The Decalogue (TV Mini Series) Dekalog, jeden (1989) User Reviews

Incomprehensibly Heartbreaking

[zachsaltz · 10/10 · 15 September 2005]

What this movie manages to do for the viewer in a mere 53 minutes even the most powerful three hour epic cannot accomplish. Simply said, the polarized emotions yielded by this masterpiece puts "Million Dollar Baby" and "Schindler's List" to shame. It has the ability to change lives.

Words escape me that describe the power of the film. I consider "The Decalogue" the greatest cinematic achievement of all time, and this, its first episode, is also its best. It's one of the only surefire ways of making me cry, and occasionally tears will swell up just thinking about it.

The story seems conspicuously simple. The main characters are a middle-aged professor at a Warsaw university and his extremely intelligent son, about 10 years old. We see them in their everyday lives: Showing off their high-tech computer system, playing a game of chess, saying goodnight to each other, etc. Everything is profoundly normal the first half of the film - so ordinary that we cannot see the tragic event that is to soon unfold.

That being said, the last 10 minutes of this film are unlike anything that has ever been committed to celluloid. There are images that will stick in your mind forever - one involving burning wax flowing on to a picture, another involving a blue television screen. The story is so simple and the film seems so short - and yet, like a beautiful short story, gives us everything and nothing more.

"The Decaloge: Episode One" is captivating, exhilarating and profound. It's unforgettable. It's heartbreaking, yes, but also redemptive. The other episodes of "The Decalogue" are also mesmerizing - especially 4,5,6 and 7 - but none of them - indeed, nothing in the history of film - compares to the subtle magnificence of this first episode. Run, don't walk, to the video store. 10/10.

Amazing...

[gravity_eyelids · 10/10 · 2 February 2003]

I've seen parts one, seven, and eight. Of the three Part One is definitely the most moving. Somehow it just seemed so realistic. It really drove the point of human logic being fallible. In fact, I was so absorbed in the movie that immediately after watching it I almost felt like I had been the one involved in the spiritual crisis.

I really appreciate how Kieslowski managed to convey the essence of the first commandment (Thou shalt have no other God before me) without being preachy. In fact, religion hardly came into play at all. This gave the film a more universal appeal, by expressing themes that are relevant to those outside of the Christian religion.

The cinematography is impressive, especially this one scene where an ink blot appears from nowhere on the main character's work. It really sets the stage for the ending.

Of all Kieslowski's works that I have seen so far, this is easily the one I appreciate the most.

Thin ice

[jotix100 · 10/10 · 30 October 2006]

The first episode of Krzsztof Kieslowski sets the tone for the nine episodes that follow. Based loosely on the theme of the Ten Commandments, the director, and his collaborator, Krzsztof Piesiewicz, expanded on the idea of "I am the Lord, thy God, thou shalt not have any other God but me", the first commandment of the ten.

The premise is simple enough, yet there are so many things Kieslowski touches upon, that even a longer version of the commandment wouldn't come across as clear as the director presents it to his audience. We meet the young, sweet Pawel, whose father works at a university as a professor. Pawel comes home to ask his dad about subjects that coming from the mouth of such a young boy, make his father unsure about what to answer, even from a learned man like himself.

Pawel and his father love their computers in which the father creates mathematic problems for the young boy to solve. They are also into playing chess. We watch as the father beats a woman who must be some sort of champion and has not lost until she plays the father. When Pawel discovers the hidden ice skates meant for him to have for Christmas, he asks his father's permission to go to the nearby lake. The father having checked his computer, and based on the numbers he got back, allows the boy to go skating but not to go too far out.

Kieslowski makes Pawel question his father in all matters of life and death. The father gives his son answers from the way he perceives life around him; after all, he is a man whose knowledge is based on science. The father's faith is questioned after the tragedy that involves Pawel and makes him look inside himself to make sense of the way things happened. Kieslowski makes clear that the world of science and the world of religion, while not mixing at all, clash because Krzsztof, the agnostic professor has no use for a higher, and unknown power.

