Moral Complexity in Kieslowskis the Decalogue (1989)

Moral Complexity in Kieslowskis the Decalogue (1989)Al gigabytegh the moral stories that constitute Polish director Krzyszto Kielowskis The Decalogue (1989) were inspired by the tenner Commandments (as per the films umbrella title), the way they restore to Gods Law as revealed to Moses is by no means straightforward or clear-cut nor is the rich symbolism which Kieslowski weaves throughout the films. As this paper sh completely demonstrate, the ideas and themes in The Decalogue argon complex and often ambiguous, especially with respect to two primary and recurring symbols the Brobdingnagian apartment complex where the various uses reside and occasionally cross paths and an unnamed, dark male figure who hovers on the periphery of the action, silent and observing. Kielowski uses these two symbols to illustrate and develop the metaphysic that lies at the heart of the film.The films that constitute The Decalogue should be watchd by the individual commandments to the alike degree th at the commandments influence our daily equals, Kielowski notes in the introduction to the published script of The Decalogue (quoted in Cunneen, 1997). Joseph Cunneen suggests that this influence is subtle and indirect. It is signifi loafert that the films do not have describe titles that contain text of the commandments as a result, the viewer is often unsure of the relationship between a film and a particular commandment to the director, if the total of just about episodes were reversed for example 6 and 9 it would make no difference (Cunneen, 1997). Kielowski thus encourages intellectual guesswork on the part of his audience. I precisely announce, for example, Decalogue 1. The spectator looks at the film and . . . begins to think about the commandment(s). (Kielowski, as quoted in Cunneen, 1997). For example, in Decalogue VI in that respect seem to be no reference to each one particular commandment, though it does contain references to stealing (the peeping-tom protagonis t steals a telescope to spy on a female neighbor) and killing (the same casing slashes his wrists near the end of the film).This thoroughly un-didactic approach enables Kielowski and his co-screenwriter, Krzysztof Piesiewicz, to develop their themes with subtlety and restraint (Porton, 50). In The Decalogue, as in life, nothing is cut and dried. Each episode can be likened to a moral parable that suggests . . . how we can live ethically in a world where the false comfort of either a tactile sensation in God or dialectical materialism is unavailable, states Porton (Porton, 48). Jonathan Rosenbaum would seem to agree that the films power is suggestive rather than didactic The finely sculpted scripts of these films let suggestions of how we might think about these people, not directives about how we should judge them (Rosenbaum, 159).He goes on to say that the decision to produce a serial publication of films that correspond to the ten dollar bill Commandments in name and number is essentially a packaging idea, successfully designed to give Kielowski an international reputation and made in part for trade (Rosenbaum, 155). By the directors own admission, he and Piesiewicz avoided any overt political references to the Poland of the mid-1980s in order that the films could be marketed in other countries (Stok, 145). Yet none of this detracts from The Decalogues intellectual, moral and aesthetic stature.Kielowski is a serious artist whose ultimate concern is integrity that of his characters and also of himself, as a filmmaker. He does not teach morality (in the sense of thou shalt not) but rather contemplates and probes lifes so-called grey areas. According to him, integrity is an extremely complicated combination and we can never ultimately say I was honest or I wasnt honest. In all our actions . . . we find ourselves in a position from which theres really no way out and even if there is, its not a better way out but scarce the lesser evil. This choosing whi ch way out to take, of course, defines integrity (Stok, 146 149).The notion, then, that a set of ten rules is all we need is simplistic to the point of absurdity. The decisions we all must make in our lives are often difficult and painful they are also dependent on a boniface of dissimilar itemors which have to be weighed and taken into account. Where morality is concerned, perspectives have to be altered and sometimes replaced with new ones. Mario Sesti suggests that the complexity of the ideas at play in The Decalogue is symbolized, in part, by the tower block apartment complex which is the central picture for all the episodes. Throughout the work a system of hints, correspondences and allusions imperceptibly laces unneurotic the tangled plights of the characters who live in the same apartment block. Everyone either knows or ignores one another, but everyone is aware (however reluctantly) that they belong to the same narrative (Sesti, 183).Portman remarks that Kielowskis sig nature theme in virtually all