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, 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: Dekalog review
Summary: 5 Stars
Dekalog is a a ten-part made-for-TV mini series. Some people say that most of the episodes deal with moral choices. I find that the episodes deal with life's situations that people find themselves in or that they create for themselves. A reviewer writes, "Although the stories have received a subtitle to associate each of them with a commandment, these were not present in the original vision of the director and were added later by the Venice Film Festival's press office." I find this imposition to be somewhat of a distraction. One reviewer writes, "The ten films are apparently based on the ten commandments, but this relationship is tentative." I find the relationship nonexistent.
You are better off disregarding the subtitles as well as the interpretations of the episodes. The interpretations given for the collection that I have, like the subtitles, are imposed. For example, Dekalog I is subtitled "Thou shall have no other God before you." However, the professor and his son do not worship their computer, a theme much discussed at the time that the episode was made. The man has confidence in his calculations because he is a student/teacher of the discipline. Nature intervenes; thus, the result is beyond human control. It is not a punishment for breaking a commandment, which is implied by the subtitle: it is what happens to some people in life. Dekalog III, subtitled "Honour the Sabbath Day," is another example. It is not about disregarding the Sabbath. It is about a divorced woman trying to insert herself back into her ex-husband's life because of her loneliness: she is a person desperate to cling to the only time in her life when she felt love.
The scenes are presented in a "very muted, monochromatic color," another reviewer writes. It seems that the director's view of life may be the same. We see "Very well done portrayals of people dealing with difficult situations." Overall, the episodes are examples of fine filmmaking, and the project is something that any director/filmmaker would be proud to put his/her name to. Dekalog is well worth viewing, and purchasing, as is examining other people's views of 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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