Kieslowski

Before I get carried away with my judgments about Tomek, I need to apply some Montaigne to this discussion. In numerous essays — most notably “On the Power of the Imagination” – Montaigne notes how little control we have over our bodily reactions, including our autonomic responses to people. So before I

Based on IMDB viewer rankings, episode 6 is the second most popular Dekalog episode. It is rated 8.7 on IMDB, topped only by episode one’s 9.1 rating. Surprisingly, “A Short Film About Love,” the movie that grew out of this episode, only gets an 8.1. Perhaps

The two most famous Dekalog episodes are 5 and 6, because both were later expanded into feature films. Episode 5 became “A Short Film About Killing,” which deepened the complexity of Miroslaw’s story and the morality behind his capital punishment. And episode 6 was transformed into “A Short Film

Instead of my usual scene-by-scene approach to the powerful closing of episode 5, I want to start at the end. The camera opens to a meadow, next to a forest. There’s a blinding ball of light coming from the forest. The camera pans to the left, across the meadow,

American culture is steeped in melodrama. The stories we tell follow a familiar pattern, always including a victim, a villain and a hero. Dekalog 5 slyly sets up this same pattern, giving us three characters in the beginning who represent these stock characteristics. But Kieslowski plays with these stock characteristics

I assume a good deal of time has passed from the trial to this day, the day of Miroslaw’s execution. It begins with Piotr entering the prison ground through an iron gate. He seems shocked at the sounds of the heavy metal doors closing behind him. Next he is