Episode 5- Thou Shalt Not Kill

Part V of Krzysztof Kieslowski’s masterful Decalogue focuses on the 5th commandment, which reads in the King James Bible, “Thou shalt not kill.” This chapter is easily the most intense and leaves an indelible impression on the viewer.  The viewer is presented with three characters: a taxi driver on a power trip; a young man who mischievously roams around Warsaw; and a lawyer who has recently passed the bar exam. The taxi driver is a man who has fallen into corruption, albeit relatively harmless corruption. He leers at young women and drives away from potential fares for reasons known only to him. He is not an evil man per se, but represents a humanity that has fallen from grace.

The lawyer, on the other hand, is a clear representation of idealism. He truly believes that things can be better and that he can make a positive impact on his surrounding society. The troubled young man perhaps is the one that swings (dramatically) from the extremes of evil and innocence. One moment he is dropping rocks onto cars from an overpass. The next moment he is pausing to look at a portrait of a young girl. There is an inner struggle within this young man. He is drawn to mischief and evil but is equally drawn to innocence. Emotionally, he is like a toddler.

His naivete is on display in the photography store where he inquires about blowing up an old photograph of a young woman and asking the clerk with sincerity whether it possible to determine if someone was alive from a photograph. The clerk laughs it off, but this is a glimpse into this young man. Here is a person who has been emotionally stunted possibly from abandonment and was clearly never raised by a mother who taught him how to control the evil inside him. The taxi driver is a good example of someone who has succumbed to evil, but only displays just enough to never really get into trouble. He can control his evil. The young man, however, has no such filter. He has no societal concern whatsoever.

The inner struggle comes to a head when the young man murders the taxi driver then turns on the car stereo. Immediately after allowing evil to prevail, the man is confronted with sheer innocence in the form of a kids song. The lyrics even cut to his quick, singing about a brave lion, and he rips the stereo out of the car and throws it into a mud puddle. The image of the stereo in the puddle lingers, leading one to surmise that this is the man discarding his innocence once and for all.

The lawyer may, in fact, be a voice of God from within the film. Because of His love, God has given humankind free will, allowing for the choice of sin. God is morally opposed to sin; God and evil and two utterly disparate entities. God is necessarily and essentially good and does not create evil. Therefore, when the lawyer exclaims, “I abhor it!” over and over again at the end of the film, this is perhaps how God feels. Stephen Innes in his article on Culturewatch: Decalogue, agrees. He writes that the lawyer’s “anguish is a reflection of the anguish of God. God abhors murder, thus the commandment was given which prohibits it.” God’s desire is for humans to follow Him and grow closer to Him in a relationship forged through guidance found in Scripture and His heart breaks for all that choose evil over good.

Kieslowski demonstrates an amazing control of tone, timing, and visual spacing. The tone is pitch-perfect. He establishes realism without sacrificing feeling. There is an ever-present undercurrent of tension that affords an uneasiness that assists in furthering his message. The pacing and editing brilliantly establish an unsettled realism. The best examples are the two death scenes. The murder of the taxi driver has all the uncomfortableness of a Coen Brothers murder scene without the flash. Kieslowski uses long cuts, adds a cyclist riding by, and a body that won’t die as devices to add to the viewer’s unease. It works. Everyone should feel uncomfortable at these moments. Murder is simply outside the way God intends things to be. Innes rightly points out that there is also a cold emptiness in the killing. This is not a Hollywood death scene glamorized and masochistic. Innes continues by adding that there is no emotional build-up or dramatic catharsis to help the viewer prepare or deal with the killings. Killing is not thrilling; it is chilling.

Christianity Within the Decalogue Series

I found that in the Decologue films, there is a general pattern of the committing of a sin, confession of that sin, and forgiveness and reconciliation.  Although this saving grace is depicted through the people whom the issue involves in each film, there are many accounts of symbolizing Jesus.  In the Christian faith, Jesus is the savior.  He saves the people from all of their sins, as long as they “take up their cross” and follow Him.  In each film, there are depictions of this.  There are multiple accounts of a “savior” that is forgiving the sinner.  The link at the bottom of this post provides many examples from different episodes of The Decalogue series that support this idea.  Specifically, “this redemptive pattern is easily recognized in the ultimately fruitful struggle of Dorota in Decalogue Two to reconcile with her husband; in the final confessions and reconciliations between the unfaithful husband and his wife in Three; and in the healing confession and reconciliation between the daughter and her father in the conclusion of Four.”  Those are only examples from the first four episodes, however it provides an insight on the way Kieslowski utilized this pattern throughout his work.

