• With Tarkovsky gone (died in 1986), Bresson’s last archiveable film behind us (1983) and with Bergman’s last major work in the rearview as well (1982-also, partially, through television)—the stage was clear for Kieslowski to take the mantle of religious cinematic artist. Dekalog (and the A Short Film About…connected projects) is Kieslowski’s first masterpiece. It is an updating of the Ten Commandments — ten individual contemporary tales. Some of the commandments correlate to the episodes very literally while others ruminate the on aspects of the commandments or use them as a jumping off point and deviate. It is an almost unfathomably ambitious undertaking- perhaps LOTR, Apocalypse Now, Intolerance, Fitzcarraldo are comparably ambitious project – Kieslowski shooting over a period of about 18 months
  • The project has weight to it- not just the running time- but the heaviness of the subject matter.  However, it shouldn’t dissuade viewers- this is far from being a slog or a chore to watch. Each film works on its own, I’m not entirely sure they need to be seen in order. The parables are easy to follow and though patient, pretty engaging. Each episode is worthy of contemplation and debate afterwards whether the viewer is a lover of cinema to those just in want/need of being shook intellectually or spiritually.
  • 572 minutes and made for Polish television. It did play at Venice, and A Short Film About Killing debuted at Cannes in 1988, and many places released theatrically it in its entirely or at least the two episodes (5 and 6) extended a little to play on their own in a more palatable normal theatrical running time
  • Part one is “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” and it is pretty literal (the other god being science and the computer in this case). Some of the episodes are not quite so literal. The episode is about a bright, likeable inquisitive chess-playing child, his logic/mathematically driven father, and his religious aunt. Kieslowski slowly unfolds a horrific gut-punch tragedy often bouncing the main narrative off of Artur Barciś as a man sitting by a fire by the lake (he’s a walking motif- an angel/devil/observer character that shows up in I think eight of the ten episodes). A stirring moment is when the father sees the blue ink spill on the desk. There seems to be no cause for the ink to spill, it just does, and then we get the haunting sounds of the siren and ambulance rushing to the water. One of the finest images and scenes throughout the entire running of the ten episodes is when the father, distraught after the accident, goes to the nearby church and pushes the table over spilling the wax, acting as tears, on the mural. Magnificent.

One of the finest images and scenes throughout the entire running of the ten episodes is when the father, distraught after the accident, goes to the nearby church and pushes the table over spilling the wax, acting as tears, on the mural. Magnificent.

A stirring moment is when the father sees the blue ink spill on the desk. There seems to be no cause for the ink to spill, it just does, and then we get the haunting sounds of the siren and ambulance rushing to the water.

  • Part two is thou shalt not take the lord’s name in vein. These are often stories with a max of two to three characters, all set in the same apartment complex in Warsaw or close), and the parable is laid out plainly. This allows Kieslowski to be patient even though he only has about an hour with each drama. Great writing here in episode two (which is probably the most verbal of the ten along with episode eight) “the one thing I know is that I don’t know” from the doctor. Many of the films are about men trying to play God (and failing)– hence swearing to a lie and the commandment.
  • Part three is “remember the Sabbath and keep it holy” and I think it may be the most underrated of the episodes. It doesn’t have the crushing tragedy of episode one, or the heavy subject (episode two is abortion, episode six is capital punishment) but it is the first of the episodes to show a dedication to superior visuals. This story is set on Christmas eve—and red (and a little green) lighting/color permeates almost the entirety of the running time. Kieslowski dwells on the reflecting Christmas lights, red traffic lights, even exaggerating the red light from the inside of the taxi cab on his meter. From inside the cab he’ll show the actors with a red hue just covering their faces. This is Kieslowski’s DP who would go on to direct Red (1994)- Piotr Sobociński. Kieslowski used nine different cinematographers for the ten episodes to give each a different look—but this one is assuredly one of the most ambitiously rendered visually. In fact, I’d find it hard to believe episode three didn’t have an impact on the great Stanley Kubrick. Kubrick was an open admirer (and he didn’t heap praise on many other filmmakers) of Kieslowski and the Christmas light motif here is surely an influence on the same committed use of Christmas lights in Kubrick’s own Eyes Wide Shut.  Kieslowski’s uses the floating camera here more than in episode one (episode two has a nice shot drifting from the woman’s apartment to the doctor’s at the end). A nice frame of the red car at nine minutes. It takes place during one night, and though the tone is a little more playful, it certainly resembles two flawed characters and ex-lovers who can’t quite connect roaming around a city like in an Antonioni film

