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Dekalog - The Ten Commandments - Parts 1-5 [DVD] [1988]
 
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Dekalog - The Ten Commandments - Parts 1-5 [DVD] [1988]

DVD ~ Henryk Baranowski
4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
RRP: £24.99
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Frequently Bought Together

Dekalog - The Ten Commandments - Parts 1-5 [DVD] [1988] + Dekalog - The Ten Commandments - Parts 6-10 [DVD] [1988] + The Double Life Of Veronique [DVD] [1991]
Total RRP: £73.97
Price For All Three: £28.44

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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Dekalog - The Ten Commandments - Parts 1-5 [DVD] [1988]
85% buy the item featured on this page:
Dekalog - The Ten Commandments - Parts 1-5 [DVD] [1988] 4.9 out of 5 stars (10)
£9.88
Three Colours Trilogy [DVD]
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Three Colours Trilogy [DVD] 4.6 out of 5 stars (17)
The Double Life Of Veronique [DVD] [1991]
4% buy
The Double Life Of Veronique [DVD] [1991] 3.9 out of 5 stars (18)
£8.98
Dekalog - The Ten Commandments - Parts 6-10 [DVD] [1988]
3% buy
Dekalog - The Ten Commandments - Parts 6-10 [DVD] [1988] 5.0 out of 5 stars (5)
£9.58
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Product details

  • Actors: Henryk Baranowski, Wojciech Klata, Krystyna Janda, Daniel Olbrychski, Maria Pakulnis
  • Directors: Krzysztof Kieslowski
  • Writers: Krzysztof Kieslowski, Krzysztof Piesiewicz
  • Producers: Ryszard Chutkowski
  • Format: PAL
  • Language Polish
  • Subtitles: English
  • Region: All Regions
  • Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
  • Number of discs: 2
  • Classification: 15
  • Studio: Artificial Eye
  • DVD Release Date: 27 May 2002
  • Run Time: 278 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B00005V4UF
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 4,614 in DVD (See Bestsellers in DVD)

    Popular in this category:

    #31 in  DVD > DVD Bargains > The Best of World Cinema

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Reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review

"A terrible idea, of course", was Krzysztof Kieœlowski's first reaction when his co-scriptwriter, Krzysztof Piesiewicz, first suggested the idea for Dekalog--a series of 10 one-hour films, each inspired by one of the Ten Commandments. But from this unpromising beginning came an edgy, unsettling tour de force, the culmination of Kieœlowski's work in his native Poland and, quite possibly, the last cinematic masterpiece to come out of Communist Eastern Europe.

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

DVD Special Features:

Krzysztof Kieslowski biography and filmography
Polish with English Subtitles
Original 4:3 aspect ratio
Dolby Digital 1.0

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Customer Reviews

10 Reviews
5 star:
 (9)
4 star:
 (1)
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Average Customer Review
4.9 out of 5 stars (10 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A Monumental Achievemet, 1 Jun 2002
By A Customer
Decalogue is a monumental achievement: a remarkable examination of moral tale colliding, and often yielding, against the bounds of human frailty. Kieslowski crafts each episode with a distinctive signature, creating serenely indelible, spare, and poetic imagery. Each of the ten episodes of the series is a profound observation on the trials and tribulations of everyday life, reflected in complex ways - direct and abstruse - but all fundamentally, and infalliably, human.
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Thou shalt watch these films..., 7 April 2006
By James Choles (Hangzhou, China) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Like most people I thought that Kieslowski's famous 'Three Colours' trilogy was the director's masterpiece. Life-altering though these films were, I now know I was wrong.

Because the 'Dekalog' is simply devastating. Each film is a profound meditation on the themes of love, loss, time and chance, among a whole host of other things.

Set in a Warsaw housing estate at the tail-end of the 1980's, each attempts to explain the complexities of what it means to be human: to lose a child, to be spurned by a prospective lover, to be sentenced to death [as, of course, we all are].

These films could only have been made by a man with a supreme faith in humankind, a faith that, as the films progess, we learn has come to supplant any belief in the supernatural or God himself.

Brilliant.

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40 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant films, mediocre DVD, 1 Jul 2003
By A Customer
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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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Dekalog 1-5
Not in my opinion as good as the three colours trilogy. Yes it had a rawness which made it more real yet overall it didn't hit the peaks that I felt were present in the three... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Mr. John Paver

5.0 out of 5 stars Astounding!
Although made for television these 5 'plays' remain very cinematic in form.
These films are 'high art' and are directed with the brilliance you would expect from Kielowski... Read more
Published on 8 Oct 2007 by F. Candlish

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfection
Other reviewers have quite elloquently summed up this amazing collection in their reviews on this page so I feel no need to replicate their opinions. Read more
Published on 7 Aug 2006 by Film Fan

5.0 out of 5 stars Totally absorbing
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! Read more

Published on 28 Mar 2006 by Mr. S. J. Robson

5.0 out of 5 stars A Classic of East European Cinema
"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... Read more
Published on 1 Feb 2006 by L. Davidson

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the greatest works of art the cinema can offer!
This is not only the crowning achievement of a master, and now sorely missed director but one of the single greatest achievements in cinema. Read more
Published on 30 Aug 2004 by howellzuk

5.0 out of 5 stars a promise....
From the acclaimed director, Krzysztof Kieslowski comes - 10 short films, each based on one of the 10 Commandments. Read more
Published on 12 Jun 2002

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