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Summary: I can't reccomend this enough!!!!
Review: This film is such a rare masterpiece. I won't discuss the plot or try to summarize the meaning (because I couldn't do it justice.) Anyone who enjoys films that share insights into real life will cherish this. If you are disenchanted with Hollywood's film output lately (as I am), this film will be a revelation to you. The best of Hollywood can not begin to compare with this in terms of depth and character development. Keislowski is a master.
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Summary: The most valuable video release in 2000
Review: If you plan to buy this DVD title, do so promptly. Its first pressing in April '00 sold out very quickly. After months of unavailability did a second pressing come out. Eventually, it will be out of print altogether. Those who first saw THE DECALOGUE in the 80s had to wait until now to see it again. And due to its length, it has hardly been played in theaters or aired on TV. If you miss this video release, you may not have too many more opportunities to see it again in your lifetime.The picture quality of this 3-disc DVD set is fine, but not stellar. Darker scenes (many scenes take place at night) are especially problematic, but they are not by no means unwatchable. English subtitles are white and permanent; they sometimes omit snippets of dialog that are not crucial to the story and whose meanings should be obvious to the viewer (such as greetings, yes, no, dad, mom, etc.). This Polish TV anthology comprises of 10 individual one-hour episodes that cleverly "adapt" the Ten Commandments into real world, 20th Century dramas. Some episodes are affirmations of the commandments, albeit they are dramatized in ways you don't always expect; for instance, "Thou Shalt Not Take the Name of Thy Lord God in Vain" is turned into a story of a doctor who in effect becomes God in determining the life and death of an unborn child. Some episodes are, however, attempts to make us rethink the meanings of the commandments. In the "Thou Shalt Not Kill" episode, we first witness the murder, but we are later made to feel empathy for the murderer. In the "Thou Shalt Not Steal" episode, we witness the "theft", but later we are confronted with the question: who exactly owns the thing that was stolen anyway? In the episode of "Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery", we are first made to despise the "adulterer", but later we sense that perhaps he does harbor some true love? All in all, THE DECALOGUE is a unique, intelligent meditation on life whose 10 compelling stories should give you plenty of food for thought.
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Summary: Possible DVD problems
Review: GREAT FILMS, but my DVDs don't run properly on my iBook. Every other DVD I have works fine, but these are jumpy and don't work. Maybe it's an encoding problem, but buyers should be warned: if you plan on watching these on a computer (or at least an iBook), they might not work.
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Summary: Thought-provoking work by Three Colors Director.
Review: Viewers familiar with Kieslowski's later three colours trilogy will be used to the director's subtlety, intelligence and compassion. These ten short television films, from 1988-9, are thematically linked by the Ten Commandments, but also visually linked, and share characters. They therefore work better as a whole, than they do seperately. And should really be seen in this way. These are probing, slantwise morality tales. Sometimes it is hard to see how the Commandment is linked to the film. This serves a purpose; it makes you think about the Commandments in the light of complicated modern issues the writers of the Old Testament could never have had in mind. It asks you to think about the relevance of the Commandments. Perhaps some people, even religious types, take this doctrine for granted. These films ask big theological questions. But, like any great art, it works on many levels. You can enjoy them as straightforward(ish) dramas. Or you can go away from them and think about all the issues involved until your head spins. Recommended for bishops and laity, or anyone who likes challenging drama.
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Summary: True art.
Review: Decalogue is a set of 10 relatively short movies (about 50 minutes each) based on the Ten Commandments. All movies take place in Poland during the eighties. Actually, I saw all of these movies long ago when they were transmitted on Yugoslav television every Monday evening for ten weeks :) I was really suprised and delighted when I saw that DVD version is available and I bought it immediatelly. Of course, I am about 10 years older now and I see all these movies in different light and I can only say that they are timeless pieces of art non comparable with any mainstream, or if you will, Hollywood movie. If you have seen Three Colors Blue, White and Red from the same director, although those three are great I look at them as a mixture of art and "commercial requirements" stated by French producers. On the other hand, Decalogue is a PURE ART without any financial expectatios from the creators. Technical stuff: picture is not great since these are relatively old movies shot with not so good equipment. Sound is mono. But that is not the point. The point is that you are going to watch these movies from time to time and you will always find something new...
