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Martin Paule's Micro Movie Reviews

Martin Paule's Micro Movie Reviews:
A--B--C--D--E--F--G--H--I--J--K--L--M--N--O--P--Q--R--S--T--U--V--W--X--Y--Z--

From the director of "Red", "White", "Blue" and "The Double Life of Veronique":

Martin Paule's Micro Reviews
A--B--C--D--E--F--G--H--I--J--K--L--M--N--O--P--Q--R--S--T--U--V--W--X--Y--Z
 

Thankfully this masterful 10-part mini-series originally created for Polish
television by director Krzysztof Kieslowski ("Red", "White", "Blue", "The
Double Life of Veronique") has become available on video cassette. The
series concerns itself with the lives of the residents in a drab Warsaw
high-rise apartment building. Each hour-long segment deals more or less
directly with a precept from one of the Ten Commandments. As in the later
Tricoleur trilogy, characters at the heart of one segment may appear
tangentially in another creating a crosswoven effect over the course of the
series.

In the first, a scientifically-minded father struggles to answer the
penetrating existential questions raised by his bright young son in terms
that are rational and empirical. When tragedy strikes, the father finds his
agnostic reliance on scientific methods offers little solace.

In the second part, an aging doctor with a tragic past is approached by a
neighbor woman whose husband is a critically ill patient in the hospital
where he works. She is pregnant by another man and says that she will abort
the child if her husband survives. The doctor is faced with making a
prognosis that has a frightening consequence.

Part three concerns an apparently happily married man who is lured by
pretext from his home by an ex-girlfriend on Christmas Eve. Over the course
of the night, the former girlfriend puts him through convoluted situations
and it is only by the grey light of the Warsaw dawn we arrive at a
disturbing revelation and something of a resolution.

The fourth segment, for my money, is one of the most completely satisfying
of all these tales. A young woman comes across a letter addressed to her by
her long-deceased mother, which is in turn, is enclosed in an envelope on
which her apparent father has written that it is to be opened only upon his
death. The letter reveals that this man is in fact not her father, causing
immense strain and a radical change in their relationship.

Crime and punishment is the subject of segment five. An aimless young lout
in a shudderingly brutal sequence murders a cabbie and is sentenced to
death. A newly appointed, sensitive public defender who questions the
judicial system's approach to punishment unsuccessfully attempts to save
him from the gallows. The final meeting between the lawyer and murderer and
his subsequent hanging are emotionally shattering in their low-key
treatment.

In the sixth episode, a young peeping tom spies on an attractive woman in
an adjoining apartment block. He also plays dirty tricks such as stealing
her mail and making false reports about gas leaks in her flat. When he
confesses his trespasses and professes love for her, the woman's
unpredictable response leads to a startling conclusion.

The seventh episode had perhaps the least emotional impact for me though
the subject matter should have produced a stronger reponse. A young woman
has an illegitimate six year-old daughter who is being raised by her
mother; she is known to her daughter as her sister. The true mother is
jealous of the love shared between grandmother and child. She "kidnaps" her
daughter and will only return to her parents if the deception ceases.

In chapter eight, a young woman of Jewish extraction from America who
escaped the Holocaust in Poland as a child, returns, ostensibly doing
research on Jewish survivors of WWII. In Warsaw she makes contact with a
professor of ethics who, as it turns out, was asked to shelter the woman
when she was a child from the Nazis 40 years earlier. The professor
explains weakly that because a faked baptismal certificate was needed, she
refused to offer shelter as the forgery would constitute "bearing false
witness" in her Catholic faith. The women share a charged encounter that is
redolent with regret and anger.

At the beginning of the ninth episode, a doctor learns that he is
permanently impotent. He tells his wife that she should take a lover.
Then, consumed with fear that she has followed his suggestion, he spies on
her and taps a telephone discovering that she has indeed had an affair.
Tragically though, he fails to realize that she has called the romance off
and he commits a crazed act in his despondency.