his films (not just The Decalogue) is the ineffability of human experience through chance encounters or near-encounters of protagonists whose paths would never ordinarily intersect (Portman, 2001). Locating most of the action in and around the huge apartment building where the various characters live, and where their paths occasionally cross, allows Kielowski to stage such chance encounters and near-encounters while (weaving the) single episodes into an overall tapestry (Sesti, 183).The director notes that the idea of choosing characters at random and observing how they act and interrelate is well-served by the apartment building setting We had the idea that the camera should pick somebody out, . . . then follow him or her throughout the rest of the film, he says, adding that since the apartment building has thousands of similar windows framed in the establishing shot, it was an ideal setting for his purposes (Stock, 146).Cunneen explains that the apa rtment building helps unify the series since we see the same few buildings again and again (that is, from episode to episode), adding that in such a context it becomes natural for a character we see on the stairs in one episode to become a major figure in a later one (Cunneen, 2001). By extension, it would not be an exaggeration to say that the apartment building symbolizes the unity and interrelatedness of experience.Despite the interrelatedness, Michael Wilmington argues that all the characters in the series think of themselves as essentially isolated (Wilmington, 2001). Occasionally, to some minor degree, the setting shifts away from the Warsaw suburb and into the city, and even the countryside, yet the director has a nostalgic idea of a return the monotonous high-rise blocks (Wilmington, 2001). The symbolism of the notion to portray such areas of Warsaw is that only in those tall grey buildings can the audience get familiar with many different emotions of the inhabitants love, hate, friendliness, politeness, curiosity and more. There is constant interaction between the neighbors, do Kielowskis series very realistic and simple to understand for his viewers.The apartment building is, in effect, an impersonal correlative to this very malaise. The deliberately gray or brackish colors of the building capture an edifice that signifies both the State and the monotony of life in Peoples Poland (Porton, 2001). In a similar vein, Agnieszka Tennant makes reference to the mass-produced, colorless buildings, cheerless wintry outdoors, cold flats and impersonal stairwells, elevators and offices that constitute the films mise-en-scne (Tenant, 2001).Another function of the apartment-building setting is that it allows for an open narrative structure a structure which invites the viewer to interpret the actions of the protagonists, to follow their struggles with destiny in an abundance of chance encounters (Haltof, 79), while serving as a convenient symbol for voyeuris m and shifting perspectives (that is to say, the viewers as well as the directors gaze). Cunneen is correct to stress that Kielowskis camera is fond of windows, mirrors, or any objects that go possibilities of reflections (Cunneen, 2001). This tendency opens new perspectives on the protagonists of the film series. They are viewed from behind the glass, lens or mirror which highlights that their actions could not be what they seem and have more dimensions to them.In Kielowskis films, glass serves to self-consciously foreground the act of looking, according to Annette Insdorf (Cunneen, 2001, quoting Insdorf in the latters Double Lives, p. 91). In Decalogue V, Piotr, the lawyer of Jacek the killer, is framed in a mirror forward we actually see him. As well, the driver victim is presented as glass reflects the apartment complex and Jacek is introduced in the street, reflected in a mirror as well (Insdorf quoted in Cunneen, 2001). Sesti refers to Kielowskis themes of uncertainty and be wilderment, noting that the most typical image in The Decalogue is a shadowy interior, a character at the window, or a gaze without rancor, blessedness or hope (Sesti, 187). A case in point is Decalogue VI, which begins with Olaf, the peeping tom character, spying on Magda, the older woman who is his neighbor, but ends in reverse, with Magda spying on him. Kielowski concedes that this change in perspective is essential to the episodes structure (Stok, 169). Other examples of the gaze may be found in Decalogue I when the boy Pawel watches a pigeon on his windowsill in the beginning. Later, after Pawel drowns, his aunt watches slow-motion memorial footage of him on a TV screen in a shop window. In Decalogue V the gaze is find during the murder of the cab driver when the killer Jacek hesitates for a brief moment when the victim looks up at him and Jacek sees his suffering he responds by covering the mans honcho (Hogan, 2008). Curiously, Kielowski here seems to be equating the gaze w ith death.Another significant and emblematical link between the episodes is the presence of