[CYCLE] THE DECALOGUE – 1 : a God alone you shall worship

On the occasion of the re-release in restored version of the ten parts of the Decalogue of Kieslowski distributed by Diaphana, back on one of the works of the founders of cinema is the european post-Walesa, a monument of ten hours made by one of the greatest directors of his time. Box of various themes and navigating between the social and the religion, we chroniquerons the entirety of the episodes, four hands, with each day a new article. Study on a case-by-case basis within a follow-up analysis more broad : we find the author behind the quilt, the thought behind the human drama.

The Decalogue 1
The Decalogue 2
The Decalogue 3

The Decalogue 4
The Decalogue 5
The Decalogue 6

The Decalogue 7
The Decalogue 8
The Decalogue 9

The Decalogue 10

Door entry in a long series of almost 10 hours, this episode knows the power of emotion is inversely proportional to the means of staging employees. On the basis of monotheism and of the fidelity of belief (the object of the first commandment), Kieslowski approach to a topic that will invade the minds at the end of the Twentieth century : the place node of the computer in the home, and the faith blissful that will be delegated to the computer.

THE DECALOGUE 1 – one God, you shall worship

The first episode of the DECALOGUE is perhaps one of the most poignant of the series. The first plans by which it opens have an effect of emotion terrifying : the look front and clear of a seated man wrapped in a jacket of fur, near the fire at the edge of a lake in a night with a breath high pitched flute sad sits the atmosphere and covers the entire episode of dc. Since its opening, Kieslowski amazes and delights in affirming the heart of the Polish television aesthetics in the daring film.

From the first shot, the filmmaker is part of the drama, opens on the scene of the tragedy : the lake and its frozen surface. No escapes as a sprout vegetable-crystallized by the cold. The man of the lake will return during the 55 minute and in alert tone on several episodes, playing the oracle, reminding the fate to come, that we do not know but there is a concern, in the image of God.

“Kieslowski proves her appetite for the propensity of the real-to provide a fabric of signs own to build in themselves a drama”

Trained in documentary, including the famous school of Lodz, Kieslowski shows his appetite for the propensity of the real-to provide a fabric of signs own to build in themselves a drama. For example : to indicate that the sample of characters in which THE DECALOGUE will be deploying its themes is a nest of souls of catholic provenance, it has the simple idea of filming the facade of the building. From below, it represents a pyramid of christian crosses.

Like every episode, we don’t know in the opening credits what is the commandment that he brings to the stage. It provides a fable abstract on the cult of modern computing, which is centered around a trinity remodeled. The father of a family, a linguist at the university, living alone with his son. A great lover of the computer and personal computers, it is a pragmatic atheist. The evaporation of the soul after death, he prefers to believe in the judgment simple and concrete to the irrigation of bodies by the heart. His sister, a believer, it is a valuable aid in the education of his son. She wants to enter it in the catechism. Pawel, the child, enthusiastic and lover of math problems, is interpreted by a child surprising, Wojciech Klata. Very certainly accompanied by Kieslowski, the actor succeeds in a rich palette and moving gazes, gestures and reactions. Spielberg did not make a mistake by giving him the role of Lisiek in Schindler’s list.

“The first episode of the Decalogue is perhaps one of the most poignant of the series. The first plans by which it opens have an effect of wonder and terrifying.”

In this family setting where there is agreement joyous between the father and his son, a drama that weighs. Kieslowski expresses this threat by means of several processes subtle, of which three in particular : the ice skates received at Christmas and framed in close-ups on the bed of Pawel, the blade height of the child as a sword of Damocles. The glow glaucous green of the computer screens that shade the faces and ends up drowning in the apartment. And, finally, the music acute of Preisner which leste every event, every gesture, every look of a voltage of the ground.

Too confident in it, the father and son are going to calculate the weight supportable by the frozen surface of the lake. The computer concludes that a mass far greater than that of Pawel can walk there without fear. The father, in fact, even experience, without problem. An afternoon where Pawel is gone to skate on the lake, his father works in his office. On a white page, a great task of blue ink is born suddenly and spreads across the surface. A flowing blue runs the length of the office. Worried and a little annoyed, the father will lift the hands. Outside, shouts rise, sirens resonate. The award was shot down. Not believing it, the father ends up going on the edge of the lake before you resolve on the death of his son, drowned, frozen under the ice to be broken.

Finally, it is not so much God who appears stronger than the men, and their computer tools in this fable, even if the last sequence in the church resonates with meaning. But rather the nature. The tragedy of the film is not the denial of spiritual father. Rather to his pride of believe in provide for the laws of nature. This is one of the dramas of modernity.

Flavien Poncet

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INFORMATION

• Original title : Jeden Dekalog

• Realization : Krzysztof Kieslowski

• Scenario : Krzysztof Kieslowski

• Main actors : Maja Komorowska, Wojciech Klata, Henryk Baranowski

• Country of origin : Poland

• Output EN : June 29, 2016

• Output POL: 1988

• Duration : 10 parts of 50 min

• Distributor : Diaphana Distribution