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Amazon.co.uk Review
The full Dekalog consists of ten one-hour films: this pair of double discs contains the first five. The links to the specific commandments are often oblique and imprecise, and shouldn't be taken too literally. Kieœlowski is using this framework not as a direct exposition of Mosaic Law, nor even as a commentary on its relevance today, but rather as a series of meditations on the complexity of moral choices. All the films are set in the same drab high-rise Warsaw housing estate, and characters from one story will show up the background of others, passing across the frame as they go about their business. One young man who appears in nearly all the films never plays a leading role nor even speaks a line, but remains a watchful, melancholy presence, haunting and disquieting, gazing at the events unfolding around him like an uneasy conscience.
Grim though these stories are, there's often a note of ironic humour leavening the overall bleakness. But this set ends with one of the grimmest of all. In Dekalog 5 a young man murders a taxi driver for no apparent reason, then is executed himself. Both deaths are equally squalid and appalling. This episode was later expanded to feature-film length with the title A Short Film About Killing. The greater length enhanced its impact; it's a pity that room wasn't found for that longer version here.
On the DVDs: Dekalog, Parts 1-5 offers very little additional material. The second disc, which contains episodes 4 and 5, also includes a brief on-screen text biography and filmography for Kieœlowski. The films are shown in their original 4:3 ratio, in a crisp clean transfer. --Philip Kemp
Video Description
Krzysztof Kieslowski biography and filmography
Polish with English Subtitles
Original 4:3 aspect ratio
Dolby Digital 1.0
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Totally absorbing,
By
This review is from: Dekalog - the Ten Commandments - Part 1 [DVD] (DVD)
I finished watching the last one last night and I never wanted it to end.First lets get the one downside out of the way: The audio quality has a lot to answer for! It's not terrible but for me (a sound engineer) it really made me question if the company that dealt with the DVD conversion really considered the importance of this collection. But don't let me put you off because of the audio quality, at the end of the day it really isn't that bad and it sort of adds to the time it was created. Now on to the good side, or sides I should say: I could pick any one part of these 10 stories and find incredible acting, totally original camera work and an inspirational story told in a wonderfully natural fashion. When I first got the collection I slipped the first one one purely out of interest and I can honestly say I have never to my memory been so captivated by the first 10 minutes of a film. Even the 2 parts I consider to be not so good you could pull to pieces and discover so much. I really could type forever on this masterpiece of a collection but instead I'll leave the space below for all of you to put your comments in. Krzysztof set a standard in 1988 and that standard is far far out of reach to many of the modern day directors (dare I say it!)
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Classic of East European Cinema,
By
This review is from: Dekalog - the Ten Commandments - Part 1 [DVD] (DVD)
"Dekalog" consists of ten ,one-hour long films ,each based loosely on one of the Ten Commandments. Each film is set in a stereotypical drab ,high-rise housing estate in Warsaw ,during Communist rule in the 1980's. It would be flippant ,and a gross over-simplification, to say that "Dekalog" is like a cross between "Play for Today" and "EastEnders", but Kieslowski's ten films do have certain similarities in format to these two programmes. The estate is like a huge, high-rise Albert Square and each film is like a well-constructed play ; each one dealing with different types of social, personal and emotional issues and all containing impressive and intense acting performances by the cast. The character portraits that Kieslowski draws in each episode of the "Dekalog" are exquisite. The ten films are for the most part earnest and grim , without much light relief for the viewer. They are ,most certainly,not a barrel of laughs . All of the films deal with events that put a strain on loving personal relationships ; mostly between parent and child and husband and wife. Other common themes featured in the ten films are those of loneliness, alienation, regret and despair. Also, in nearly all of the films , a taciturn young man (Artur Barcis) appears .He neither utters any words nor interacts with any of the characters. He appears whenever the main character in each film faces a serious moral dilemma or personal trial. Is he God , an angel or a demon ? Can he even be seen by the other characters in the film ? Each film is slow paced and filmed superbly by Kieslowski ; many beautiful images are portrayed and he captures the vast range of emotions of his characters perfectly. We also get a vivid picture of life under Communism; a drab, uniform landscape where doctors, counter- assistants, IT workers, university lecturers and taxi drivers all live in the same utilitarian high rise estate. However beneath this deceptive ,surface greyness are a myriad of individual lives and relationships filled with love, regret and despair, which mirror those found all over the world and are common to the human experience. Kieslowski binds all of these themes together with religion and the Ten Commandments in particular. He shows in his films how the Mosaic Law is relevant to today's very different world and what the consequences are of ignoring these instructions. "Dekalog" is split into two discs , "1-5" and "6-10." "1-5" features the best of the films in "Dekalog" , "Dekalog 5" , a harrowing and memorable tale about a young man who murders a taxi driver in cold blood. "Dekalog 1" is also exceptional; a tale about a father-son relationship which ends in tragedy. If I was to make one criticism of the films, apart from their unremitting seriousness, it would be about the English subtitles. The quality of the English translation in my DVD wasn't the greatest and sometimes they didn't stay on the screen long enough for me to read them properly.
42 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant films, mediocre DVD,
By A Customer
This review is from: Dekalog - the Ten Commandments - Part 1 [DVD] (DVD)
While Dekalog is undoubtedly one of the great achievements of cinema, the Electric Eye DVDs could be far better. Although the transfer is adequate, it is apparently not from the original prints or broadcast videotape; the English subtitles are on the print itself and cannot therefore be turned off (and, of course, there are no original Polish-language subtitles); and like too many DVDs, the layer changes occur in the middle of scenes rather than between them. Worst of all, the original opening and closing credits have been replaced with a kitschy graphic montage (in which the T in "commandments" is a Christian cross, which suggests at best a crass misunderstanding of the films) and the Polish names are displayed without the appropriate accents.
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