From inside the cab he’ll show the actors with a red hue just covering their faces. This is Kieslowski’s DP who would go on to direct Three Colours: Red (1994)- Piotr Sobociński.

Kubrick was an open admirer (and he didn’t heap praise on many filmmakers) of Kieslowski and the Christmas light motif here is surely an influence on the same committed use of Christmas lights in Kubrick’s own Eyes Wide Shut

  • Section four is “honor thy father and thy mother”— though the outlines of the stories are straightforward (you could describe the issue at hand in each in a sentence or two—which you definitely can’t do in like The Double Life of Veronique) – Kieslowski makes each character multifaceted and often alters your initial impression of them by the time the hour long story is up. It doesn’t happen terribly often (though you do get the feeling that all of these characters are neighbors in that same Warsaw massive housing complex) but in this story we do bump into the doctor from episode two here in the elevator. The angel/observer guy in the kayak show up as well.

Artur Barciś plays an angel/devil/observer character that shows up in eight of the ten episodes I think

here he is in episode five as a construction worker

  • I’m skipping part five- thou shalt not kill- as I have a page for it here – also known as A Short Film About Killing. It is easily the crown jewel of the series. I think there is a healthy debate to be had as to whether Dekalog as a whole is as strong as the absolutely perfect 84-minute stand-alone film. As a ten- part whole, Dekalog has an undeniable artistic heft to it. Each episode works on it its own, enrichens the rest, they all make you think, are intelligently rendered, brilliant text and subtext. But, only A Short Film About Killing is a dazzling cinematic high-wire act like some of the best films of the 1980’s or of all-time. Of course A Short Film About Killing is part of Dekalog and it isn’t fair to judge Dekalog without it.
  • Chapter 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 entry.
  • Chapter seven is Thou Shalt Not Steal. Kieslowski opens with the camera scaling the apartments. As horrific as the monstrous killer is in chapter five, the mother, or grandmother, here in chapter seven who essentially steals her daughter’s daughter may be the most deplorable character in the series.
  • Chapter eight has a dedicated use of the color green—opening on plants in the park, the green jacket on the zeppelin guy (which would come up again in episode ten). The ethics professor has a green car and they debate, in class, the abortion situation in episode two (with the observer/angel character as a student in the ethics class). This is a very verbal episode.
  • Chapter nine is thou shalt not cover they neighbor’s wife—one of the greatest single frames in the series is the frame at three mins. The glass door with the rain. A stunner. I couldn’t find a pic for it but in the elevator just a few minutes after the glass/rain frame we a great cinematic sequence in the elevator as Kieslowski and his DP Piotr Sobocinski (back from the red Christmas light chapter (3)  and future DP of Three Colours: Red) alternate the light on the actors faces as the elevator moves. This is a variation on the brilliant sequence in Godard’s Pierrot le Fou. There is voyeurism in this episode like chapter six

Chapter nine is thou shalt not cover they neighbor’s wife—one of the greatest single frames in the series is the frame at three mins. The glass door with the rain. A stunner

  • Chapter ten is the stamp collection episode. A story of polar opposite brothers –one a metal rock star and the other a buttoned up business/family man. This features Jerzy Stuhr from Kieslowski’s Camera Buff as the family man brother- he’s a talented actor and comedian. It is a story of obsession as well like episode six- a little lighter than Greed from von Stroheim, Sierra Madre or There Will Be Blood but masterly rendered still and a fitting conclusion to the series.
  • A masterpiece- one of the great and most important works of cinema in the 1980’s