(Poland 1988 559m) DVD1/2
Aka. The Decalogue/The Ten Commandments
More monumental than Sinai
p Ryszard Chutkowski d Krzysztof Kieslowski w Krzysztof Kieslowski, Krsysztof Piesewicz ph Wieslaw Zdort, Edward Klosinski, Piotr Sobocinski, Krzysztof Pakulski, Slawomir Idziak, Witold Amadek, Dariusz Kus, Andrzej Jaroszewicz, Jacek Blawut ed Ewa Smal m Zbigniew Preisner art Halina Dobrowolska
Henryk Baranowski (Krzysztof), Wojciech Klata (Pawel), Maja Komorowska (Irena), Krystyna Janda (Dorota), Aleksander Bardini (Consultant), Olgierd Lukaszwicz (Andrzej), Daniel Olbrychski (Janusz), Maria Pakulnis (Ewa), Joanna Szczepkowska (Janusz’ wife), Adrianna Biedrzynska (Anka), Janusz Gajos (Michel), Miroslaw Baka (Lazar Jacek), Krzysztof Globisz (Piotr), Jan Tesarz (Taxi driver), Grazyna Szapolowska (Magda), Olaf Lubaszenko (Tomek), Stegania Iwinska (Godmother), Anna Polony (Ewa), Maja Barelkowska (Majka), Wladyslaw Kowalski (Stefan), Boguslaw Linda (Wojtek), Maria Koscialkowska (Sofia), Teresa Marczewska (Elzbieta), Tadeusz Lomnicki (Tailor), Ewa Blaszczyk (Hanka), Piotr Machalica (Roman), Jerzy Stuhr (Jerzy), Zbigniew Zamachowski (Artur), Henryk Bista (Shopkeeper), Artur Barcis (recurring cyclist/man),
Oh, how to convey so briefly the essence of Kieslowski’s masterpiece. Books could be written on it alone, a vast, yet intimate tapestry of daily lives colliding in one small Warsaw apartment block, Dekalog is, in its basic essence, a series of ten tales based loosely on the morals of the Ten Commandents. Each is quite wonderful taken individually, but collectively, they are a shattering, unforgettable experience. So shattering that even the extended versions of parts five and six, A Short Film About Killing and A Short Film About Love, could not be considered, being as they are cogs in a much greater machine.
In “I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt have no Other God Before Me”, a man to whom mathematics is everything pays a heavy price. In “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain” a consultant at a hospital relates his sad life. In “Honour the Sabbath Day” a taxi driver laves his family alone on Christmas Eve to help an ex-mistress in a search. In “Honour Thy Father and Mother” a young female student lives with her architect father and undergoes complications in her life. “In Thou Shalt not Kill” a youth commits a seemingly motiveless murder and is sentenced to death. In “Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery” a postal worker spies on the woman opposite, falling in love with her. In “Thou Shalt Not Steal” a sad twenty something woman is having trouble with her four year old daughter. In “Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness” a female university professor is introduced to an American academic researching the fate of the Jews after World War II. In “Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbour’s Wife”, a surgeon is told he can no longer have children or sex as a result of his promiscuity (AIDS?). In “Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbour’s Goods” two disparate brothers discover a dead man in their father’s flat.
Stanley Kubrick said of Kieslowski and Piesewicz that they “have the very rare ability to dramatise their ideas rather than just talking about them…they do this with such dazzling skill that you don’t realise until much later how profoundly they have reached your heart.” Ne’er a truer word was spoken, for there has never been a more intensely personal, meditative collaboration than that between the two Krzysztofs; they are just on an entirely different plain to everyone else in cinema history. The delicacy with which they treat each individual plot detail is topped only by the incredible ability with which they overlap stories and characters, just as one would do in everyday life. All the performances are immaculate (particular praise to Biedrzynska and Gajos in part four and Stuhr and Zamachowski in the hilarious last part, with its joyous finale as they both purchase the same stamps), but in truth this is collaborative in every sense, a monumental piece of work to shame the shallow emptiness of mainstream Hollywood. There are four hundred stories in the naked apartment block. These have been ten of them.