The final installment in the series is probably the most lighthearted
though it concerns deceit and suspicion. Two financially strapped brothers,
following their father's death, discover that he owned a valuable stamp
collection. In their effort to establish the collection's value, things go
terribly wrong driving a wedge between the sons as they descend into a
murky world of shady philately. Though the tones in "Decalogue" are often
bleak, the mood frequently depressed, and there are long sequences in which
we track the mundane affairs of the players, the stories have a sense of
realism that is quite engrossing. Often, events of enormous significance
occur in quiet and unexpected ways. Highly recommended to those who have
enjoyed the Tricoleur trilogy.
Decalogue AKA Dekalog
Thankfully this masterful 10-part mini-series originally created for Polish
television by  director Krzysztof Kieslowski Red, White, Blue, The
Double Life of Veronique has become available on video cassette. The series
concerns itself with the lives of the residents in a drab Warsaw high-rise
apartment building. Each hour-long segment deals more or less directly with a
precept from one of the Ten Commandments. As in the later Tricoleur trilogy,
characters at the heart of one segment may appear tangentially in another
creating a crosswoven effect over the course of the series.

In the first, a scientifically-minded father struggles to answer the
penetrating existential questions raised by his bright young son in terms
that are rational and empirical. When tragedy strikes, the father finds his
agnostic reliance on scientific methods offers little solace.

In the second part, an aging doctor with a tragic past is approached by a
neighbor woman whose husband is a critically ill patient in the hospital
where he works. She is pregnant by another man and says that she will abort
the child if her husband survives. The doctor is faced with making a
prognosis that has a frightening consequence.

Part three concerns an apparently happily married man who is lured by pretext
from his home by an ex-girlfriend on Christmas Eve. Over the course of the
night, the former girlfriend puts him through convoluted situations and it is
only by the grey light of the Warsaw dawn we arrive at a disturbing
revelation and something of a resolution.

The fourth segment, for my money, is one of the most completely satisfying of
all these tales. A young woman comes across a letter addressed to her by her
long-deceased mother, which is in turn, is enclosed in an envelope on which
her apparent father has written that it is to be opened only upon his death.
The letter reveals that this man is in fact not her father, causing immense
strain and a radical change in their relationship.

Crime and punishment is the subject of segment five. An aimless young lout in
a shuddering, brutal sequence murders a cabbie and is sentenced to death. A
newly appointed, sensitive public defender who questions the judicial
system's approach to punishment unsuccessfully attempts to save him from the
gallows. The final meeting between the lawyer and murderer and his subsequent
hanging are emotionally shattering in their low-key treatment.

In the sixth episode, a young peeping tom spies on an attractive woman in an
adjoining apartment block. He also plays dirty tricks such as stealing her
mail and making false reports about gas leaks in her flat. When he confesses
his trespasses and professes love for her, the woman's unpredictable response
leads to a startling conclusion.

The seventh episode had perhaps the least emotional impact for me though the
subject matter should have produced a stronger response. A young woman has an
illegitimate  six year-old daughter who is being raised by her mother; she is
known to her daughter as her sister. The true mother is jealous of the love
shared between grandmother and child. She kidnaps her daughter and will
only return to her parents if the deception ceases.

In chapter eight, a young woman of Jewish extraction from America who escaped
the Holocaust in Poland as a child, returns, ostensibly doing research on
Jewish survivors of WWII. In Warsaw she makes contact with a professor of
ethics who, as it turns out, was asked to shelter the woman when she was a
child from the Nazis 40 years earlier. The professor explains weakly that
because a faked baptismal certificate was needed, she refused to offer
shelter as the forgery would constitute bearing false witness in her
Catholic faith. The women share a charged encounter that is redolent with
regret and anger.

At the beginning of the ninth episode, a doctor learns that he is permanently
impotent.  He tells his wife that she should take a lover. Then, consumed
with fear that she has followed his suggestion, he spies on her and taps a
telephone discovering that she has indeed had an affair. Tragically though,
he fails to realize that she has called the romance off and he commits a
crazed act in his despondency.

The final installment in the series is probably the most lighthearted though
it concerns deceit and suspicion. Two financially strapped brothers,
following their father's death, discover that he owned a valuable stamp
collection. In their effort to establish the collection's value, things go
terribly wrong.