The three actors who appear in this segment are nothing short of perfection. Henryk Baranowski is the father. The excellent Maja Komorowska, plays Irina, the aunt, and the sweet Wojciech Klala is seen as Pawel.

Kiewslowski, one of the most humanistic directors from Poland, clearly demonstrates why he was one of the best. His untimely death came much too early. He is sadly missed.

A great start to an amazing series

[Look Closer · 16 September 2002]

While it's not my favourite OR least favourite of the series episode one is definitely a good measuring stick for those who are trying to decide whether or not to spend another 9 hours of their lives watching Kieslowski's masterpiece. Most of the elements that make this series brilliant and sometimes frustrating are laid out in this first powerful episode.

One thing that really made this episode great for me were the conscious directorial choices of Kieslowski. While few people would dispute Kieslowski's merits as an actor's director, he's never given much credit for his so called 'minimal' direction in terms of camera work or editing. (SPOILERS AHEAD) Consider the scene where the the boy is being fished out of the lake, how Kieslowski's camera not only lingers for much of the entire process making it all the more painful. But all the while the camera remains among the spectators far away straining to get a good look emulating the perspective of the father. Kieslowski's choice to have the father be unworried rather than hysterical after he's first told his son has fallen through the ice in itself reveals so much about his character's confidence in his calculations and technology than any speech could have. While the choice to focus on and shoot the father's lecture from the viewpoint of the son give's the viewer a sense of the son's pride and wonder at his father.

Decalogue One could most likely function as a silent film as most of its best parts are already without dialogue (such as the scene following the tragedy where the father is left staring at his computer screen). I say this not to discount the immense contribution of the Krzysztofs' dialogue but to herald Kieslowski's deft direction. After all, it is Decalogue's haunting images that stay with us long after we've seen it and lift this series high above most other films.

The fallacy of human life. This comment may contain spoilers

[Aquilant · 9/10 · 11 March 2005]

I beg to call your kind attention to the first sequences: glacial reflexes of light over the lake slightly lapped by the reddish bonfire by the shore where the mysterious man, living symbol of the commandment, is sitting impassibly; a television screen on the other side of the shop-window showing us the thoughtless image of a boy running towards the camera. Details, metaphors, clues supplied by Kieslowski in order to test our attention, to help us to understand the subtle, implicit meaning of the whole story, intended to create a definite rhythm by means of their logical way of linking together. And then the striking contrast between the vitality of the pigeons fed by the boy and the scent of death all around the dog left to rot into the snow, prelude to an unquiet duologue between father and son, full of apparently disarming banality. "What's the matter of feeding the pigeons if then a poor dog is left to freeze to death?" asks the boy "and why the people die? What's the meaning of death?" "The heart stops to pump blood; no blood goes to the brain and everything stops." answers the omniscient father, "Only the memories of our actions are left." "And what's the soul?" the boy goes on. "The soul doesn't exist. Men believe in the existence of the soul only to live better!" answers the father sharply. Life is a gift, he says, "life" means an open attitude towards our fellowmen, that's all. But this gift may be taken away from one moment to another: how many times our existence gives us broken promises and wrong certitudes? Very often, according to Kieslowski. Therefore our trusting in the foresight of a cold, deified computer could prove harmful if the fate takes delight to play unkind tricks on us, inserting an unexpected variant to the weather forecast not foreseen by human mental apparatus. Kieslowski pries into the individual uncertainties, into the frailty of the common man caught unawares, deprived of all his certainties, bereaved of his misleading, trans-codified dialectics, betrayed by a cold device absolutely unable to calculate the intrinsic value of our soul, forewarned by many disquieting omens: a bottle of ink mysteriously broken that wraps many pages of documents in a discomforting blue, an alarming ring of the bell, the firemen's siren going full blast, a phone call full of uncertainties, people running upstairs excitedly, a teacher down with the flu, an old man in the elevator with an hostile attitude, the "milicja's" car running towards the lake and then, sharp as a stab in the stomach, the final corroboration, as a proof of the disarming unpredictability of the reality. After all, the Dekalog series describe the unfruitful dialectics about the conflict between the will of understanding the world and the impossibility of understanding it; this story in particular may led us to reflect upon the transiency of human life and the fallacy of human talent. But disillusions though painful may bring us to the truth and a misleading look at the machinery of our existence can bring the people ceding control to a machine to a useless rebellion against the Divinity (symbolized here by the Picture of the Madonna of Jazna Gora with tears in her eyes).