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Summary: The Authentic Masterpiece of the Late Twentieth Century
Review: These ten films are the greatest achievement of European film making in the last twenty years. Shot with a visual economy and brutality of style which grew out of Kieslowski's work in documentary, they are at once profoundly wise and unflinchingly honest. Each individual film is a self-contained masterpiece, almost aphorisitic in their brevity and understated rhetoric. All the works concern various individual and overlapping lives on a vast Polish housing estate, and are filmed in colour which seems to have been drained of all but the most sombre hues. The theme of each film is drawn loosely from the ten comandments and explores what those imperatives might mean in a modern context. There is a profound sense of locality, with the films growing out of specifically Polish experience, yet never seeming parochial. Seen through Kieslowski's lense that vast housing complex really does become an entire world. The most famous of the series are those which gained independent release as "A short film about Killing" and "A short film about Love", but make no mistake, the quality of all the works is uniformly high. Anyone who has come to know Kieslowski's work through later films such as "The Double Life of Veronique" or the "Three Colours Trilogy", might be surprised by the absences of beautiful effects and flights of poetic fancy. These are not films which offer the comforts or almost mystical catharsis of his last works. Instead they turn an unflinching gaze on some ordinary lives, focussing on the meanness, solitude and quiet desperation of ordinary people, but by doing so they ultimately offer moments of redemption and humanity which put them into the same rank as the later portraits of Rembrandt. These are films to return to again and again. If you let them they will get under your skin and allow you to see the world with a "Kieslowskian eye", not necessarily a seductive or beautiful vision, but one which has a richenss beyond virtually any western art (not simply cinema)of the last twenty to thirty years. In the long run it is with these films that the greatness of the director will come to be understood, rather than on the more self-conscious works which gained him a wider audience in the west. Essential if you want to understand the state of humanity in late twentieth century Europe.
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Summary: Life-long enjoyment..
Review: It's just impossible to describe what these 10 short films deliver. At the surface, like the way it is presented, these philosophical stories of "fallen man" look like ordinary, the stories you hear now and then, read on a newspaper, or listen from a friend. No way, sir! Haunting, poignant, contemplative & engulfing, they display Kieslowski's artistry in full bloom. Through this 10-hour meditation on the nature of man, life, religion and ethics, you will be given a new vision of the world. A world that is beyond words, beyond any command(ment)s, that just trespasses the very limit of any drawn ethical line. Although it is very hard to watch all films back-to-back, on a rainy day, you can just relax, take a cup of coffee, sit back and start this journey to the heart of life. This set is one hell of a gem, film of films which will eternally be one of the milestones of world art..
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Summary: 10 Unique & Amazing Short Stories
Review: First produced for Polish television before the collapse of communism, Kieslowski's _Dekalog_ takes it's name from the ten one-hour episodes which comprise the series. While the ten films draw their inspiration -- and sometimes their titles -- from the ten commandments, the mapping is not so basic. And surprisingly, the film is not a preachy lecture on going to church. In each episode, Kieslowski follows a few people from a Warsaw housing complex. He does not create his characters; rather, they become known to the audience. None of them are evil. But getting to know these people means you see how they care for one another and how they hurt one another (often unintentionally). Ultimately, these films convey what it is to be alive better than any other I know. Add to that the rich characterization and beautiful cinematography and you have a wonderful, thought-provoking series.
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Summary: The Decalogue
Review: One of the most powerful movies I ever saw. One cannot ideally satisfy any commendmant. There are two sides to everything. If the killer brutally murders should he be killed by law? If the baby's life is the most important by professor's view how come she was able to sentence to almost certain death a little Jewish girl many years ago? Is it ethical for a daughter who finds out that her father might not be her biological parent to desire him as a man and to tempt him and herself? Are computer's mathematical calculated predictions always correct and should be taken for granted without any doubt or the life is in danger with that set of mind? Very powerful.
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Summary: Wonderful
Review: I wasn't a huge fan of the "three colors" trilogy (except for WHITE), but I started the decalogue and couldn't stop! The english language doesn't have enough superlatives to describe this series. The recent death of Krzysztof Kieslowki is a great loss to the film community!
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