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 Widely hailed as his magnum opus and one of the great works of cinema in general, Krzysztof Kieślowski's Dekalog is a 10-hour TV-series about the moral and philosophical struggles which affect the residents of a featureless apartment building in late-80s Warsaw. The stories are modelled after the Ten Commandments from the Old Testament, and... Wait, where are you going? Okay, so Dekalog doesn't exactly sound like riveting entertainment. It's long, it's low-budget, its subject matter is dour more often than not, and it's based on those boring rules most of us had to memorise in Sunday School. And yet, if you're familiar with Kieślowski's other work (most famously The Double Life of Veronique and the Three Colours trilogy), you know that he has the uncanny ability of taking the most abstract concepts and turning them into immediately relatable stories. The Dekalog is not a lecture or sermon, but rather a collection of tales about individuals faced with real moral dilemmas. There are no clear answers to be found here, and the films never try to push a specific viewpoint. Instead, we're forced to examine our own code of ethics and ponder how we'd approach the depicted issues. As mentioned, Dekalog is technically not a film, though many critics seem to treat it as a monolithic entity, but a collection of 10 films (each running just under an hour) made for Polish TV in 1988 and I believe aired between 1989 and 1990. Each episode features a new story with a completely different cast, and most of them were shot by different DPs as well, their only clear connection being that they're all set in and around the same apartment complex and that almost all feature a mysterious character in a more-or-less cameo function. Despite this seeming disparity, there's a clear unity to the whole experiment, a sense that all episodes are driving at a deep, absolute truth. I won't bother to post descriptions of the plots or any saucy production details, partly out of laziness and partly because you can easily look that stuff up on Wikipedia if you're really interested. Nor do I want to talk in-depth about the Ten Commandments themselves. With ten commandments and ten episodes, it's tempting to try and map each episode to a specific Commandment, but I think that approach is flawed for three reasons. One, there's no universal consensus on what the Commandments are anyway (the Jewish version differs from the Catholic which differs from the Orthodox, which differs from the Lutheran, etc.). Two, upon watching the series you'll notice very quickly that an easy categorisation is impossible. Some Commandments don't appear at all (still waiting for that riveting story about the residents who don't honour the Sabbath) while others appear in multiple episodes or in altered form. Three, I think this mapping approach leads to lazy criticism. Sure, you can say that Dekalog 9 is about adultery and call it a day, but then you're ignoring all the other interesting subtext characterising the relationships. Hell, the two themes that seem to occupy Kieślowski above all - love and loneliness - don't even have a clear-cut Biblical equivalent. Anyway, I didn't make this thread to read my own writing. What I'm interested in is your take on the whole thing. Feel free to discuss whatever suits your fancy. You can talk about individual episodes or the series as a whole, the two feature films that sprung from it (A Short Film About Killing and A Short Film About Love), the moral questions posed and how they made you feel, specific characters or symbols, the sociopolitical environment of Poland in the late 80s, the weather, or how amazing that shot of the insect crawling out of the glass is (I know, right?). More than anything, I hope this thread encourages those of you who haven't seen it yet to watch the Dekalog. You don't have to do it in one sitting by any means, the episodes all stand on their own and only occupy an hour of your valuable time each. Don't be turned off by all those claims you heard about how it's a totally heavy and depressing experience either. Yes, the stories revolve around difficult subject and some of them don't have happy endings, but the whole project is so life-affirming, so fully convinced of the human ability to do good and be good that I cannot in good conscience call it anything other than inspiring. Edit: Looks like I messed up the formatting for the title. I'd be grateful if GonSmithe or another mod could fix that. Samuel Clemens fucked around with this message at 15:23 on Sep 17, 2018 |
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Sep 17, 2018 14:53
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This is coming up soon in my endeavor to complete the TSPDT list. But your thread has inspired me to bump it up in priority. I've seen (and own) The Double Life of Veronique and the Three Colors trilogy. Kieślowski's able to conjure up some deep emotions in me like few other filmmakers can. I'm a fan. I'm stoked to watch Dekalog and write my thoughts down here. I can't promise it'll be soon (the horror challenge is kinda controlling my life currently), but I'll be sure to find this thread once I do.
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Sep 17, 2018 15:52
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I absolutely hated Dekalog One when I ran through the series last year. Unsubtle, melodramatic, and with a nonsensical message. The stretch from Four to Seven, however, could be the highlight of Kieslowski’s career. Five is on a mountain way above the rest (are the legends that it basically caused Poland to ban the death penalty true? Because drat.), but Four is my pick for undersung second-favorite. Kieslowski really excelled at these chamber drama pieces.
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Sep 17, 2018 22:36
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Even after watching all ten episodes I was completely ready to put in another disc and watch episodes 11, 12 and 13. That's how good it is. All the stories feel so authentic and despite the sometimes dramatic, lurid and violent subject matter they aren't Hollywoodized at all. They're still grounded in a genuine ordinariness. oneforthevine posted:The stretch from Four to Seven, however, could be the highlight of Kieslowski’s career. Five is on a mountain way above the rest (are the legends that it basically caused Poland to ban the death penalty true? Because drat.), but Four is my pick for undersung second-favorite. Kieslowski really excelled at these chamber drama pieces. Looking back I believe 8 and 10 are my favorites. Samuel Clemens posted:There are no clear answers to be found here, and the films never try to push a specific viewpoint. Instead, we're forced to examine our own code of ethics and ponder how we'd approach the depicted issues. Some of the time it seems that if the characters had followed the commandments they wouldn't have been in their current predicaments. oneforthevine posted:I absolutely hated Dekalog One when I ran through the series last year. Unsubtle, melodramatic, and with a nonsensical message. What was nonsensical?
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Sep 17, 2018 23:58
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oneforthevine posted:Five is on a mountain way above the rest (are the legends that it basically caused Poland to ban the death penalty true? Because drat.), but Four is my pick for undersung second-favorite. It's somwehat of an exaggeration. By the time A Short Film About Killing hit the theatres, there was already a lively debate surrounding the death penalty in Poland. So the film didn't introduce the issue so much as express a view that many citizens held at that point. Poland didn't officially abolish the death penalty until 1998, though only a few sentences were passed after 1988, and none of them were carried out. But a wise man once said that you should never let facts get in the way of a good story. I don't know which of the episodes I would pick as my favourite, but four is definitely the one I respect the most due to its sheer audacity. It's uncomfortable in a way that none of the others can match, and it genuinely managed to challenge my own moral beliefs. Zogo posted:Some of the time it seems that if the characters had followed the commandments they wouldn't have been in their current predicaments. That's true, but what I found interesting is how often these commandments only feel like the setup to a different moral dilemma. Episode two starts with an act of adultery, but the dilemma we're facing is more about parenthood and loyalty. Three starts with a lie, but then centres more on loneliness and our relationship to people we once cared about. Five shows an act of murder, but then asks how society should deal with such an act. It almost feels like Kieślowski takes it for granted that humans violate the Ten Commandments. What really interests him is where we go from there. I think episode one most closely fits the "break a commandment, get punished" mold, though there's a curious lack of righteousness to the act. Killing a child to punish his father is not something we can easily square with our society's ethical framework, which is perhaps why the ending seems so disquieting.
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Sep 19, 2018 11:01
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