A modern parable

[bruceevan · 10/10 · 6 March 1999]

"I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt have no other gods but me." One of the world's great humanist filmmakers, Kieslowski gives us a story of a rationalist father, a spiritualist aunt, and a boy trying to come to terms with their conflicting views of the world. The boy's father, a college professor, allows his son to go ice skating after proving to himself through physics that the ice is safe. Through Kieslowski's eyes, this seemingly small, simple plot affords a vehicle for metaphysical questioning and psychological exploration on a grand scale.

"I am the Lord thy God; thou shalt have no other God but me."

[ackstasis · 10/10 · 17 May 2007]

Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski's ten-part miniseries, 'Dekalog,' is widely considered to be one of the one of the most stunning pieces of film-making in recent decades, or, indeed, of all time. Each of the one-hour-long films represents one of the Ten Commandments and explores possible meanings of the commandment, within a fictional story set in modern Poland. Despite being a staunch atheist myself, outstanding film-making is not something that I'm inclined to overlook, and so I sought out the 'Dekalog.' Searching high and low for the opportunity to acquire these films for myself, it was some months before I finally got my hands on them. At the time of writing this review, I have only watched the first one-hour film in the series, "Dekalog, jeden" and it goes without saying that I am already monumentally impressed.

Pawel (Wojciech Klata) is a curious and extremely intelligent young boy, filled with questions of life, its meanings and of death. He is raised by his kind and loving father, Krzysztof (Henryk Baranowski), a university professor with a staunch belief in the rationality of mathematics and logic. However, Pawel's auntie, Irena (Maja Komorowska), is concerned that Pawel is receiving inadequate spiritual education, and so requests that he be allowed to attend religious classes if he wished to. Krzystof, despite being an agnostic, is enthusiastic about this, though it's obvious that his own complete dependence upon computers, numbers, calculations and absolute conclusions has influenced his impressionable young son.

In the absolute heartbreaking final sequences, Krzysztof is ultimately faced with the unpredictability of fate. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away. Considering that Kieslowski had less than fifty minutes to build up to the ending, it is truly remarkable how much emotion he able to generate, keeping the tragic outcome an ominous but uncertain possibility for quite a long time, before our worst fears are eventually confirmed. In less than one hour, the episode has developed more emotional intensity than 95% of the feature-length films that you will see. Though he co-wrote (with Krzysztof Piesiewicz) and directed each episode himself, Kieslowski decided to choose different cinematographers for most of the films; for this one, it is Wieslaw Zdort, who does an incredible job of capturing the emotion of each moment, often using extreme close-ups to powerful effect. The acting is pretty much perfect, and I was particularly impressed with young Wojciech Klata, who delivered a phenomenal performance considering his age.

Also, it must be asked, who is the voiceless man in the sheepskin (Artur Barcis), an unspoken presence throughout the story, perched silently in front of a campfire amidst Poland's bitter winter cold? If what I have read is anything to go by, I have not seen the last of this solemn young character.

Kieslowski shows us a fight between science and human faith.

