicted about. when she finds an unopened letter from her deceased mother, it seems to justify her attraction to michal, who may not in fact be her father .
dekalog: eight zofia, a professor of ethics, is visited by elzbieta, an american researching the fate of jews who survived world war ii. a daytime classroom conversation turns into a night of confrontation, and zofia is forced to answer for a decision she made decades ago that directly affected the course of elzbieta’s life .
dekalog: five jacek, an angry drifter, murders a taxi driver, brutally and without motive. his case is assigned to piotr, an idealistic young lawyer who is morally opposed to the death penalty, and their interactions take on an emotional honesty that throws into stark relief for piotr the injustice of killing of any kind .
a dekalog pass, good for admission to any screening of each of the five, paired hour - long parts plus a screening of each of the two a short film about features, is available for $ 55 ($ 35 for ifc center members) online or at the box office. just select the appropriate ticket price when purchasing .
dekalog: two dorota is in love with two men: her gravely ill husband, andrzej, and a fellow musician who is the father of her unborn child. andrzej’s doctor, himself no stranger to loss, is dorota’s downstairs neighbor; she implores him to swear to a prognosis for her husband, and in doing so puts a very serious decision into his hands .
dekalog: three it’s christmas eve, and ewa has plotted to pass the hours until morning with her former lover janusz, a family man, by making him believe her husband has gone missing. during this night of recklessness and lies, the pair grapple with choices made three years ago, when their affair was discovered, and with the value of their present lives .
spread across ten chapters, “dekalog” tackles the ten commandants in a series of loosely connected stories all set around the same housing complex in warsaw. the result is a powerful look at humanity in all its complexity, from the same director who brought you the “three colors” trilogy and “ the double life of veronique. ” here’s the synopsis of the anthology plus a breakdown of each episode :
none of these films is a simple demonstration of black and white moral issues. “decalogue five” is about a murderer who seems completely amoral. to understand him is not to forgive him. but the story also focuses on his defense attorney, a young man trying his first case and passionately opposed to the death penalty. “decalogue nine” is about a man who discovers his wife is having an affair. he hides himself to spy on them, and eavesdrops as she breaks up forever with her lover - - and then discovers the husband in hiding. 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 .
in the late 1980s, the celebrated polish filmmaker, krzysztof kieślowski, set out to make ten short interlinked films. the films all shared a common location, a giant monoform set of flats in warsaw, which create a drab and deadening canvass for each piece. the films all share a common form, in that they are all dramas built around the human relationships in the flats. the films sometimes even overlap, with characters and scenes from one film appearing as extras or backdrops in others. most significantly though, the films are each loosely connected to one of the biblical ten commandments :
the dekalog
. having previously admired kieślowski' s tricolore series, i was intrigued to learn that he had previously attempted something with its roots in the bible .
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thou shalt not covet thy neighbour' s wife
. roman, after discovering his impotence, urges his wife hanka to take a lover. she reluctantly complies, and roman, despite his earlier words, ... see full summary »
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thou shalt not covet thy neighbour' s wife
. roman, after discovering his impotence, urges his wife hanka to take a lover. she reluctantly complies, and roman, despite his earlier words, becomes obsessively jealous. spying on her, he learns of her affair, and vows to kill himself - not knowing that hanka was in fact breaking off the relationship ...
