Amazon.com Essentials:
Superlatives abound when describing Krzysztof Kieslowski's The
Decalogue, a series of 10 one-hour dramas originally made for Polish TV
between 1988 and 1989 and seen throughout the world in film festivals and
cinematheque and museum programs. Though each episode is inspired by one of the
Ten Commandments of the Bible, these are not Sunday school fables
illustrating some simplistic moral lesson--the connections to the
individual
commandments are not always obvious and are often downright curious--but
powerful, profound stories of love and loss, faith and fear. Kieslowski
explores ordinary people flailing through inner torments, hard decisions,
and shattering revelations, grounding his stories in the faces
of their deeply human characters.
Each episode is self-contained, from "Decalogue I" ("I Am the Lord Thy God"),
the touching
story of a boy who starts asking the hard questions of life from his
rationalist father and religious aunt, to "Decalogue X" ("Thou Shalt Not Covet
Thy Neighbor's Goods"), a comic
tale
of estranged brothers who bond through a winding ordeal involving their
father's priceless stamp collection. There are stories of tragedy and
triumph, both expansive and intimate, some profoundly moving and others
delicately shaded--but all are warmed by Kieslowski's sympathetic direction
and his eye for resonant, fragile imagery. Initially drawn together by
location--the series is set in a dreary Warsaw apartment complex--a web of
associations forms as characters pass through other stories, sometimes only
briefly,
and themes reverberate through the series. The Decalogue is
ultimately a personal spiritual investigation into the soul of man, a work
of quiet attention and deep emotion marked by astounding images and vivid
characters. Each volume is also available individually on VHS. --Sean
Axmaker