[FilmCriticLalitRao · 10/10 · 20 August 2008]

It is true that Dekalog 1 was made 20 years ago by Kieslowski.A thing that can be said about human emotions is that they will however remain same regardless of the time factor.In the last two decades,a lot has changed in Poland and elsewhere.It is also true that contemporary computers do not look the same as they looked when they were filmed for this film but a big lesson for humanity that can be learnt from this film concerns the loss of a child which is a human being's greatest loss as other losses can be recouped but one can never recover a lost person."Dekalog,Jeden" is a great film by Kieslowski as it is one of the few successful films which challenge the supremacy of science over human faith and religion.Faith and Religion have become two of the most important topics of human existence and current day kids are readying themselves to search answers about them.This is also the case with this film's protagonist,a young boy named Pawel who is torn between two extremes.His inquisitiveness forces him to ask so many relevant but unsuitable questions for kids.His love for his father forces him to think of him as his god.This is an act which requires absolute dedication As in other films of this series,there is neither denial nor avowal of god.It is not the severe cold of Warsaw's snow capped buildings which is causing the most damage,it is the coldness of feelings,coldness of human heart which is harming human relationships beyond repair.

Exploring mourning

[mmarini · 9/10 · 12 June 2001]

Like in a Kafka book, a character is cool and rational, but suddenly sees everything around falling down. He painfully sees that the mystery of evil can't be explained by the faith in God or by the bare cause-effect paradigm. Mourning is indeed more painful, if you can't explain why an accident happens, and the movie is about this (or, my interpretation). Despite something ingenuity about computers and despite the low budget, the movie is tremendous and wonderful.

'Dekalog': Part 1- The idolisation of science and the sanctity of God and worship

[TheLittleSongbird · 10/10 · 10 February 2017]

'Dekalog' is a towering achievement and a televisual masterpiece that puts many feature films to shame. Although a big admirer of Krzysztof Kieślowski (a gifted director taken from us too early), and who has yet to be disappointed by him, to me 'Dekalog' and 'Three Colours: Red' sees him at his best.

Episode 1 of 'Dekalog' is one of its best episodes, and not only is it of the most thought-provoking and poignant pieces of television (or any kind of visual medium) there is but it's also one of the best first episodes personally seen for any television series. Would even go as far to say that it moved and interested me more than most thought-provoking and emotional feature films double its length.

As to be expected from Kieslowski, it is both beautiful and haunting to look at, with photography that's startling in its beauty and atmosphere. All of the 'Dekalog' series is visually stunning, and Episode 1 is one of the best-looking, and here especially in the final scene the photography actually enhances the emotional wallop to a scene that is heart-breaking already. The direction is intelligent and unobtrusive, while the music is hauntingly intricate.

The story is deliberately paced but never dull, the whole idolisation of science concept is explored with great intelligence while the final 10 minutes affected me (and very deeply) more than any other film or anything television-related in a while, much of it without dialogue and more through moods and expressions. The themes and ideals are used to full potential, and the characters and their relationships and conflicts feel so real and emotionally resonant without being heavy-handed. Despite being based around one of the ten commandments, don't let that put you off, resemblance to religion is relatively scant.

Couldn't have asked for better performances, Henryk Baranowski, Wojciech Klata and Maja Komorowska give remarkably complex and nuanced portrayals. Baranowski is especially outstanding, especially in the scenes detailing the aftermath of the tragedy, but Klata shows amazing maturity and naturalness for his age.

Overall, simply brilliant. 10/10 Bethany Cox

simply superb!

[gangadharpanday · 7/10 · 24 October 2005]

i just watched this film screened at the Hyderabad Film Club. the way i was taken into a different world and the way the film has arrested my attention, how the film took me along the path of subtle emotions, it is just superb. i was spellbound by the knack wherein the hard fact is slowly allowed to sink into the audience in the climax of the film. i thoroughly enjoyed the conversations of the boy with his father and aunt-the joy of winning the chess game, boy's probing questions about death, etc., the work of the little girl, neighbour's daughter, is excellent, though short. the technical values of the film, cinematography and background score in particular are good. i thank Mr. Bhushan Kalyaan for sparing the DVD for screening.