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I’ve seen this only once, but my impression was that it was great if also uneven: some chapters seemed notably superior to others. I loved the fact that Kieslowski employed a different D.P. and different visual approach for each film; it made the whole experience richer. With your summaries to jog my memory, I recall “Kill” as being the best, but there’s something lush and pleasing about the photography of “Steal.” “Father and Mother” also made a strong impression. I need to see these again, however (it’s been about 2 1/2 years) because my memory of many of them is already sketchy…
Interesting. I almost expected this to reach the very top, and had it done so I wouldn’t have argued. Personally it’s a little airy and thin for my tastes– short stories of any medium have never really been my thing, and in a very basic sense, that’s what this amounts to, the cinematic equivalent of Raymond Carver (not counting the adaptation by way of Altman). I like singular stories that are committed to over long periods of time, instead of choppy bits and pieces, which is what we have here– serial storytelling, as opposed to the merely episodic. It’s one of the reasons it took me so long to warm to McGoohan’s “The Prisoner”, which has so little continuity that people are still arguing over the correct order the episodes should be played in. But when the episodic is handled as well as it is here, with each self-contained nugget somehow informing, implicitly or otherwise, on all the other parts, then the sum is far greater than ought to even be calculated.
Similar reaction to my own, Bob. I too am no fan of short films – excluding animation, experimental, and music video; that is to say, no fan of narrative live-action short films. (I do quite like many short stories, however, particularly those of Chekhov.) That said, the totality that these pieces play a part in makes the whole greater than the sum of its parts. And as I state below, the “airy” “thin” quality of the style is embellished subtly by Kieslowski’s formal mastery and adventurous-without-being-overly-obvious visual approach.
Also the film(s) seems to have had quite an influence on European cinema, and on short filmmaking in general (particularly student films). I’m not always a partisan of the cool, rather calmly observational form (I tend to think it makes good movies, but usually not great ones, not that there’s anything particularly wrong with that). However Kieslowski jazzes up this basic palette with formal imagination, and the style works wonders here.
That quote from Kubrick is also very telling, as Kieslowski was an acknowledged influence on the structure of “Eyes Wide Shut”. I don’t think he came anywhere near the rich, yet economic drama of “The Decalogue” with that last effort, but it’s nice to see that even an old dog like him didn’t think he was too good to learn a few new tricks.
Wheteher you take each episode as a mini-movie or swallow all ten parts in one shot, the fact is that KIESLOWSKI legitimizes himself as one of the greatest auteurs in world cinema with this work. What’s amazing is that THIS work is just a mere warm up for his follow-up masterworks RED, BLUE and THE DOUBLE LIFE OF VERONIQUE. As ecclectic and original as any director that has breathed on this planet, his short career proved talent and ingenuity quicky. I had this film in my top 5 as well, ans I can’t see it being anywhere else. Kieslowski’s premature death in 1995 was a blow to lovers of cinema and he was an example of art in human form. The word MASTERPIECE is justified with this film.
This film is an a prime display for a question posed by my nemesis, Mr. Bob Clark, a few days ago. Is it possible to see a film once and, upon a single viewing, recognize it as a staggering masperpiece or work of art or both? Resoundingly, and I’ll agree with the biggest supporters (Allan and Schmulee), the answer would have to be: YES. Looking at DEKALOG the first time is to see a film-maker not just run to the hurdle, but clear their height without effort. It is an ingenious film that balances perfect narrative structure, philosohical thematics with imagery that goes beyond heightening the dramatics but firmly plant it within the realms of the kind of fine art associated with todays best photo-journalism. The running time may be daunting to some, but I dare say that the first 20 minutes will start the boat sailing and nail the viewer to its chair. I will quote Schmulee’s favorite line of praise: THIS IS A STAGGERING MASTERWORK.
I’m going to continue to disagree with you on this point, Dennis. In my opinion, there’s at least one very important criteria to determining a film’s “masterpiece” status (if we really want to call it that) that you can’t tell if you’ve only watched it once, and that’s the aspect of rewatchability. How does it play on the second time? Better or worse? It’s a very big part of a movie’s longevity, and shouldn’t just be written off as a given.
For all the visual splendor of the Three Colors trilogy and even the earlier Veronique the Dekalog is easily the director’s masterpiece.
You review has inspired me to watch this. Sounds like a forgotten masterpiece. I put the trailer on my site. Hope to find a copy.. Might have to get it online as my DVD store is crap…
Trailer: http://bit.ly/dekalog
I watched the first two parts in one go and walked into town in a daze.
I knew then, as I do now, that I had never seen a greater work of cinema.
“…rich, yet economic drama”
Bob is right. It is so simple and yet so profound.
Again I fully agree Stephen. This is a masterful work.