This "Arena" report offers a nice closer look to Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Kieslowski during the release of his acclaimed
miniseries "Dekalog", its popularity with Poland's viewers, his thoughts about the project and how it relates with people's lives,
and a little about his early days as a documentarian and cinema filmmaker. This a must-see documentary for fans of "Dekalog" and
Kieslowski's fans as he brings many insights about the 10-part miniseries, his views on life, ethics, moral, Poland's politics,
and some curious stories from his years making documentaries. It's always a pleasure to hear him express deeper thoughts and ideas
with a genuine simplicity, which is echoed in his movies with a clear resonance that is being missed these days.
After having seen the majority of his feature films, the documentaries and "Dekalog", this lovely special made me want to
return to everything Kieslowski did all over again. His universe of stories, poetry and how he observes people and life is something
unique that hardly ever happens on recent films - there are still artists out there, but very few can honestly say they were inspired
by Kieslowski, or even tried to follow in his footsteps or imitate him. And after his interviews (some of them along with screenwriting
partner Krzysztof Piesiewicz), telling about his reasoning for those ten films, the ideas he wanted to share with audiences by using
of the ten commandments from the bible and intersecting with close themes to those notions, I desperatly need to come back to the
series (foggy memories as well). The two cinema features spawned from those ideas "A Short Film About Love" and "A Short Film About
Killing" are also discussed (made as the producing company wanted something for cinema audiences, which conquered the world and had
more viewers than the miniseries).
Views also come from a taxi driver turned actor (Grzgorz Skurski), an ethic professor and a Catholic priest. The latter one, while
a little critical of some of the stories, finds valuable the idea proposed by the project with its mix of the commandments with character
stories as there's ways of educating people, make them reflect. That somewhat exact idea offers a strange discussion between Kieslowski
and Piesiewicz, as the latter felt that he was doing the Church's job, to which Kieslowski responds in a serious manner "Why would you want
to do that?". Even great collaborators with a defined idea can argue about its prospects - an embarassing but fun moment.
Outside of "Dekalog", there's moments dedicated to great insight on the thought-provoking "Blind Chance"; and what really happened
on the short documentary "Railway Station" that made him quit the genre - Kieslowski never filmed an actual murder as its often said, but
in reality it was a suspect carrying a suspicious bag, a very horrendous story.
Followers of Kieslowski "church" and his "gospel" will certainly have a great time with this magnificent piece, and might look
at "Dekalog" with new eyes and new perspectives; to the beginners is a great welcome to the man's cinematic world. 9/10.
