Kieslowski

Romek gets out of a cab. We are expecting him to arrive home without his car, but he’s not leaving the cab at his apartment complex, he’s being dropped off in front of his mother-in-law’s apartment. He looks up and sees a light on. So, Romek understands

There is a vitality in surveillance, a sense of power from attaining information that was not yours, whether it was hidden or not. Romek, who has literally been robbed of his masculine power, is seeking a way to restore his authority. Finding the physics notebook, and then the phone number,

I’ve underrated this episode in the past, and I now think this segment ranks as peak Kieslowski. He’s displaying some of his keenest psychological insights through the strange story of Romek and Hansa. Having lost the ability to use sex as the balance in their relationship, both of

Romek: You should find someone else if you haven’t already. Hansa: No, I haven’t … some things are better left unsaid. These two lines, and the space between them, define episode 9. There’s a fascinating dynamic that has been established, where the marriage has basically been opened up,

We finally arrive at the episode that began my journey through the Dekalog. After finishing my “The Double Life of Veronique” series, I had an idea of going back to Episode 9 of the Dekalog, where the fictional composer Van den Budenmeyer was first introduced and a Weronika-like character would

Before I get onto the conclusion of this episode, I want to recount the ways it is a disappointment: 1) Filler. As I’ve noted in previous essays, this episode has maybe 30 minutes of story and lots of padding around it to make it take the same form of