surgeon reacts to a diagnosis of impotence as if it were a terminal illness, urging his wife to take a lover and plunging into suicidal depression. his wife, however, is willing to live with the diagnosis and swears to a love above and beyond sex, which he rejects, at first; the movie is about his struggling with and final acceptance of this platonic ideal. jealousy leads him to spy on and covet his own wife, ergo the commandment. but this only humiliates him further. in a parallel, somewhat superfluous plot, a young female patient asks his advice about a risky operation which would enable her to sing, her life' s dream. both face the same dilemma of whether or not to accept a physical limitation which deprives them of their life' s passion. unlike him, the young woman is willing to live with her disease and forego singing. he changes her mind. i thought the surgeon and the film, both, over - reacted to the diagnosis, assigned too much weight to it. the melodramatic lack of perspective makes the movie as moribund as its subject matter. of course, it' s amply color coded; the passing stranger in white rides by again; and, again, there' s lapse of credibility: the surgeon shares a cigarette with the patient who is supposed to have a disease so debilitating as to prevent her from singing - - this makes no sense. but, once again, k. knows how to make the final scene count, canceling earlier shortcomings, at least for a moment. overwrought arty soap opera. by this stage of the series one is right to be more than a little weary and wary of having the same heart strings tugged on to play the same melancholy tune .
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roman and hanka have a loving marriage, but his impotence has led to her having an affair. the unbearable situation drives roman to extreme measures both physically and mentally, testing their love and his own will to live. (60 minutes )
jerzy and artur’s father dies, leaving behind a valuable stamp collection, which, they discover, is coveted by dealers of varying degrees of shadiness. the more involved the brothers get in their father’s world, the more dire and comical their situation becomes. (59 minutes )
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: roman and hanka have a loving marriage, but his impotence has led to her having an affair. the unbearable situation drives roman to extreme measures both physically and mentally, testing their love and his own will to live .
: jerzy and artur’s father dies, leaving behind a valuable stamp collection, which, they discover, is coveted by dealers of varying degrees of shadiness. the more involved the brothers get in their father’s world, the more dire and comical their situation becomes .
roman and hanka have a loving marriage, but his impotence has led to her having an affair. the unbearable situation drives roman to extreme measures both physically and mentally, testing their love and his own will to live .
jerzy and artur’s father dies, leaving behind a valuable stamp collection, which, they discover, is coveted by dealers of varying degrees of shadiness. the more involved the brothers get in their father’s world, the more dire and comical their situation becomes .
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a drama about marriage as an optimum laboratory for the training of the heart .
krzysztof kieslowski' s treatment of the ninth commandment ,
thou shalt not covet thy neighbor' s house ,
focuses on the itch we all have for something more, better, or different. being content with what we have takes patience, perseverance, and gratitude whether we are talking about our relationships, work, or possessions .
roman (piotr machalica), a surgeon, goes to a doctor and learns that he is impotent. deeply upset, he returns home to his beautiful wife hanka (ewa blaszczyk) of ten years. they have no children. when roman tells her that his sexual dysfunction is permanent, she responds ,
love is in one' s heart not between one' s legs .
nevertheless, he tells her she should take a lover .
unbeknown to roman, hanka is already having an affair with mariusz (jan jankowski), a physics student. increasingly restless, roman starts spying on his wife by bugging the phone and following her around. learning that hanka and her lover meet at her mother' s place, he waits outside when he knows they are making love. but hanka is already planning to break off the affair, even though mariusz wants to marry her. she believes that her marriage can be saved by adopting a child .
a subplot in this drama deals with roman' s treatment of a young woman with a heart condition; she has a beautiful voice but will be unable to sing very passionate music unless she has her heart fixed. kieslowski wants us to see the many angles to the health of a heart. how much can it take? in roman and hanka' s case, a lot. sex turns out not to be the determining factor in the future of their marriage .
initially roman' s problem proves to be so devastating that both he and hanka are unable to be honest emotionally with each other. they lose heart, to put it simply, by coveting something beyond their love relationship. in the end, through several traumatic incidents, roman and hanka realize that they must make a fresh commitment to each other. marriage, you see, is an optimum laboratory for the training of the heart in gentleness, compassion, forgiveness, and personal renewal .