More specifically, there are several accounts of references to God and Jesus, an assumed Christian-like love, and examples of the saving grace of Jesus Christ throughout the Decalogue series, even though they may not be obvious.  In Christianity, the Christian community is “in favor of the building up of that community which is the Mystical Body of Christ,” and “in favor of the breaking down of the barriers of egoism, fear, sinfulness, between people that destroy that Body.”  Throughout the Decalogue episodes discussed so far, Kieslowski seems to investigate this certain theme of a new created community and a communion through self-isolation and diversity.  

Although it is sometimes difficult to see the Christian reference or the commandment that is supposed to be the point of each episode, this article truly points out those specific examples that we don’t originally see.  It points out the Christian references that we could understand if we simply delved into the episodes more and applied Christian thoughts to. 

http://www.signis.net/IMG/pdf/Kieslowski_Lloyd_Baugh_en.pdf 

The setting of the episodes in the Dekalog have really stood out to me. Each episode of the Dekalog is set in a dark, gray, gloomy Communist-era Polish housing development. To me, a western viewer, this setting seems very realistic. However, upon more research and examination the setting appears over simplified. Kieslowski as a documentary filmmaker native to Poland would have been able to create a true representation of realistic every-day life in Poland. Instead, he very intentionally chose this over-simplified route. He wrote in his autobiography "Kieslowski on Kieslowski"  that he "attempted to show individuals in difficult situations. All the contextual social difficulties, or difficulties of everyday life, remained somewhere in the background."

                                               Photo from: whitecitycinema.com
Kieslowski's autobiography can be found at http://www.amazon.com/Kieslowski-Krzysztof/dp/0571173284/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332202162&sr=1-1

Episode 4: Honor Thy Father and Mother

                                    Photo from: filmsufi.blogspot.com
In the fourth episode of the Decalogue series, Kieslowski tackles the fifth commandment: thou shalt honor thy father and mother. We see that Kieslowski is continuing in the same manner as the previous three films; he is not addressing the commandments literally from the view of Christianity but rather through a different possible alternative meaning to God's commandment. In this episode, that possible interpretation shifts the focus of the episode from honoring parents to incest. Twenty year old Anka is being raised by her father since her mother's death when she was 5 days old. When her father, Michal,  is away on a business trip, she discovers an envelope labeled "to be opened after my death". Upon opening the letter, she finds another sealed envelope inside addressed to her in her mother's handwriting. The melodramatic scene showing her reading the letter has been left out contrary to what we would expect from Hollywood conventions. She seemingly recites the letter to her father at his arrival and says that he is not her biological father. Anka now feels safe admitting that she suffers from incestuous desires and believes that Michal reciprocates. He does admit to it but does not give in when she tries to seduce him. When she awakes the next morning, she sees Michal walking away from the house. She runs outside believing he is abandoning her and admits to forging the letter before learning he was on his way to buy milk. The real letter has not even been opened. The absence of that scene  works its magic in another capacity - we now know why the scene was left out and can make our own discoveries. The episode ends with them burning the unopened letter together, never to know the contents. This ending may seem like a disappointment but it fits with the episode's handling of human imperfections. The choice to never know the contents of the letter is cowardly but it is perfectly human - many would take this easy way out. Throughout the episode, Kieslowski does not shy away from showing the human imperfections of his characters. Make no mistake, this is not a Hollywood style film with a fairy-tale setting and happily-ever-after ending. The use of little dialogue draws the viewer into the story by using body language and facial expressions to show the carnal side of the human experience. Everything is not handed down on a narrative platter. The emotions are real; Anka does not cry daintily, she sobs realistically. Some scenes may seem to be held for a beat too long but they cause you to feel uncomfortable, to think. The entire episode causes you to think and evaluate the way you perceive the ten commandments and the world around you. As Anka says in the episode, we must learn to read between the lines.