The power of simplicity

[snoozejonc · 10/10 · 14 September 2023]

Although the content is pretty complex and open to various interpretation, the narrative of Dekalog, jeden combines simple visual storytelling with a thought provoking central theme. It achieves this with powerful imagery and a small number of philosophical conversations between a child and two adults with contrasting world views.

Virtually every shot is memorable, particularly the green glowing images associated with the computer, the focus on characters facial expressions and body language, the spilling ink, the Madonna's tears, the appearance of ice and the incredibly bleak winter scenes. Everything is enhanced by the musical score.

As the story unfolds towards a conclusion the tension substantially increases to an almost unbearable level. Kieslowski gets you to invest in the characters and hits hard with a feeling of inevitable doom after a key decision is made. If you are a parent you might find it hits like a sledgehammer.

All actors do great work and take part of the credit, but the camera conveys so much.

polanski, bergman, and some kafka

[loydmooney · 4/10 · 26 February 2005]

Very strange. But meant to be. This director is his own man. Even through there are strains if Polanski, Bergman, and Kafka at least in the episode no 6, the peeping tom one. What made it all so strange, and reminiscent of the above three artists, was that it went all over the place, you never knew where it was headed, and could have ended anyplace, and finally when it did end, could have kept going. The ending is hardly a finality, nobody could tell you what these two characters would be doing in even the next frame. One other thing should be said about the director: No wonder Kubrick found him fascinating. There is a lot of Eyes Wide Shut in this episode somehow, in the direct approach to character, the realistic fantasy elements of both. A Kubrick placement of the camera without any of the stark effects, much more washed out, and hurried, not as fussed over. That said, back to the beginning, still this guy has his own things to say and says them well. Yet, for some reason, there is not a single scene I ever want to see again. But definitely did not feel ripped off in the least watching it one time around. But I did keep getting the feeling of three or four other directors ghosts moving through the parade, blurring everything. The caveat being that it was only episode six: the other nine might give me entirely different takes. But since this episode revolved around peeping, looking, the absolute domain of film, I will say this, he took none of the usual routes, definitely went his own way while carrying the baggage of a lot of good directors behind him.

The representation of ink blots as a painful forewarning

[ThreeSadTigers · 19 March 2008]

I'm currently embarking on a personal viewing odyssey; to watch an episode from the Dekalog each night, and then comment on them the next morning. This means that the comments will be directed exclusively to the episode in question, with no possibility of discovering the foreshadowing of later events until I look back on the entire series at the end of its run and make my final evaluation. Last night I watched the first episode of the series and already I'm fascinated by the director's bold grasp of narrative unfolding.

The film opens with a few random scenes or perhaps, scenes that first appear to be random, but in fact, have a greater significance overall. Firstly, a possibly homeless man sits by a frozen lake with his back to the camera. Around him the dingy flat-blocks sprout from the landscape and surround him like imposing tombs of grey concrete. The colour scheme here is almost monochromatic, until we cut to a scene of a mournful man, sat in quiet contemplation. Something has happened, but we don't know what, as yet. We then cut to a nocturnal street scene. A similarly melancholic soul wanders aimlessly, stopping by a window and glancing at the television beyond, which shows the flickering, black and white, slow-motion images of smiling children running headlong towards the camera. The woman cries and the story begins.

I've been a great admirer of Kieslowski for a number of years, citing films like Blind Chance, The Double Life of Veronique, A Short Film about Killing and the Three Colours Trilogy as some of the most important, life-altering works of cinema this side of Tarkovsky. Blind Chance was his previous film before starting the Dekalog and was a film that looked specifically at the notions of predetermined fate and prediction. Here, we see that notion continued, with Kieslowski and Piesiewicz showing the effect of fate in relation to the notion of personal faith, or lack thereof. The focus of the film is a middle-aged, divorced professor and his young son; a similar mathematical protégé. The pair delight in developing equations, safe in the knowledge that everything in life can be discovered and evaluated through the process of numerical thought. However, when the young boy discovers the body of a local dog frozen in the snow, he questions his father's belief system in relation to that of his aunt, a devout Catholic, and finds that, in the eyes of his father, death is the end; there is no heaven and we all have no soul.

