Decalogue (film series)
Dekalog is a ten-part film cycle that was produced for Polish television between 1988 and 1989 and relates to the Ten Commandments . It is considered the masterpiece of the Polish director Krzysztof Kieślowski and has attracted a lot of international attention. Although Kieślowski later became known to a broad international audience through the three-color trilogy and the feature film The Two Lives of Veronica , Dekalog earned him the greatest echo and reputation of film critics and a permanent place in the pantheon of auteur cinema alongside directors such as Michelangelo Antonioni , Ingmar Bergman , Jean-Luc Godard and Andrei Tarkowski .
background
The Decalogue is not a classic television series because the individual parts are self-contained in their plot. However, based on the symbolism typical of Kieślowski, there are occasional connections and similarities. All events take place in the same place, a dreary new development on the outskirts of Warsaw and there is a man (played by Artur Barciś ) who appears in all films except the last one. His role acts independently of the action, but in the meaning of a key function.
The ten parts of the film tie in freely with the Ten Commandments of the Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible ). Ethical aspects are discussed . In the context of the Ten Commandments, Kieślowski shows the importance, complexity and enormous complexity of human passions (especially love, faith, jealousy, death and crime) in relation to today's times and real life circumstances. When depicting the individual topics as parts of reality that are often only perceived by the individual in real life from one point of view, the director, in contrast, allows the viewer to look from many different perspectives, thus expressly allowing doubts and being extraordinarily stimulating to think about. The individual film parts ask questions rather than provide ready-made answers and are among Kieślowski's most intellectually demanding films.
Kieślowski was critical of a journalist when he described his film cycle as “sermons”: “ I categorically protest, my films are not sermons! [...] My films only tell of passions. “In an interview with the French press, when asked whether he believed in God, Kieślowski replied:“ I believe in the Supreme Being, but I don't need any intermediaries ”. He also said about his film when he was asked on the television show 100 questions for ... whether he believed in the "mobilizing power and mission" of his films:
“ To mobilizing power? I don't believe in that. I don't believe in things like that. I didn't want to achieve anything with my films, I didn't want anything at all and I don't think that my films would change anything, I have no illusions. The only thing I think is that someday somebody might think about certain things that are in my films. I made the films just to talk about certain topics, nothing more. "
In this light, the ten parts of the Decalogue are presented as food for thought on the ten commandments, which at first appear so simple, but - as Kieślowski and his co-author Krzysztof Piesiewicz underlined - immediately collide with reality, which is very complex, contradictory and confused Can be contrary to it. The scriptwriters got the inspiration for individual stories from real events, which among other things came from the legal practice of Piesiewicz and were contributed by other members of the team. In some parts, the viewer asks what the film has to do with the respective bid. As is customary with Kieślowski, the films in the Decalogue are also ambiguous and cannot be put into a " briefcase with the inscription ... " (Kieślowski). None of the films has a happy ending , no particular way of life or ethics is propagated, but each of the ten films allows for doubt, the end is often open, and there are different possibilities for interpretation. Decalogue is a description of life as it is, not as it should be. The director's much-vaunted concrete accessible documentary style, which dispenses with exaggerations and any distortion of reality through, for example, unreal heroism of the actors or special effects , comes into its own here too.
The script was written by Krzysztof Kieślowski and his friend, the lawyer Krzysztof Piesiewicz . The music for the film was written by the Krakow composer Zbigniew Preisner .
Decalogue, five and Decalogue, six are under the titles A Short Film About Killing (Jury Prize at the Film Festival in Cannes in 1988 ), and A Short Film About Love also appeared in longer movie versions.
The individual films
| Movie title | Depicted bid |
|---|---|
| Decalogue, one | Thou shalt have no other gods before me. |
| Decalogue, two | Do not abuse the name of the Lord your God. |
| Decalogue, three | Keep the Sabbath day holy. |
| Decalogue, four | Honor your father and mother. |
| Decalogue, five | You should not kill. |
| Decalogue, six | You shall not commit adultery. |
| Decalogue, seven | You shall not steal. |
| Decalogue, eight | You shall not bear false testimony against your neighbor. |
| Decalogue, nine | You shall not covet your neighbor's wife. |
| Decalogue, ten | You shall not covet your neighbor's house. |
Theater editing
In 2005, at the Münchner Kammerspiele , directed by Johan Simons, with Julia Jentsch in one of the leading roles, a four-hour theatrical version entitled The Ten Commandments was created .
The young man
In almost all episodes there is a figure who mostly only appears observing at decisive moments of the episode. In an interview, Kieślowski names this character as follows: There is one character in all ten films who is all of that [...]. Fate, predestination, God, angels, maybe devils. Someone who looks at all that is happening, says nothing, just looks, tired, suffering. In the script the character is only called “The young man” and is played by Artur Barciś , he never says a word and just looks at the others.
