The Decalogue (The Ten Commandments)
The legendary cinematic masterpiece by Krzysztof Kieslowski is now in a Special DVD Edition, which brings a renewed sense of immediacy. These 10 films are a work of supreme daring, imagination and sheer brilliance, riveting and profound. Each of the films uses one of the Ten Commandments as a thematic springboard. The Decalogue has awed audiences throughout the world who recognize it as one of the 20th century's supreme artistic achievements.
The best actors, cinematographers and film technicians joined Kieslowski (Three Colors: Blue/White/Red, The Double Life of Veronique) and his co-writer and long-time collaborator Krzysztof Piesiewicz in these extraordinary stories of human frailties, moral dilemmas and philosophical queries in the lives of ordinary people with music by Zbigniew Preisner. The experience of watching The Decalogue is so compelling and powerful that film critic Kenneth Turan wrote that to see The Decalogue was "nothing less than a privilege."
Originally produced for Polish television in 1988-89, this brilliant series of ten separate but subtly intertwining films transcended the boundaries of film and TV, winning honors in both arenas as it played around the world. It became what the New York Times called "the most acclaimed cinematic event in Europe." The Decalogue won the FIPRESCI Award at the 1989 Venice Film Festival, was honored as Best Foreign Television Program by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and was named Best Foreign Language Film by the Chicago Film Critics Association in 1997.
This Special DVD Edition includes an introduction to The Decalogue by film critic Roger Ebert, a visit to the set of The Decalogue, an extended interview with Kieslowski, an appreciation of Kieslowski by his colleagues, a booklet with full credits, Kieslowski's statement on The Decalogue and an interview with screenwriter Krzysztof Piesiewicz.
"One of the indisputably great accomplishments of modern filmmaking."
—Kenneth Turan, L.A. Times
"Extraordinary… memorable… "
—Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Each segment of the Decalogue takes place in the present; all are shot in the same high-rise apartment building in a middle-class section of Warsaw. Each of the stories is simply numbered, without a direct reference to the corresponding commandment, which underlies the story. Kieslowski preferred to allow the viewer to come to his/her own moral and ethical conclusions based on the story.
The magnitude, complexity, and universality of The Decalogue is nothing short of staggering. In one of the best-known episodes (Number V, based on "Thou shalt not kill"), an aimless, unemployed young man brutally robs and murders a taxi driver. He is caught, sentenced, and hanged by the State. In a searingly powerful stab at the root of death penalty issues, Kieslowski posits the opposites of individual and collectively sanctioned taking of a life. The episode is hauntingly shot in monochromatic yellows and grays by Slawomir Idziak.
In Episode I ("Thou shalt have no other gods before me"), a caring father, played by the acclaimed theatre director Henryk Baranowski, places his faith in his computer to calculate the thickness of ice on a pond by his apartment building. It is only when his young, inquisitive son is missing while ice skating on the pond that the moral issue is called to question.
In all of the episodes of The Decalogue, Kieslowski's approach, which has generated both critical and intense popular reaction, is distinguished by his successful weaving of the familiar, age-old "rules" into the fabric of everyday modern life. The Decalogue provides contemporary audiences with timeless ethical and moral guidelines for today.
The world's most prestigious film festivals have bestowed The Decalogue with its top honors:
• Special Jury Prize - Cannes Film Festival
• European Film Award
• International Critics' Prize - Venice Film Festival
• Special Prize of the Jury - San Sebastian Film Festival
• Critics' Award - Sao Paolo Film Festival
• Best Foreign Language Film of the Year - Chicago Film Critics Association
Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski
Actors: Artur Barcis, Olgierd Lukaszewicz, Olaf Lubaszenko, Piotr Machalica, Katarzyna Piwowarczyk
Screenplay: Krzysztof Kieslowski and Krzysztof Piesiewicz
Music: Zbigniew Preisner
Cinematography: Wieslaw Zdort, Edward Klosinski, Piotr Sobocinski, Krzysztof Pakulski, Slawomir Idziak, Witold Adamek, Dariusz Kuc, Andrzej Jarosiewicz, and Jacek Blawut
Editor: Ewa Smal
1989, Color
Total running time 584 mins. (Each film runs slightly under 60 minutes)
Language: Polish
Subtitles: English
Format: NTSC, Region 1 (USA & Canada)
Genre: Drama, TV Program