As the film moves towards its climax, the narrative becomes centred on the father's predictions and his son's obsession with taking his new ice-skates out onto the lake (still watched by the same, pensive homeless man; who I'd imagine will return in a later episode). The mood becomes more ominous, with the director juggling both the social and dramatic consequences of the script with something more divine and other-worldly. The dead dog acts as a forewarning to later events, as does the discussion of the soul; though Kieslowski's greatest artistic touch is with the slowly emerging ink blot permeating through the father's notes and statistical equations. This is the slow realisation of something greater at work and a great emotional signifier to the suffocating outcome of the plot.

As the film comes to a close, Kieslowski replays the scenes from the opening of the film and we suddenly realise where they came from. From this, Dekalog One is without question one of Kieslowski's greatest works; a towering creative achievement that reveals itself to the viewer slowly and ends in a way that leaves the viewer desperate to go back and experience it again.

A deep conflict about the human existence.

[Behdinderakhshan · 9/10 · 27 June 2023]

A deep conflict about the human existence.

When there is death then whats the meaning of all this?

Dekalog first episode reveals up one of the deepest parts of human existence in a way that only Krzysztof Kieslowski can.

The movie is about human souls trapped in a modern world of science and computers, in a world which no questions remain unanswered; A man without god living with his son whom is lost in finding the true meaning of death, and a mother who is concerned with her sons religious lessons.

Throughout the movie just like the real life we constantly feel the shadow of death over everything.

Trying to give meaning to everything we do but almost always giving up and falling somewhere due to the presence of death.

The episode one, is about how death finally rules over every lies and truths, joys and sufferings, And ending it all together.

So Very Poignant!

[Hitchcoc · 10/10 · 10 June 2021]

I have to say, I was totally unfamiliar with this work. I rented the first set of three films. This one was so very touching and heartbreaking. The first commandment is to have no other god before me. The mathematician feels he can use his gifts to interpret and, in some cases, control his world. We see the child using a computer to turn one a water spigot, for instance. When the boy decides to go skating, of course he uses numbers to indicate that it is safe. He stupidly denies the possibility that the ice would break when the boys skate after it happens. This puts a lump in your throat. I was so happy it wasn't preachy. The actors showed us the pain of a human being who has lost everything.

Up-to-the-minute in the age of AI

[MichaelPoriotis7 · 9/10 · 30 April 2024]

It's not necessary at all to repeat the worth and the offer of the 'Dekalog''s director in the cinema history and in the symbolic interaction. I read all the critic reviews that cover totally this part.

As the most of these reviews are written at about during the first decade of 2000's, I would like to underline the connection of this film in the 2020's. The technology steps on, but the uncertainty of the life doesn't change. This film should help us to realize that Artificial Intelligence and the digitalization of our lifes cannot transform the human nature in supernatural superiority.

"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind'. No matter if against that the communist computer science of the late '80s or the neo-liberal AI of the 2020s is placed.

impressive, creative idea

[gogosaeed225G · 9/10 · 22 April 2024]

I Heard a lot about these movies, i kept it in my watchlist for awhile now, now i have just watched the first movie and i liked it. Hah being born as a Muslim in a religious country make this movie hits me different because i'm agnostic now, but the ending is representing me in dark times, Always.

Life is a big mystery it's not only science that leads and illuminate the way. Sometimes there are things that are bigger than us. Although being an agnostic, i believe in destiny in a way.

