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The Decalogue, Vol. 1 and 2
Subtitled In: English |
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Kieslowski ran the full range of emotions in the Decalogue -- he'll make you laugh, then cry, then stare in disbelief. In one, he presents a man & his son playing God with a computer; in another, a murder is followed by execution ; a woman lures her lover away from his family on Christmas Eve ; & the delicious black comedy where two brothers inherit their dad's valuable stamp collection .
By Hollywood standards, the Decalogue probably shouldn't exist. Not only is it religiously-themed, but was made on a very small budget & written in under two years. But Kieslowski proved his mastery by creating the one-hour short movies , & loosely stringing them together.
Don't expect the obvious in Kiewslowski's movies. This is no Sunday-school storytelling, with hell awaiting two-dimensional sin. It's a series of delicate, subtle stories about people who seem real, rather than allegorical paper dolls. At times, Kieslowski becomes too heavy-handed, like in the admirable fifth story about capital punishment. Okay, we get it -- all death is terrible. However, he's subtle more often than not.
As with the Colors trilogy, there's a web of interconnected stories, with characters who brush by each other but don't actually touch. Not to mention that mute guy who watches from the sidelines -- a Kieslowski touch. But there the resemblance ends. The settings are bleaker, & the characters are less effervescent. But under the grayness & grime is his undeniable talent, his sense of sadness & gravity, & his sympathy for those who stumble morally.
Krzysztof Kieslowski used a tiny budget & bleak backdrops to create a modern masterpiece, a sprawling movie in ten parts. Watch the commandments, one by one, in the form of the Decalogue.
| Bogusław Linda is a Polish actor known from films such as Psy & Tato. He as also one of the co-founders of the first private-held school for actors in Poland.
Editors Choice: View DVDology |
Krzysztof Kieślowski was an influential Polish film director & screenwriter, known internationally for his film cycles Three Colors & The Decalogue. Kieślowski was born in Warsaw, Poland & grew up in several small towns. At sixteen, he briefly attended a firemen s training school, but dropped out after three months. Without any career goals, he then entered the College for Theatre Technicians in Warsaw because it was run by a relative. He decided to become a theatre director, but at the time there was no specific training program for directors, so he chose to study film as an intermediate step. Leaving college & working as a theatrical tailor, Kieślowski applied to the Łódź Film School & was rejected twice. To avoid compulsory military service during this time, he briefly became an art student & also went on a drastic diet in an attempt to make himself medically unfit for service. After several months of succesfully avoiding the draft, he was accepted to the Łódź Film School on his third attempt.
Posters Of The Ten CommandmentsEditors Choice: Three Colours Blue, Three Colours Red, Three Colours White, A Short Film About Killing, A Short Film About Love, Dekalog, The Ten Commandments, No End, View DVDology