esrosedotblog

TEN

We are beginning to watch a collection of films by the Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski.

It is a NYTimes Best 1176 'film' in the sense that the collection is under one title and concept:
Dekalog / The Decalogue (1988-89).

The collection (done originally for television) is a series of ten films, lasting about an hour. Each film is based on one of the Ten Commandments.

Yeh. Link it. I had to look myself.

The films are not religious so much as modern interpretations of the commandments in the personal lives of plain citizens.

There are many nice twists to these films. One is that they are all filmed in and around a large housing project/compound and many of the people in one film will appear here and there in the others. So there is community. There is continuity. Another is that there is a 'watcher' in all of them. He comes in a variety of ways.

Because they are done for television, there is an abundance of closeups. The color and imaginative use of everyday backgrounds and props make for a quiet intimacy.

Today we saw the first film which is rather obviously based on the first commandment: "Thou shall have no other gods before me".

I am not sure how to 'review' or talk about these individual films. We were deeply engaged with it today. It would appear that these are going to be secular meditations.

On its own it would be a 5 out of Netflix5.