What's destiny? I don't know!..in religion is fate and it's just something meant to be and meant to happen to you.

When his son was dying there were signs for him that there's something bad happened or happening now but he stop for a minute and started counting 1 2 3 4 5 , to calm himself down and to say to his self "we don't believe in signs and that kind of things", but still he was unsure. After the death of his son he went to church asking why? Why this happened, he got the math right! Isn't he!..but some stuff just happen even if you got the math right and science right and everything right, it just happen. It was meant to be, meant to happen. No Matter where the humens go we still humens, weak creatures and have limits. That's why we made up religions and the ideas of a bigger creature. Maybe there's one really and maybe not! Who knows!. That's why when something so big happen to us we crawl back to "God" we ask we pray we try. Because what else to do! There's nothing else. But did he ever answer?

I like the idea of the movie and relate to it so much but it will not convert me back to being a believer. Sometimes bad things happen and it's what it is. If he was a believer it wouldn't have changed anything his boy was still going to die anyway. Because it's his fate and distny. It's a sad idea. Sad that we don't know so many and helpless but this is the truth.

I loved discussing this idea here with myself. This is what i love about movies and good cinema it makes you think and ask and answer. I wish i was with my partner now i wish to find the one, the one i will discuss everything with.

Now back to the movie, i loved that he was honest with his kid when he asked about death, i loved the answer he gave him. But i think it's better for kids to be raised as believers. It's the way i was raised and yes it was a tragedy finding out that everything i have been taught was a lie but i wouldn't change a thing regards religion. I enjoyed being a Muslim for a while and it gave me perspective big one on how believers think feel and act, where there actions are coming from. I wouldn't know any of this if i wasn't born a Muslim. Love the movie love the idea, and lovvvve the ending, the painting in final it's so moving and so beautiful. Excited to watch the rest.

Less is More

[armagnac23 · 15 October 2003]

I find the Dekalog series to be brilliant. The first episode is one of the most memorable for me, and the most sad. The sense of loss is realistically conveyed, and brought tears to my eyes. It was an amazing intro to a wonderful series.

Decalogue 1

[Michael_Elliott · 14 November 2008]

Decalogue: One, The (1989)

**** (out of 4)

The first film out of ten tells the story of a father (Henryk Baranowski) and his son (Wojciech Klala) who do everything they can together. The father teaching his son that any of life's problems can be solved through mathematics and that there can be done on their high tech computer. One day the son finds his Christmas gift, a pair of skates, and asks his father if he can go out on the lake. The father does the math on the computer and determines that the ice is strong enough to hold his son and lets him go but soon something isn't right. This first film is centered around the verse "I am the Lord thy God; thou shalt have no other God but me" and it's really interesting how the director/writer uses this popular commandment and yet doesn't tell the story in a traditional way. This was the first film I've seen from the director so I'm really not sure if this was the right place to start or not but this film certainly leaves an impression on a new viewer. I've seen countless films that deal with religion but never one as unique as this one here because the usual way a religious story is told isn't found here as this work comes off totally original and unlike anything I've seen before. I think everyone can read that verse and decide what it means yet the way everything is handled here just makes that saying even more interesting. One could debate how the father was bringing his son up in comparisons to how his sister (Maja Komorowska) would do the job. There are so many calm and quiet moments in this film that it's easy not to pick up on the power behind them. The most noticeable sequence is the mysterious man (Artur Barcis) seen sitting besides the lake. An even more powerful scene happens when the father spills some ink. You can say the spilling of the ink means nothing yet the director gets the point he wants to make across so perfectly that it comes off quite chilling. The performances from the three stars are incredible to say the least and that's certainly true for the young boy who is extremely remarkable considering his young age. There are many entertaining or great films that hit you while you watch them but later the movie just fades from your memory. This one here is the type that you might not realize how powerful it is until minutes, hours or even days later when the memory is still with you and you come to see and feel new things about it. I'm only minutes away from the movie coming to an end and its impact is just slipping into me.