the mysterious, silent young man whom the audience sees only occasionally. He is absent from episodes 7 and 10. This omnipresent figure with searingly watchful eyes and an Old Testament intensity (Cunneen, 2001) usually shows up just before a character makes a difficult ethical decision, or just before something unexpected happens (Tennant, 2001).He can be observed in Decalogue I sitting at a campfire in Decalogue V, as a road inspector and also as a painter in prison in Decalogue VI, as a man in a white suit in Decalogue VIII, as a student listening to the lecture of one of the two main characters and in Decalogue IX, as a cyclist who watches the protagonist try to kill himself. This mysterious man can be identified with a guardian angel or the walking consciousness. He is present at the times of crucial decisions by the protagonists, but he never judges. On the contrary the angel is seek to push the troubled heroes to a better moral choice, as with Jacek in Dekalogue V he shakes his head to silently protest the murder or in Dekalogue IX saving Roman from succeeding in his suicidal attempt.The figure is still puzzling because he seems to have very little to no influence on the action and therefore cannot be considered a character in the proper sense. Tenant believes he symbolizes Gods presence among us, Christian conscience, or at least(prenominal) for a secular audience specify (Tenant, 2001), while Haltof sees him as an Angel of Fate who adds an almost metaphysical dimension to the films (Haltof, 81). As Sesti explains, although the figure never interferes with the action, he is perfectly aware of it to the point of foreseeing its conclusion. He never utters a word but rather looks directly into the camera, and his disquieting silence seems to comment on the layer. Sesti agrees that this kind of chorus figure acts as a unifying link for the episodes but point s out that we do not identify with him, for his presence suggests the inflexibility of fate and the vulnerability of every individual. . . . His gaze is the gaze of some divine figure, distressed by his uselessness and by the impossibility of redeeming the world (Sesti, 184).The ambiguity and symbolic richness of the angel figure and of the apartment complex testifies to Kielowskis mastery as a filmmaker. The Decalogue does not lend itself to a reductionist reading quite the opposite. A vast fresco of private emotions and subtle interactions (Wilmington, 2000) on the one hand, it is also a work that is rich in themes and ideas. As Wilmington observes, these themes are in fact common to all of Kielowskis films Choice is fate. Pain underlies beauty. Isolation is an illusion. Disparate are we. Sin is inescapable. Soul is flesh. Film is life. The Decalogue, Kielowskis prime act of cinematic voyeurism, draws those threads together (Wilmington, 2000). By turning to such methods as a commo n setting of high-rises in Warsaw and a small trace of a mystic courier from God, Kielowski is able to unite and add coherence to ten short films from his Dekalogue series. The films are complex and deep. They require thorough analysis and knowledge of the Biblical context. The author is making it easier to understand for his audience by bringing in common threads to each episode and opening the conclusions for different interpretations and room for opinions.ReferencesCunneen, Joseph. Being Alive is a Gift Krzysztof Kielowskis The DecalogueSpiritus A Journal of Christian Spirituality. 11. 2001. pp. 79-85. John HopkinsUniversity Press. (Note Cunneen quotes Kielowski in the introduction to thepublished script of The Decalogue, for which, see bibliographic entry.)Cunneen, Joseph. Kieslowski on the mountaintop. Commonweal. 12414, Aug. 15,1997. New York, N.Y., 1997. pp. 11-14Haltof, Marek. The flick of Krzysztof Kielowski Variations on Destiny and Chance.Wallflower Press London. 2004. p p. 75-107.Hogan, Patrick Colm. Tragic Lives On the Incompatibility of Law and Ethics. CollegeLiterature. West Chester 353, Summer 2008. 30 pp.Kielowski, Krzysztof. Introduction, in Kielowski, K. and Piesiewica, P., DecalogueThe Ten Commandments translated by Phil Cavendish and Suzanna Bluh.London Faber and Faber, 1991.Kieslowski, Krzystof and Krzysztof Piesiewicz. The Decalogue. VHS. DistributorBand Part. 10 episodes on 5 cassettes. Directed by K. Kieslowski. 1987.Porton, Richard. The Decalogue. Cineaste. New York Summer 2001. 263 pp. 48-50.Rosenbaum, Jonathan. Essential movie house On the Necessity of Film Canons.John Hopkins University Press Baltimore. 2004. pp. 152-159.Sesti, Mario. DEKALOG 1 10. In The Hidden God Film and Faith. Mary LeaBrandy and Antonio Monda, eds. The Museum of Modern contrivance New York, N.Y.2003. pp. 183-187.Stok, Danusia, ed. Kielowski on Kielowski. Faber and Faber Limited London, 1993.Tennant, Agnieszka. The Ten Commandments become flesh. Christianit y Today.Carol Stream 452, Feb 5, 2001. pp. 75-76Michael Wilmington. Long decades journey into light. Film Comment. New York,N.Y. 362, March/April 2000. pp. 9-10