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), but was not. in this story roman, a successful, thirty - something heart surgeon, visits a colleague friend and learns that his own sexual dysfunction problems are permanent and incurable. he has a beautiful wife, hanka, and now must come to terms with how, or whether, he is going to live the rest of his life with her .
roman returns to his wife and hesitantly, but stoically, tells her the grim news. he dolefully offers to do the honorable thing: if she chooses to stay with him, she can start seeing other men. hanka swears by her love for roman, but finds the conversation about sex a bit too explicit - - love for her is more than just those kinds of physical aspects .
nevertheless roman’s new feelings of inadequacy start eating away at him. he begins to watch his wife’s habits a bit more than he used to. he notices an unusual notebook belonging to some physics student in the glove compartment of his car. he constructs an electronic device to secretly tap his wife’s phone conversations. and finally, he makes copies of the keys to his mother - in - law’s apartment, which is currently vacant while his mother - in - law is away. he suspects that his wife is having trysts with the physics graduate student there .
after awhile all of romans’ jealous suspicions are confirmed. his wife has a lover, and this has been going on for some time, even before his medical problems. the physics student lover, mariusz, is shown to be seriously in love with hanka. but hanka is now ov
ercome with feelings of concern for her troubled husband and feeling guilty about the affair .
hanka’s moral crisis concerns how she should manage her love life and how honest she should be with her husband about what has happened. roman’s crisis concerns his self - image as a man. he wants to avoid being jealous about something that he cannot provide for his wife, but at the same time he cannot hold himself back from finding out the horrible details .
there is a side story in the film that reflects on roman’s situation. a young patient, ola, is faced with a potentially risky operation to rectify a heart condition. if she doesn’t have the operation, she will have to abandon her promising career as a classical singer. she asks dr. roman what she should do, and he tells her that these operations are usually only performed as a last resort. she nods and says that she only wants to live, not risk death just to acquire fame as an opera singer. roman then ruefully reflects on the value of a diminished life that cannot reach fulfilment. (later on in the story, ola is talked into going ahead with the operation, but, she says thoughtfully to roman, she will then become “someone else” )
break off her affair with mariusz, but it’s a little late: roman has spied on her and knows everything. he is shattered by the explicitness of what he sees, and his feelings of hopelessness and oblivion generate thoughts of suicide .
when hanka faces up to everything and tries to reconcile with roman, she humbly begs forgiveness and agrees that they should go ahead and adopt a child (thereby affirming concretely that their marriage is forever). at this point, we might expect that the story has reached its dramatic conclusion, but not quite .
roman, not surprisingly, has not really recovered from his moribund thoughts and insists that they need some time apart in order for him to regain himself. hanka suggests that he might travel somewhere, but roman says that he cannot bear to be away and think about leaving his wife alone in the same town with “that physicist”, so it is agreed that hanka will go on a ski holiday. it turns out, however, that mariusz, “that physicist”, hasn’t given u
p on his relationship with hanka and heads out to the same ski resort to meet her. and roman’s suicidal thoughts haven’t disappeared, either. this leads to a dramatic conclusion of the film that is one of the most moving in the
a further comment is in order concerning the camera work of piotr sobocinski in this film. it is masterfully carried out with all sorts of inventive and evocative shots that highlight the dramatic elements of the storytelling. this is one of the key features that make this episode stand out .
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plot: roman and hanka have a loving marriage, but his impotence has led to her having an affair. the unbearable situation drives roman to extreme measures both physically and mentally, testing their love and his own will to live. (from the criterion collection )
awards: won fipresci prize & children and cinema award (venice). official selection (cannes) .
roman is impotent and suggests to hanka that she should find another lover to satisfy her sexually. she has been discreetly dating mariusz (jan jankowski), a younger physics student who becomes obsessed with her. roman, plagued by obsession himself—that of extreme jealousy—begins to spy on them .
this sounds like a simple setup of a plot, one that would normally kick - start one of those saucy erotic thrillers about infidelity, a subgenre exemplified by such films as louis malle’s damage (1992), and adrian lyne’s twin pairs fatal attraction (1987) and unfaithful (2002), for example .
