The Decalogue (Complete Set) Digital Life DVD

The Decalogue (Complete Set)
starring: Boguslaw Linda, Adrianna Biedrzynska, Joanna Szczepkowska, Grazyna Szapolowska, Maja Komorowska

Used Price: $40.00
Collectible Price: $90.00
Third Party New Price: $63.99

Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 0014381949926
Format: Box set, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Label: Image Entertainment
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
Number Of Discs: 3
Picture Format: Academy Ratio
Publisher: Image Entertainment
Release Date: April 18, 2000
Running Time: 560 minutes
Sales Rank: 49622
Studio: Image Entertainment
Theatrical Release Date: 1988

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Description:
Krzysztof Kieslowski has fashioned a cinematic masterpiece. This collection of ten films is a work of supreme daring, imagination, and sheer brilliance, riveting and profound. Each of the films uses one of The Ten Commandments as a thematic springboard. As the films in 'The Decalogue' were completed, they awed audiences at film festivals worldwide. The best actors, cinematographers and film technicians joined Kieslowski and his co writer and long time collaborator Krzysztof Piesiewicz in these extraordinary stories. The experience of watching 'The Decalogue' is so compelling and powerful that film critic Kenneth Turan wrote that to see it was 'nothing less than a privilege.'

Amazon.com essential video:
Superlatives abound when describing Krzysztof Kieslowski's The Decalogue, a series of 10 one-hour dramas originally made for Polish TV between 1988 and 1989 and seen throughout the world in film festivals and cinematheque and museum programs.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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Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- Good series
Art that can claim greatness deals with complex issues in complex ways. If the answers or questions posed were simple they could be framed in a single sentence, or a ten second film, then the art would not be its own best explanation. This thought stuck with me as I watched Krzystof Kielowski's complex and fascinating, if flawed, The Decalogue, illuminating aspects of the Ten Commandments from the third, transitional phase of his career, which included this 1988-89 Polish television series, filmed in 1987 and 1988, as well as the two subsequent feature films derived from episodes five and six, A Short Film About Killing and A Short Film About Love. Kielowski's filmic career can be divided into four parts. The first was his career as a documentarian, the second was his early fictive films, and the fourth and final part was his final films- The Double Life Of Veronique and the Three Colors Trilogy (Blue, White, Red). ... Read More

Rating:

- Engages The Mind
Had it not been for a friend who has the time and the intellectual curiosity to seek out films like these, I would still remain blissfully ignorant that The Decalogue even existed. But thanks to her, I have something new to evangelize to friends and acquaintances.
I am not going to rehash the stories here. Other reviewers have done so, some in great detail. What I will say is that Krzysztof Kieslowski's masterpiece is a fascinating and often spellbinding set that engages the mind and stays with you long after you put it back in the box. The films are spiritual without being overtly religious and the viewer is forced to consider all the vagaries of the human experience. Zbigniew Preisner's penetrating and often melancholy score adds permanence to the impression made on the viewer by these remarkable films.
Though sometimes you may have to think hard about what the connection between a particular commandment ... Read More

Rating:

- The mark of good films? They stay with you
At the present time, there are upwards of sixty reviews of this series of 10 films made for Polish television by the director Krzysztof Kieslowski. There are individual reviews for individual episodes, and, as could be expected, some episodes are stronger than others.

I'm going to comment on the whole package. I do agree with some of the reviewers that the quality of the films leaves something to be desired. However, the fact that these films are even available at all tempers my criticisms on the film quality. They are often dark with details hard to see (and is it ever sunny in Poland?) but they are watchable, and the setting (the iconic communist monolithic apartment complexes) as well as the cinematography is certainly more than OK, and inspired many times. The film quality doesn't detract from the stories at all. You'll get the message(s).

As far as the writing, the themes, the subject ... Read More

Rating:

- A Meditation on Morality
Krzysztof Kieslowski's "Decalogue" is a series of ten short films set in a block of towering flats in modern Warsaw. Co-written by Kieslowski and Krzysztof Piesiewicz for Polish television in the late 1980s, the ten one-hour-long episodes explore each of the Ten Commandments, although many of the Commandments actually overlap one another.

The series is profoundly meditative, without being boring. The actors are remarkably believable, especially when Kieslowski relies on close-ups of the face; the soul of their character is practically laid bare. Very intimate. I was particularly struck by the guardian angel or witness - a young man (Artur Barcis) - who appears in eight of the episodes, just before a Commandment is broken.

It's hard to say which episodes are the best. Each one projects a powerful moral message, forcing you to consider both sides of the issue and to realise these time-honoured laws ... Read More

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