Krzysztof Kieslowski’s great 1988 Polish film “The Decalogue” ((star) (star) (star) (star)), the modern masterpiece composed of 10 inter-linked hour-long episodes, each based on one of the 10 Commandments, goes through almost two complete cycles this week at the Film Center of the School of the Art Institute. And if you missed the first eight hours last week–or the “Decalogue’s” Chicago theatrical premiere last March at Facets–this is your second chance to experience one of the true film classics of our time.
Is there a religious motivation in their choice of the 10 Commandments by Kieslowski (The “Three Colors” Trilogy) and his scenarist Krzysztof Piesiewicz? Kieslowski denies it.
But by using the Bible as a framework, he forces a re-examination of the rules and mores of the Warsaw apartment complex community he shows us. Why do we live? Why do we suffer? What brings us joy? Pain? How, in the face of a world full of cruelty, can we be decent to each other? Most modern films wouldn’t bother to ask those questions. And if they did, it would be in heavily cliched terms. But Kieslowski’s beautiful, sad and clear-eyed “The Decalogue” faces the darkness, sends out a song against the storm.
Each screening will include two “Decalogue” episodes, with the entire cycle shown in order twice. The episodes and their showdates follow:
Decalogue 1: (Thou shalt have no other gods before me.) The life of a university teacher who implicitly trusts computers is shattered when his child falls through the ice on a lake measured as safe. (3:45 p.m. Saturday.)
2: (Thou shalt not take the name of the lord thy god in vain.) An elderly doctor must decide whether to deceive the pregnant, desperate young wife of a man whose cancer may be incurable. (3:45 p.m. Saturday.)
3: (Honor the Sabbath Day.) On Christmas Eve, a married taxi driver’s old mistress takes him on a wild-goose chase through Warsaw. (6 p.m. Thursday; 3:45 p.m. Sunday.)
4: (Honor thy father and mother.) An acting student who lives with her father discovers a letter from her dead mother, which may reveal long-buried family secrets. (6 p.m. Thursday; 3:45 p.m., Sunday.)
5: (Thou shalt not kill.) A seemingly psychopathic young drifter-killer from the provinces, his brutal cabdriver victim, and the lawyer who will argue the capital case in court cross paths on two horrifying days of death: the murder and the execution. (6 p.m. Friday and Sunday)
6: (Thou shalt not commit adultery.) A shy young postman-milkman regularly spies through his telescope on the affairs of a promiscuous young woman across the courtyard. He falls in love; she discovers him. (6 p.m. Friday and Sunday.)
7: (Thou shalt not steal.) A beautiful, melancholy young woman whose illegitimate daughter has been raised by the grandmother as her own daughter, kidnaps the child and tries to establish their true ties. (8:15 p.m. Friday; 6 p.m. Tuesday.)
8: (Thou shalt not bear false witness.) A famous, elderly Polish professor of ethics encounters a young Jewish woman she first met during World War II, when the teacher refused to help hide the girl from the Nazis. (8:15 p.m. Friday; 6 p.m. Tuesday.)
9: (Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife.) A once-philandering doctor, whose sex life has ended because of illness, becomes racked with jealousy over his wife’s affair with a younger man. (1:30 p.m. Saturday; 6 p.m. Sept. 5.)
10: (Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s goods.) Two brothers–a punk rocker and a nervous family man–discover that their recently deceased father kept a fortune in stamps in his bare flat. As swindlers gather around them, the brothers become obsessed with their unusual inheritance. (1:30 p.m. Saturday; 6 p.m. Sept. 5.)
Call 312-443-3737. The Film Center is at Columbus Drive and Jackson Boulevard.
– As part of their month-long Classic Latin series, The Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs will screen three short Luis Bunuel films at the Cultural Center on 5 p.m. Tuesday. Included: Bunuel and Salvador Dali’s scandalous 1928 surrealist classic “Un Chien Andalou” ((star) (star) (star) (star) )–with Bunuel playing the film’s notorious eye-slitter. Also on the bill are Bunuel’s corrosive 1932 documentary on Spanish rural poverty “Land Without Bread” ((star) (star) (star) 1/2) and his 1965 religious comedy “Simon of the Desert” ((star) (star) (star) 1/2). The screenings will be preceded by a lecture on Bunuel by Tribune film reviewer John Petrakis. The Cultural Center is at 78 E. Washington. Call 312-744-6630.
– Another Tribune writer, reporter Terry Wilson, co-wrote the original script for the locally shot 1996 thriller “Tangled” ((star) ), which gets its world premiere at the Film Center at 6 and 8:15 p.m. Saturday. Set in a murky world of Chicago drug dealers and bikers, centering on a biker woman caught in a vise of murder and betrayal, it should have been better. Director-co-writer Toni Sherwood and producer Ted Shen will be present for discussion.
– Even if you think you’ve sampled all Jane Austen has to offer on screen, you still may jump at the chance to see, starting Friday at the Wilmette Theater, 1122 Central, a rare 35 mm print of the 1940 MGM movie of “Pride and Prejudice” ((star) (star) (star) 1/2). It stars Greer Garson as Elizabeth, Laurence Olivier as Darcy, and is directed by Robert Z. Leonard and written by Aldous Huxley. “Pride” is being revived to complement the Wilmette’s current run of the sparkling new “Emma” ((star) (star) (star) 1/2) . Call 847-251-7411.
