- The sixth film in Kieslowski’s Dekalog – a series of ten moral tales about or surrounding each of the ten commandments. This is a companion to episode five- A Short Film About Killing and both were expanded from the normal 55-60 minutes to a longer 80-90 minute format. This is “thou shalt not commit adultery”
- This is a slow-burn film about a voyeur and an unhealthy obsession. It is nearly impossible to talk about cinema as voyeurism and not bring up Hitchcock (whether it is Rear Window, Vertigo (which leads you to Lynch and Blue Velvet), or Psycho or resulting body of work from De Palma. Powell’s Peeping Tom is always an important text as well. Kieslowski starts with much of that basic premise slowly detailing the creepy surveillance a man following a woman— he’s patient here, building character slowing and it pays off as this turns into both a story of a fixation but also a well-rounded complex character for a shorter film.
- The standout visual in Kieslowski’s work here is the red-stained window pane background first shown at the 23 minute mark. He goes back to it and holds it for a sustained stunning shot at the 43 minute mark as both Grazyna Szapolowska’s Magda and Olaf Lubaszenko’s Tomek (a very rich character) are framed by the window

The standout visual in Kieslowski’s work here is the red-stained window pane background first shown at the 23 minute mark. He goes back to it and holds it for a sustained stunning shot at the 43 minute mark as both Grazyna Szapolowska’s Magda and Olaf Lubaszenko’s Tomek (a very rich character) are framed by the window
- Like almost all of the films in the series Kieslowski upends your initial impression of these characters. Tomek, though disturbed, is genuine, and there is clearly sympathy for him as he goes from perpetrator to victim
- It doesn’t touch the heights of A Short Film About Killing but like episode three there is a clear dedication to a visual aesthetic—here it is the color red (and we’re talking about the future director of the three colours trilogy)—a red bed, red phone, red blood heavily emphasized to mirror and match the motif of the window pane

here it is the color red (and we’re talking about the future director of the three colours trilogy)—a red bed, red phone, red blood heavily emphasized to mirror and match the motif of the window pane
- The angel/devil/observer Artur Barciś character is here in the park
- A highly recommend film- top 10 of the year quality work
I’m very happy about this, but i don’t understand, should i see them in order?
How do you see them? 1-2, 1-2-3, 5-6 or randomly, does the order matter? like i said i’ve never seen the dekalog
@Aldo- I’ll be posting in Dekalog soon. I’ve seen it three times now and what I chose to do was watch it all the way through in order and then substitute A Short Film About Killing for episode 5 and A Short Film About Love for episode 6.
I don’t think you did this film justice. I don’t think it’s primarily about voyeurism and unhealthy obsession. Kieslowski wanted to explore the concept of love in its purest form separate from passion, lust, sex and dive into both vulnerability and power of it.
Both this and ASFAK are similarly constructed with death and love being central motives and the cause of the dramatic change in characters. You correctly said that ASFAK is about two killings. And just like there’s a twist in Jacek’s character depending on what side of death he is, the same thing is happening in ASFAL too with Magda. She goes from frequently changing partners and openly mocking Tomek when he speaks about love to becoming very similar to him after experiencing real, pure love for the first time in her life, as cheesy as it sounds.
Also I don’t have a problem with anybody thinking either of the two films is better but I don’t think there’s a huge gap between them. I never thought I would argue against Kieslowski since I’m higher on him than most, but you overrate ASFAK a little bit. All the best stuff is happening during the killing scene but other than that it’s pretty standard stuff (excluding the filter) throughout the film, especially in the second half.
@Chief Keef. Obviously just saw these two so disagree with your comments. Doesn’t sound like you read the whole page here perhaps- “Like almost all of the films in the series Kieslowski upends your initial impression of these characters. Tomek, though disturbed, is genuine, and there is clearly sympathy for him as he goes from perpetrator to victim”
And I don’t find that to be an accurate description of the brilliance of A Short Film About Killing at all.
Drake, Chief Keef posted a response to this comment, i don’t know if it happened like with my comment in 1929 that was deleted by accident.
But his answer disappeared.
Is this film stronger than Dead Ringers to become the best film of 1988?How was this released in 1988 when Dekalog was released in 1989?
@Anderson- I think this will be head of Dead Ringers but am not 100%. So this film was released at Cannes and Warsaw I think in 1988 . Dekalog wasn’t released until 1989. Weird situation but yeah
Sorry my first comment was addressed to a short film about killing.
[…] six is thou shalt not commit adultery and also known in the longer form as A Short Film About Love– I have some notes on it here—it is another impressive […]