there’s clever use of phallic symbolism, particularly a shot where roman fills up his car’s fuel tank, momentarily reminding him of his impotence. there are also some great visual motifs that kieslowski uses repeatedly to accentuate the emotional state of his character. roman’s faulty car glovebox is an example .
what makes this episode so essential a viewing is kieslowski’s astute handling of its main theme of infidelity with complementary ideas of love and sex, of parenthood and adoption, and most crucially, of not wanting to be wronged. there are strong depictions of guilt, especially in the final act, which is a masterclass in building tension through characterisation vis - à - vis plotting, and expressed succinctly without dramatic manipulation through the technique of time - sensitive cross - cutting .
production: polish television, tor studios; colour, 35mm; running time: 10 films 53–57 minutes each. released 1989. decalogue 5 and decalogue 6 released theatrically in 1989 as a short film about killing and a short film about love. filmed on location in warsaw, 1988 .
producer: ryszard chutkowski; screenplay: krzysztof kieślowski, krzysztof piesiewicz; photography: wieslaw zdort (decalogue 1), edward klosinski (2), piotr sobocinski (3, 9), krzysztof pakulski (4), slawomir idziak (5), witold adamek (6), dariusz kuc (7), anrzej jaroszewicz (8), jacek blawut (10); editor: ewa smal; sound: malgorzata jaworska (1, 2, 4, 5), nikodem wolk - laniewski (3, 6, 7, 9, 10), wieslawa demblinska (8); production designer: halina dobrowolska; music: zbigniew preisner .
cast: 1: henryk baranowski (krzysztof), wojciech klata (pawel), maja komorowska (irena). 2: krystyna janda (dorota), alexander bardini (consultant), olgierd lukaszewicz (anrzej). 3: daniel olbrychski (janusz), maria pakulnis (ewa). 4: adrianna biedrzynska (anka), janusz gajos (michal). 5: miroslaw baka (jacek), krzysztof globisz (piotr). 6: grazyna szapolowska (magda), olaf lubaszenko (tomek). 7: anna polony (ewa), maja barelkowska (majka). 8: maria koscialkowska (zofia), teresa marczewska (elzbieta). 9: ewa blaszczyk (hanka), piotr machalica (roman). 10: jerzy stuhr (jerzy), zbigniew zamachowski (arthur) .
kieślowski, krzysztof, and krzysztof piesiewicz, the decalogue, london, 1991 .
michalek, boleslaw, and frank turaj, the modern cinema of poland, bloomington, 1988 .
garbowski, christopher, krzysztof kieślowski' s decalogue series: the problem of the protagonists and their self - transcendance, boulder, 1996 .
coates, paul, editor, lucid dreams: the films of krzysztof kieślowski, wiltshire, 1999 .
insdorf, annette, double lives, second chances: the cinema of krzysztof kieślowski, new york, 1999 .
ciment, m. , and others, positif (paris), december 1989 .
rigney, f. j. , film criticism (meadville, pennsylvania), spring 1990 .
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les régles du hasard ,
in cahiers du cinéma (paris), march 1990 .
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kieślowski' s decalogue ,
in sight and sound (london), summer 1990 .
insdorf, annette ,
the decalogue: re - examining god' s commands ,
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the cave ,
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elia, m. ,
l' art du risque calculé ,
in séquences (montreal), september 1991 .
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strazce brany ,
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holden, stephen ,
chance, fate and the bible ,
in new york times (new york), 8 march 1996 .
falkowska, j. ,
krzysztof kieślowski' s decalogue series: the problem of protagonists and their self - transcendence ,
in canadian journal of film studies (ottawa), no. 2, 1997 .
