The Decalogue (film series)

The series was conceived when screenwriter Krzysztof Piesiewicz, who had seen a 15th-century artwork illustrating the Commandments in scenes from that time period, suggested the idea of a modern equivalent. Filmmaker Krzysztof Kieślowski was interested in the philosophical challenge, and also wanted to use the series as a portrait of the hardships of Polish society, while deliberately avoiding the political issues he had depicted in earlier films. He originally meant to hire ten different directors, but decided to direct the films himself. He used a different cinematographer for each episode except III and IX, in both of which Piotr Sobociński was director of photography.[10]

The large cast includes both famous and unknown actors, many of whom Kieślowski also used in his other films. Typically for Kieślowski, the tone of most of the films is melancholic, except for the final one, which is a black comedy, featuring two of the same actors, Jerzy Stuhr and Zbigniew Zamachowski, as in Three Colors: White.

The ten films are titled simply by number, e.g. Dekalog: One. According to film critic Roger Ebert's introduction to the DVD set, Kieślowski said that the films did not correspond exactly to the commandments, and never used their names himself.[11] Though each film is independent, most of them share the same setting in Warsaw, and some of the characters are acquainted with each other. Each short film explores characters facing one or several moral or ethical dilemmas as they live in a large housing project in 1980s Poland.[3] The themes can be interpreted in many different ways; however, each film has its own literality:[12]

Dekalog was assigned a rating of 100% at review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes based on 40 critic reviews, with an average rating of 9.6/10. The website's consensus reads, "With The Decalogue, Krzysztof Kieślowski draws on the Ten Commandments to deliver an epic feat of parable storytelling."[15] It also received an average score of 100 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on 13 critic reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[16] It won the 1991 BAFTA TV Award for Best International Programme[17] and the Bodil Award for Best European Film.[18] The film also won the Best Foreign Film award from French Syndicate of Cinema Critics.[19]

The series was praised by renowned film critics including Roger Ebert[11] and Robert Fulford,[6] as well as important figures from the film industry, such as Stanley Kubrick.[7]

In the 2002 Sight & Sound poll to determine the greatest films of all time, Dekalog and A Short Film About Killing received votes from 4 critics and 3 directors, including Ebert, New Yorker critic David Denby, and director Mira Nair.[20] Additionally, in the Sight & Sound poll held the same year to determine the top 10 films of the previous 25 years, Kieslowski was named #2 on the list of Top Directors, with votes for his films being split between Dekalog, Three Colors Red/Blue, and The Double Life of Veronique.[21] In the 2012 polls Dekalog received six votes from critics including Kenneth Turan and one vote from director Milcho Manchevski as the Greatest Film of All Time.[22]

The Village Voice ranked The Decalogue at No. 112 in its Top 250 "Best Films of the Century" list in 1999, based on a poll of critics.[23] In January 2002, the film was listed among the Top 100 "Essential Films" of all time by the National Society of Film Critics.[24] The film ranked #36 in Empire magazine's "The 100 Best Films of World Cinema" in 2010.[25]

According to online film resource They Shoot Pictures, Don't They?, Dekalog is the 2nd most acclaimed film of 1989.[26]

Kieślowski expanded Five and Six into longer feature films (A Short Film About Killing and A Short Film About Love), using the same cast and changing the stories slightly. This was part of a contractual obligation with the producers, since feature films were easier to distribute outside Poland. In 2000, the series was released on five DVDs, each containing two parts of about 2 hours.

Wikiquote has quotations related to The Decalogue (film series).

• The Decalogue at IMDb
• The Decalogue at Rotten Tomatoes
• Short overview of The Decalogue and some other Kieslowski films at www.filmref.com
• The Decalogue at the Arts & Faith Top100 Spiritually Significant Films list (2005)
• Voted #2 on The Arts and Faith Top 100 Films Archived 12 April 2010 at the Wayback Machine (2010)
• “And So On”: Kieślowski’s Dekalog and the Metaphysics of the Everyday an essay by Paul Coates at the Criterion Collection