Appearances:
- Decalogue 1 - when Krzysztof goes out to check the calculation of the ice cover with the help of the computer, he is sitting on the shore of the lake by a fire. (32 ′)
- Decalogue 2 - he takes a look into Andrzej's hospital room just before Dorota asks the doctor for an answer for the last time. (47 ′)
- Decalogue 3 - he is the driver of the tram Janusz wants to rush into with his taxi. (28 ′)
- Decalogue 4 - when Anka is sitting on the river bank and wants to open her mother's letter, he is rowing on the river and then walking past her, carrying his boat. She then decides not to open the letter. (11 ′) Later in the film his presence is indicated again when a man can be seen from the window of the apartment block carrying the same rowboat on his back.
- Decalogue 5 - sitting in a taxi, Jacek looks at him as he stands on the street as a surveyor. (21 ′)
- Decalogue 6 - it appears twice in this episode. the first time Magda agrees to go out with Tomek, Tomek almost hits him with the milk truck in his delirium (41 ′); the second time, just before Tomek tries to commit suicide, he meets him, laden with suitcases and dressed all in white, on the street in front of his apartment block. (56 ′)
- Decalogue 7 - it does not appear at all or, according to metaphilm [1] , only very fleetingly.
- Decalogue 8 - he is sitting in the lecture hall while the professor listens to Elzbieta's story. Here a little peculiarity occurs: shortly before you see the young man, the camera pans to an empty seat, then a late drunk student walks through a door behind the professor's table into the lecture hall. Then the young man sits on the previously empty place and at the end of the lecture the place is empty again. (15 ′)
- Decalogue 9 - it occurs twice again: the first time after Roman learns of his impotence, he is very tense and loses control of his car, the young man drives past him on his bike (02 ′); the second time Roman tries to kill himself, he rides by again on his bike.
- Decalogue 10 - should not occur
In the interview quoted above, Kieślowski says that the young man appears in each of the ten parts. Where it appears in Parts 7 and 10 is unlikely to be known.
Reviews
Georg Seeßlen writes: “What DEKALOG is definitely not is an 'illustration' of the ten commandments. In fact, it's just ten moral tragedies. These stories go to the fundamentals of being human. "
Awards
The film series received several awards:
- In 1989 Krzysztof Kieślowski received an OCIC Award - Honorable Mention at the Festival Internacional de Cine de Donostia-San Sebastián .
- In 1989 Krzysztof Kieślowski won a Critics Award at the São Paulo International Film Festival .
- In 1989 Krzysztof Kieślowski received a Children and Cinema Award and the FIPRESCI Prize at the Venice International Film Festival .
- In 1990 Krzysztof Kieślowski won the Silver Ribbon as part of the Sindacato Nazionale Giornalisti Cinematografici Italiani .
- In 1991 there were the award of Krzysztof Kieślowski Syndicat Français de la Critique de Cinéma as Best Foreign Film .
- In 1991 Krzysztof Kieślowski received a Bodil in the category of Best European Film .
- In 1997 the film won a Chicago Film Critics Association Awards for Best Foreign Language Film (Poland)
- In 2000 Krzysztof Kieślowski won a National Board of Review in the Outstanding Achievement in Foreign Film category .
References
literature
- Walter Lesch , Matthias Loretan (ed.): The weight of the commandments and the possibilities of art. Krzysztof Kieślowski's «Decalogue» films as ethical models (= studies on theological ethics , vol. 53). Universitätsverlag, Freiburg im Üechtland / Herder, Freiburg 1993, ISBN 3-7278-0910-8 / 3-451-23275-8.
- Jan Ulrich Hasecke: The truth of seeing. The Decalogue by Krzysztof Kieślowski . Charleston 2013, ISBN 978-1-4840-7143-4 (incorrect ISBN).
Web links
- Decalogue in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Filmpolski.pl with photos of all films
- The concept of realism in Krzysztof Kieślowski's Decalogue (film-scientific work)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Dekalog - Warner Bros. Poland or The Decalogue (Special Edition Complete Set) - FACETS / Image Entertainment: Interview as part of 100 questions to ... on Polish television, which is on the Polish DVD as an encore Archiwum (in Polish ) or on the American DVD as Kieslowski Meets the Press (with English subtitles).
- ↑ "Decalogue": a look at the people ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at arte.tv, accessed September 1, 2012
- ↑ Interview with the taz from January 26, 1989 ( Memento from September 2, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Critique by Georg Seeßlen on getidan.de