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testament to the father: kieślowski' s the decalogue ,
in film criticism (meadville), no. 2, 1997 / 1998 .
there are artists who are late bloomers, who must try out various timbres before they find their own voice. it took antonioni over ten years and a dozen films, both fiction and documentary, to make il grido, his first truly
antonionian
film. it took kieślowski over ten years and two dozen films, both fiction and documentary, to make decalogue, which marks both the climax of a long search and a dramatic shift in direction and quality. that the seed was there is clear in the 1981 feature blind chance, which sketches out three possible futures for a man who, like a tabula rasa, is open to either one. the film shows how the filmmaker sensed what was soon to become his territory in art, but didn' t yet have the formal means to make that territory his own. that decalogue changed kieślowski' s life is evident in the way that all his following films— the double life of veronique, blue, white and red —stem from decalogue, developing the earlier work' s motifs and sharpening its filmic finesse .
from decalogue on, kieślowski focused exclusively on the invisible and how it can be seen. he himself could show it with an incomparable grace: the mysterious links that tie us all together; the signs and omens that nature, uselessly, sends our way; the doom, materialized in things and machines; the sadness of the pond and the clouds. in this world, an ink - spill prophesies trouble, and when somebody dies, holy water freezes in the church. this kind of cinema dangerously balances between the profound and the pretentious. but if kieślowski slipped into pretentiousness in the occasionally ponderous blue, decalogue has a luminosity of milk, left (in decalogue 1) out in the cold overnight and turned into white ice. its light breaks the glass of the gratuitous bottle .
decalogue' s world—the world of a grim warsaw housing development where all the stories originate—is not a collection of entities and events, but a dense substance in which everything is connected with everything. the focus is shifted from things to what lies between them. this philosophy puts kieślowski into a glorious chain of artists—dreyer, bresson, iosseliani (the line continues with atom egoyan and wong kar - wai) —and explains why his preoccupation with cycles may not be so odd after all. as people are linked in his films, so are the films themselves. the heroine of blue shows up in the courtroom of white and then, along with the principals of white, in the coda of red. a fictitious dutch renaissance composer van den budelmayer from red originates in decalogue 9, as does white' s tragi - comic theme of male impotence. the brothers from decalogue 10 don' t want to stay home; they spill into the story of white. a model auteur, kieślowski in all his later years shot one film; perhaps his decision to stop, which he made in 1994 after completing the three colors trilogy, grew out of a realization that his film had come to an end. (it has been reported that kieślowski was planning another project at the time of his death. )
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and the three colors trilogy is being revived in austin as well. updated through 10 / 1 .
, created a miniseries consisting of 10 hour - long films, each of which riffs on one of the ten commandments. the result ranks among the greatest achievements in television history—but it also produced two feature films, expanded from two of the episodes. one of them ,
.
you marvel at the precision of its filmmaking even as it spreads an atmosphere of moral unease. each episode takes place, at least partly, in a massive warsaw apartment complex. and while individual flats vary from luxurious to monk - like, the overall mood is bleak, verging on despair. kieslowski would become something of an aesthete and a mannerist in later years…, but in
, maybe due to its tv origins, his camera is mostly still and close, though the films don' t lack poetry. the tales start quietly but gather complexity, ambiguity, and emotional force as they proceed. they pose ethical conundrums and present simple, dramatic scenarios; by the end of each installment, we' re faced not with answers, or even hints of answers, but with the irreducible, unresolvable messiness of life .
notes that
episodes are uniquely aestheticized, befitting their own distinct thematic fixations; kieslowski even went so far as to employ a different director of cinematography for almost every episode. one of the all - time great wielders of color, the filmmaker uses subtle color tints to evoke specific moods. the icy blues that connote a cold winter in episode one, for example, are offset by the sickly, unnatural greens of the computer screens that fill the professor’s apartment. episode three, set on christmas, finds clever ways to incorporate festive reds, using car taillights and flashing police warnings to shade the frame. episode six, given its extensive fixation on voyeurism, is appropriately cloaked in shadow, and much of its shots are composed at a distance, peering through barriers like windows and doorframes to add to the sense that the characters are under constant surveillance .
