Date: Mon, 8 May 1995 21:28:40 -0500 From: King of the Monsters! (eewittme@STUDENTS.WISC.EDU) Subject: kieslowski's filmography Seeing how Kieslowski's been big on this list today, here's a list of his films. I also have an interview with him for the interested. Feel free to contact me via private e-mail for the interview. It's 17K and I'm not about to post it on a music list. For the curious, the Decalogue is about the Ten Commandments. Special thanks to emholz@students.wisc.edu for providing this filmography: > >Feature Films by Krzysztof Kieslowski > >List by English Title: (In chronological Order): > > Personnel (Personel), 1975 > The Scar (Blizna), 1976 > The Calm (Spokoj), 1976 > Camera Buff (Amator), 1979 > Blind Chance (Przypadek), 1981 > Short Working Day (Krotki dzien pracy), 1981 > No End (Bez konca), 1984 > A Short Film about Killing (Krotki film o zabijaniu), 1988 > A Short Film about Love (Krotki film o milosci), 1988 > The Decalogue (Dekalog), 1988 > Decalogue 1 (Dekalog 1), 1988 > Decalogue 2 (Dekalog 2), 1988 > Decalogue 3 (Dekalog 3), 1988 > Decalogue 4 (Dekalog 4), 1988 > Decalogue 5 (Dekalog 5), 1988 > Decalogue 6 (Dekalog 6), 1988 > Decalogue 7 (Dekalog 7), 1988 > Decalogue 8 (Dekalog 8), 1988 > Decalogue 9 (Dekalog 9), 1988 > Decalogue 10 (Dekalog 10), 1988 > The Double Life of Veronique (La Double Vie de Veronique, 1991 > Three Colors: Blue, White, Red > Blue (Bleu), 1993 > White (Blanc), 1993 > Red (Rouge), 1994 > > > > > > Eric E. Wittmershaus eewittme@students.wisc.edu eric.wittmershaus@mail.admin.wisc.edu Date: Tue, 9 May 1995 08:29:53 MDT From: Dave Gingerich (daveg@FRED.DEN.MMC.COM) Subject: Re: Kryzysztof Kieslowski May 8, 95 6:31 pm Martin wrote [some text omitted]: > So could you maybe explain it to poor doofy me? [i.e., the movie White.] Well, I can try. Here goes, I think you gave a good plot synopsis and all that was missing was the connection the director was making with the color white and the intense, intense human emotions displayed by the characters. If I recall correctly, White is the color of liberty, and much of the film deals with liberty. For instance, the liberty to kill oneself, to make a living from crime or ruthless land deals, the liberty to travel freely and the liberty to love and to be loved. The director is pointing out several instances of our liberty which we either take for granted or misuse to line our own pockets at the expense of other people. I think the ending was extremely sad, I cried anyway. The protaganist has finally achieved what he wanted, he has forced his ex-wife to love him again, he has finally (ecstatically) sexually satisfied her, and he has exacted his revenge against her previous humiliations. However, the cost, the cost, the cost. Now she is utterly and eternally in love with him, but he has caused her to be locked away in prison forever. He has her love, but through his revenge he has permanently locked it away from himself. Again, the themes of love and liberty. Anyway, that's my attempt to briefly explain the movie. I hope you'll give it another chance someday. -- Dave Gingerich daveg@fred.den.mmc.com Date: Sat, 22 Jun 1996 02:28:25 -0400 From: afeldman@ACS.BU.EDU Subject: Krzysztof Kieslowski (sp?) All this talk of Kieslowski has pulled me out of lurkdom. The Brattle theatre in Cambridge has just concluded a 2-month long Kieslowski tribute that featured essentially all of his available work, including all 10 parts of the Decalogue. And they'll be re-running the Decalogue in September. I've had the Color Trilogy and Veronique on my "to-rent" list for at least a couple of months, and still haven't gotten around to seeing them, but I couldn't pass up what might be my only chance to see his early work on the big screen. So, I went to see Part 1 of the Decalogue, and was so blown away, I ended up seeing almost the whole thing. I expected something beautiful in the same way that a sepia-toned photograph is beautiful, but Kieslowski's films are neither flat nor monochromatic. They're full of real, vibrant people and situations that never seem exaggerated (even if they are) Each film is about moral choices - love, death, the process of living, and the choices we face everyday My favorites were 1, 5, 6 and 10. Five and Six were expanded into "A Short Film About Love" and "A Short Film About Killing" Unfortunately, "Killing" is lost. The Brattle was supposed to show it and found out that only a few copies remain, inaccessible in Poland. The Decalogue is almost a film equivalent to Edward Munch's "The Scream". Each character cries out with such desperation that it's heart-rending. But their cries aren't the howls of the bereaved, rather the inner desperation of ordinary people going about ordinary lives. Kieslowski details each moment in such perfect clarity that it seems an eternity to us, just as it does to them. Truly meditations on life and the nature of love, each moment is a pregnant pause, imbued with meaning. The movies are shot naturalistically, though Kieslowski's camera stops to ponder small details in the same manner as Raymond Carver or Adrian Tomine. A small child cries out "Mom!" and you look up with a small gasp, as does the father in part 1. A shot of a frozen milk bottle, its glass clouded over with frost is breathtaking, even moreso when the ice is reduced to a melted puddle by the end. Even as the films draw to their inevitable conclusion, the anticipation and dread still make the endings seem like O'Henryish twists, the cruel hand of fate intervening in what could have been a happy ending. But life rarely has happy endings, at least not unexpected ones, and neither do Kieslowski's films. Part 2 has a seemingly happy denouement, but as we share the husband's elation, we recall the beauty and horror that led us to that point. Like Edward Gorey, Kieslowski can see beauty and horror in everything. A child's pair of ice skates can be equated with fun or with death. A fly in a jar of strawberries is sickening even as it foreshadows its owner's will to live. Lest you think all is unremittingly grim, there is humor and joy along with the sadness. Life and death are never in opposition, rather the ombre of death is life-affirming as it exhorts us to grasp what we can of the fleeting beauty inherent in simple moments. Kieslowski's world is the same as ours, only viewed more intensely. -Susan