The Decalogue (Special Edition Complete Set)
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Artur Barcis, Jan Tesarz, Olaf Lubaszenko, Olgierd Lukaszewicz, Piotr MachalicaDVD: Region Code 1
Audio: Polish (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled)
Format: Box set, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 584 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-08-19
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Facets
Movie Reviews of The Decalogue (Special Edition Complete Set)
Movie Review: Dark, Mysterious and Yet Eventually Giving Way to Spring
Summary: 5 Stars
Krzysztof Kieslowski was a filmmaker from Poland who made his name in the 1980's. I first encountered his work in Blue which was not well received in the United States and was regarded as rather cutesy and sentimental. I saw it and loved it however. In fact I couldn't get it out of my mind. Later, White and Red came out and each time the film received a better review and the filmmaker was given a second look at by American critics. I saw much of The Decalogue when it was shown at the Dryden Theatre at the George Eastman House in Rochester, NY. The theatre is a museum and a movie theatre for older or art films. The curator at the time was European and knew many European films and filmmakers. The Decalogue was not shown widely in the US because it was a television production in 10 episodes. Even trying to see it in a theatre 2 at a time meant a dedication for a week I couldn't fulfill. I was happy to get this DVD for Christmas and relive the episodes that I had seen before and see the ones I missed. My favorite? Probably the last episode, which contains considerable comedy and humor after many dark episodes. Two brothers inherit from their father a valuable stamp collection of Nazi stamps circa 1933. The urge to apprise their value turns them not only into greedy hostile men but they become surrounded by greedy, hostile men who have the goal of stealing the collection from them It is a great episode emphasizing the fact that having what you thought you wanted can ruin your life. The other episodes are just as good and intriguing. A young man wanders through a seemingly calm quiet summer day and ruthlessly murders a taxi driver without sound reason. Kieslowski doesn't let him off the hook as the man takes a long time to actually die and the young man has several chances to stop. On the other hand, the death penalty the man suffers is quick and clean. But is it moral and right? Other episodes address morality and belief in other ways. The episodes are thought provoking and never let the viewer off the hook in easy ways. I found the extras on the DVD well worth watching also. Kieslowski was a director during the time of martial law and the end of communism. In Poland, he had to be very careful about what the government saw in his films. In a TV interviewing show called 100 Questions, Kieslowski must take questions from a TV audience who seem primed to ferret out if there is any criticism of the government in his films. Other directors fled to other countries, Kieslowski either couldn't or wouldn't go. He artfully has to tell his audience that the only reason he was a director is that he was sent to film school for it, has no political criticisms in his films, and only wants to tell personal truths. It is not an easy time and good insight into a communist regime albeit a mild one at this time. I highly recommend this set and urge fans of foreign film to purchase it.
Summary of The Decalogue (Special Edition Complete Set)
The Decalogue Special Edition is a three-disc set with exclusive special features. Disc 1 begins with "Roger Ebert on The Decalogue," a special appreciation by America's best-known film critic. Episodes 1, 2, and 3 of The Decaloguefollow. Disc 2 Includes Episodes 4, 5, 6, and 7. Disc 3 completes the series with Episodes 8, 9, and 10, and rounds out the experience with three documentaries about director Krzysztof Kieslowski. "On the Set of The Decalogue" us a brief interview with the director; "Kieslowski Meets the Press" is an extensive Q&A between Kieslowski and the European press; and in "Kieslowski Known and Unknown," friends and colleagues offer tributes and insights on the famed director. A printed booklet included with The Decalogue Special Edition DVDcontains an introduction to The Decalogueby Kieslowski, an interview with the script writer Krzysztof Piesiewicz, and complete casts and credits.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
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