, in the only blurb he ever provided, wrote,' i am always reluctant to single out some particular feature of the work of a major filmmaker because it tends inevitably to simplify and reduce the work.'
but kieslowski and piesiewicz, kubrick argued ,
have the very rare ability to
over time he struck me as alternately witty, colorful, relaxed, charming, closed off and intense .
introduces a conversation with kieslowski
culled from a series of interviews with the filmmaker dating from september 1989 to november 1994, done either individually by zbigniew banas, myself or the two of us in collaboration. they were done in cannes, toronto and chicago .
' s 2000 review :
there is a young man who appears in eight of [ the episodes ], a solemn onlooker who never says anything but sometimes makes sad eye contact. i thought perhaps he represented christ, but kieslowski, in an essay about the series, says,' i don’t know who he is; just a guy who comes and watches us, our lives. he’s not very pleased with us.' directors are notorious for not pinning down the meanings of their images. i like the theory of annette insdorf, in her valuable book about
, who are' pure gaze' —able to' record human folly and suffering but unable to alter the course of the lives they witness.'
.
the truth is that these characters are hopeless, which is a good deal more disquieting .
trilogy, one film each thursday, before rolling out the decalog. these
are some of the most visually arresting films of contemporary cinema ,
writes afs head of film & creative media
’s highest endorsement in spite of its many iniquities—it’s almost certainly the one most dense with life. and yet, for a biblically - scaled film cycle so rich with irony that it seems to be chipping off the walls of the brutalist apartment complex where most of it takes place, perhaps the greatest irony of them all is that
for npr :
perpetually confounded, these ordinary folk inhabit a film masterpiece of urgent philosophical inquiry that asks the eternal question, how shall we live? and as every storyteller knows, we are never messier, funnier or more poignant than when we are trying to be good .
, which brought a similar spirit of religious and existential inquiry to a different narrative universe, using the story of a new jersey mob boss as a way to explore american family life and the decaying social contract of the 21st century .
was much more than a series of short movies accidentally jammed into television and more than a peculiar cultural artifact of late communism. it was the beginning of a process that set television free .
served as one of krzysztof kieslowski’s closest collaborators—he worked on all of the director' s films until kieslowski’s death in 1996, with several of their collaborations actually revolving around the world of music .
, who composed the spare, sometimes otherworldly score. his other collaborations with kieslowski include the radiant
.
the father, a professor, lectures a class of students on the estranged intimacy of a foreign language: how do you get to know what’s hidden beneath history, politics, culture, and the soul of a language that isn’t your own even if you know it well? the professor singles out technology to sort the obstacle of translation—an unfortunate choice. in the
, kieslowski strips his native being down to a universal visual language, and with the help of collaboration from his peers, unpacks the plethora of complexities hidden beneath and within all that is human in this ferocious masterpiece. in short, ditch formula and equation, and just rip through to the meat no matter the means .
for criterion, “poles’ subjection to an increasingly oppressive, dysfunctional materiality ironically generated an immaterial place at which they met: the discourse of humble dreams…. metaphysics and revolution percolate through each other as people grasp their status as ghosts in the machine, incompatible with it. if such everyday suffering affects first the working - class protagonists of kieslowski’s earliest films, in
it extends to other social strata, such as doctors, rock stars, and university professors, indicating its pervasiveness in society. ”
.
the episode opens with a punk singer belting out a song poking fun at the ten commandments. the vocalist (
) reunites with his conservative brother over the death of their father when they discover that he’s left them a priceless stamp collection. the plot turns on a con game but kieslowski centers the film on the brothers’ emotional journey through sacrifice, suspicion, and loss until, when all looks bleakest, they find within themselves a sense of hope and family connection. kieslowski leaves us with humor and ends the series on a quiet, modest, lovely grace note endowed with hope .
with anything by kieslowski, engagement is more important than understanding ,
writes andrew welch for movie mezzanine .
most of us would prefer it the other way around, but the decalogue challenges us switch them .
