| TEN REASONS TO WATCH THE DECALOGUE |
| 1) IT WAS MADE FOR TELEVISION (so nothing is lost) The series was originally made for Polish television in 1988 so nothing from the image is lost in size or scope. Even though the films have been shown in festivals throughout the world they are presented in an aspect ratio of 1:37 to 1 which is equivalent to the ratio of television. The DVD version, too, is sharper and clearer than the original television presentation in Europe. 2) IT IS FINALLY AVAILABLE AFTER 12 YEARS For a long time a group in Canada owned the rights to the ten films and they wanted an ungodly amount for the North America release. So up until now they have only been seen at festivals. 3) IT IS BETTER THAN ANYTHING ON AMERICAN TV That's not saying a lot but given the recent spat of vapid religious dramas sprouting up on American TV this series is like a godsend. Each episode is rich in character development and complex in plot and themes and won’t make you feel guilty or empty when you've finished watching it. 4) THE SERIES ISN'T RELIGIOUS Even though the series is based on the Ten Commandments and each episode thematically has the feel of an Old Testament story they are actually secular in nature. Director Krzysztof Kieslowski – who was a self proclaimed agnostic – takes a loose interpretation of each commandment and puts them in the context of a housing estate in modern day (late 1980’s) Warsaw, Poland. |
| 5) IT’S GOOD, CLEAN, INTELLECTUAL FUN This is good art-house entertainement. There’s no sex, drugs and only one episode with rock and roll so they won’t offend your conservative grandparents. And each episode has enough plot twists, intellectual concepts and ideas that they make for great discussions after you have seen them. 6) EACH EPISODE IS SHORTER THAN AN HOUR Most movies today are padded with an extra half-hour to forty-five minutes. Not so with each episode of The Decalogue, which averages a very lean 56 minutes. You can watch one before and after dinner and in five days you will be all the wiser to world cinema and – if you want – you can go to cocktail parties and tell people you actually know what each of the Ten Commandments are. 7) THE MORAL DILEMMAS ARE DEVILSHLY INTENSE An example of the most intense episodes are Episode 1 in which a boy disappears, Episode 2 in which a doctor is put into a position to tell a woman whether she should get an abortion or not and in Episode 4 a woman must contend with a secret that her father may not be her real father. The most lauded of the series is Episode 5 in which a young man brutally kills a man and the government must decide if it too will kill the man in retribution. Equally strong are Episode 7 where a woman kidnaps her younger sister, Episode 8 where a woman deals with her guilt during the Holocaust and Episode 9 in which a man tries to kill himself after he agrees to let his wife sleep with another man. Less intense and more humorous are Episodes 3 about a lonely woman, 6, which has a Rear Window type scenario and 10 a Cain and Abel-esque story.. 8) YOU CAN PLAY A GAME WHILE WATCHING AND GUESS WHICH EPISODE APPLIES TO WHICH COMMANDMENT The ambiguity is half the fun of the series. After seeing each episode you may ask yourself questions like; "Was that ‘Thou shalt not covet thy neighbors goods’ or ‘Thou shalt not steal’? After watching Episode 2 you may ask, "When did the doctor take the name of the lord in vain?" And in Episode 6 "At what point did the characters commit adultery? Or did he switch 6 and 9 for the hell of it?" After seeing ten you may ask, "How can an inheritance be considered stealing?" 9) WHILE WATCHING YOU CAN PLAY THE GUARDIAN ANGEL GAME An unnamed mysterious "silent witness" character shows up in all but two of the films at crucial moments. He is unrelated to the characters or the action but he seems to show up just as the story takes a fateful twist. He is a watcher who sees all and knows all but doesn’t judge. Watch for him and then see which Commandment is being broken. 10) THE ACTING, DIRECTING AND SCREENWRITING ARE NIRVANA Finally, perhaps the most important reason to watch anything called a masterpiece is for the acting, directing and the screenwriting, which in this case are all top notch. Proving that even the Ten Commandments can be made into a television series without being preachy or offensive. And also confirming once and for all that the Ten Commandments need not be oppressive Sunday School lessons but entertaining, thought provoking and vital to the world around us and the world of cinema. Say Amen, somebody! Curious about what the real ten commandments are? Click here. |
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| Sent from the heavens or maybe just a good video company Krysztof Kieslowski's The Decalogue is finally available in video. A Band Apart along with Facets (on video) and Image Entertainment (on DVD) have released the long awaited ten-part film masterpiece. The Decalogue is a must see for anyone interested in international cinema. For a breakdown of each episode try this page here. Otherwise, here are ten good reasons to watch the series. |
| "The realm of superstitions, fortune-telling, presentiments, intuition, dreams, all this is the inner life of a human being, and all this is the hardest thing to film...I've been trying to get there from the beginning. I'm somebody who doesn't know, somebody who's searching." Krzysztof Kieslowski |
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