Spilled Ink

[tedg · 28 April 2005]

This is the first film in the celebrated series of ten. Pay attention and the filmmaker introduces himself to us and indicates what is to come.

It is a particularly Polish idea (especially during communist rule) to have a superficial story and a more important subtext woven underneath. In this case, we have one level, ostensibly each film being derived from one of the ten commandments, in order. (This isn't quite true, but never mind.)

On that skeleton, Kieslowski's collaborator has written some fairly deft scenarios, each with an obvious problem and moral. Under that narrative, Kieslowski plants his own, purely cinematic insights, insights that often (but not here) are independent of the story.

In this film, those insights are on the nature of narrative, watching and calculation as it pertains to art. If you see it, you can readily extract a phrase to describe what he intends, but the point is that no such sum should ever be derived from what he does.

I've read all sorts of comparisons between this artist and others that seem to miss the point. Only in this one of the ten does our man brush up against concerns shared by Kubrick. But for Stanley, it was his reason to be. In this case, it is merely an essay on what is to follow.

Most filmmakers position themselves as one of the seven types of watchers that are available. All these choices are external of the narrative in the most important way. Kieslowski chooses to place himself, his eye (and therefore us) within the shared skin of the characters. It is a delicate trick, resulting from thousands of decisions a minute, made more difficult by working with a different camera operator each film.

But it is a matter of intuition, and cannot possibly be calculated or written in any way (other than giving the metaphysically obsessed character here -- someone who literally teaches semiotics -- the same name). His model is Tarkovsky before he drifted too close to the hamfisted Bergman.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

About faith

[Kirpianuscus · 27 October 2018]

After decades, for me, it remains the best Christian film. For symbols and impecable cinematography. For the great performances. For the eyes of young Pawel. For the icon of Mother of God from Czestochowa. For the pictures of John Paul II. For the green screen of computer. And for something who escapes to words. A feeling, an emotion, a delicate sketch of pain, a lesson about faith and trust and illusion, the loss of God and the way to him. Each episode is an admirable job but the first , for me, remains Dekalog in the most profound sense. In past, it was significant for the clash of the fall of East European communism. In present, for the great art of an unique, pure genius director. A boy, his father, his aunt and a frozen lake. And the answer of a computer. A tragedy- its roots and meanings as a kind of mirror reflection.

A powerful parable indeed!

[3Colori · 7 July 1999]

Our ability to control our destiny is as thin as the ice of the lake on which the young boy finds his death, unpredictably melted by the fire lighted by a mysterious figure (God? Fate?) on the lake shore. As usual, if you can stand slow-motion, almost speechless Kieslowski movies, lots of food for thought! Worth seeing again and again, revealing new details and levels of meaning at each sight.

Dekalog 1

[chaos-rampant · 12 March 2016]

And so I begin my way up the Dekalog, looking to come down on the other side into Kieslowski's Three Colors.

The template for the whole Dekalog is here in brief form; a world that seems to hold together for a while but comes undone with questions about the order of the things we see when the surface gives way. It's so simple, this one, you may overlook what a stunning piece he has crafted.

There's a father (later shown to be a linguist professor) who posits the world as the total sum of discoverable facts whose mechanism can be known and yet (as he explains in class) facts (words, phrases) spring from a metaphysical ground that mulls and decides on the meaning. His son asks him about death and the soul.

It's all in the marvelous ending that revisits the opening images. As loss floods his world and makes the ground give way, Kieslowski asks, how will you cope now? How will you come to terms with inevitably transient life if all you have is the horrible realization that you are to blame for buying the ice skates? The father's own worldview, hinging on one fact causing the other, leaves him no other option.

There's no telling how the world is going to swing today or yesterday. But you are free to perceive in as fluid or rigid a way as you can. Kieslowski presents a stark chain of events but is himself a fluid watcher; it begins with images from the night after.