by kieslowski represents the commandment, “thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife. ” unlike many of the previous episodes, this episode deals with this specific commandment first hand. kieslowski used a married couple as the main characters, but brought in a few outside characters to represent the coveting which was present throughout this film. at the beginning of the film, the main character roman discovers he is impotent. he and his wife, hanka, talk about this issue, and he realizes that his wife should take on an outside lover to satisfy her sexual needs. however, she rebukes that idea, remaining faithful to roman. throughout the film, roman discovers that hanka has actually
on a secret lover. although roman wished that for her in the beginning, he becomes jealous and hurt from this affair. hanka eventually breaks off the affair, but roman was not aware of this, and consequently made an attempt at suicide. after surviving that attempt, he learns that hanka truly broke off the affair and realizes her love for him .
throughout the film there are many visual tropes and cinematic devices that add to the suspense and meaning of the film. first, there is one visual trope of a man riding a bike towards the beginning of the episode. during one scene, after roman learns he is impotent, he drives off the road due to his frustration with the issue. the man on the bike rides by looking at roman, yet continues to walk away. during another scene towards the end of the movie, roman drives his bike off a cliff, concluding his attempt at suicide. the camera shows roman lying there on the ground unconscious. then it shows the
same man we saw before, riding his bike. he looked down at roman, yet continued to ride by. this man on the bike can symbolize many things. he can represent the undying issue at hand that simply will not go away (roman’s impotency); he can represent the fact that roman just has to let go of this issue and “ride away” or get over his problems; or he could simply represent the constant intruding of the man that is interfering roman and hanka’s relationship (the man that hanka is having an affair with). regardless of the meaning, kieslowski used this man on the bike to represent a visual trope throughout this particular episode .
another visual trope that occurs many times throughout the film is the glove box in roman’s car. many times, when the scene is depicting a serious contemplative moment, the glove box pops
. there were also scenes where the glove box would not shut after a few attempts at shutting it. this is a visual trope because it not only occurs during those specific moments throughout the film, but also because it is trying to convey an important message. this message was not particularly clear, but it was clear that it was meant to be portrayed as a symbol .
also throughout the film were many cases of cinematic devices that added to the message of the film. kieslowski used specific camera work in order to carry out and highlight
scenes that are important for the dramatic story. for example, one scene depicts a conversation between roman and hanka. during the scene, the camera is focused on hanka’s face, and the viewer can see roman’s blurry back. however, the camera is also focused on a mirror directly behind hanka which allows to viewer to see roman’s face reflected through the mirror. this specific cinematic device not only allows the viewer to see both faces throughout the conversation, but it allows us to recognize their facial expressions as they carry out their conversation. this is important to the film because it contributes to the emotional effect it has on the characters, in turn pulling the viewers closer to the plot and message of the film.
dekalog : nine ( polish : dekalog , dziewięć ) is the ninth part of the television series dekalog by polish director krzysztof kieślowski , connected to the ninth imperative of the ten commandments : " thou shalt not covet thy neighbor 's wife " . a man who has become impotent ( piotr machalica ) discovers that his wife ( ewa błaszczyk ) has a lover . ( a minor character in this film , a young singer with a heart condition , inspired kieślowski 's and piesiewicz 's next film , the double life of véronique . )
dekalog: nine (polish: dekalog, dziewięć) is the ninth part of the television series dekalog by polish director krzysztof kieślowski, connected to the ninth imperative of the ten commandments: " thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife ". a man who has become impotent (piotr machalica) discovers that his wife (ewa błaszczyk) has a lover. ( a minor character in this film, a young singer with a heart condition, inspired kieślowski's and piesiewicz's next film, the double life of véronique. )
dekalog: nine (polish: dekalog, dziewięć) is the ninth part of the television series dekalog by polish director krzysztof kieślowski, connected to the ninth imperative of the ten commandments: " thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife ". a man who has become impotent (piotr machalica) discovers that his wife (ewa błaszczyk) has a lover. ( a minor character in this film, a young singer with a heart condition, inspired kieślowski's and piesiewicz's next film, the double life of véronique. )