In the scanty ranks of foreign filmmakers whose American reputations extend beyond the art-house circuit, the late Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski occupies a position of some note. His lush “Three Colors” trilogy of films, which feature such well-known actresses as Juliette Binoche and Julie Delpy, can be found in almost any Blockbuster Video — and more remarkably still, they’re often checked out.
Such popularity verges on the astonishing in this country’s movie market, where foreign-language films barely earn 1 percent of total annual box-office grosses. Surely if any filmmaker’s works could be reliably found on video, it would be Kieslowski’s.
And yet the director’s masterwork, a series of short films shown on Polish television in 1989 and regarded with awe by many cinephiles, has remained virtually unavailable in the United States until last week. After almost a decade of financial wrangling, Chicago’s Facets Multimedia released “The Decalogue” on video Tuesday.
“It has the most troubled distribution history we’ve seen in recent decades,” says Facets director Milos Stehlik. He explains that after “The Decalogue’s” triumphant run at several American film festivals, the Canadian company Films 2000 secured the rights to its American distribution — and then priced it too high for potential distributors. In a sense, it was the films’ very popularity that kept them out of the public’s reach for years.
The semi-contraband status of “The Decalogue” stoked a powerful legend among film critics and festival-goers, and the series of 10 films became as celebrated as it was scarce. Although individual episodes popped up in theaters once in a while and the whole thing was screened in a few cities in 1996, “The Decalogue” has remained out of reach for many people. The subsequent American success of Kieslowski’s “The Double Life of Veronique” and the “Three Colors” trilogy was like a dark joke to the film buffs who considered them inferior to their unattainable predecessor.
“The Decalogue” is certainly a monumental achievement. After nearly two decades making documentaries and feature films — some of which, like “The Decalogue” itself, were shown on Polish television — Kieslowski shot and edited this 10-film series in a remarkably brief 21 months. He worked with nine different cinematographers, giving each episode a unique visual feel, and cast a mixture of prominent Polish actors and no-names.
“At one point,” Kieslowski told The New York Times in 1991, “it seemed like you could divide the Polish film industry into two groups: those who took part in `The Decalogue’ and those who didn’t.”
Critics on this side of the Atlantic were quick to recognize the significance of “The Decalogue” — and so were potential distributors. At first, Stehlik says, the distribution rights were expected to cost far more than Facets — a non-profit institution on West Fullerton Avenue that screens films theatrically, rents and sells videos and runs various educational programs — could hope to afford.
“All these prices were originally bandied around 10 years ago, like $1.5 million and all this crazy stuff,” he says. Films 2000 “wanted to sell the rights to various companies — Miramax, you know — but they wanted huge amounts of money and time just ran and ran.”
Stehlik calls it “kind of a miracle” that Facets was finally able to secure the rights, which were due to revert back to Polish television in 2001. As time ticked away, the Canadian distribution company A Band Apart obtained the rights from Films 2000 — and it just so happened that Facets had a good preexisting relationship with A Band Apart. Not only were they able to negotiate an affordable price for the U.S. distribution rights, but they were able to work quickly to close the deal.
“When this whole thing came up,” Stehlik says, “I refused to believe until the very last minute, when everything was signed, that something wouldn’t go wrong at any instant.”
“The Decalogue” revolves around the Ten Commandments, each of which inspires one of its hour-long episodes. Each episode is an independent story, but because the characters all live in the same grim apartment complex and occasionally cross one another’s paths, a deepening sense of intimacy accompanies each installment. Issues of love, faith and righteousness are addressed in dense narratives that seem far more complex than a mere 60 minutes should allow. Often it’s a challenge to find a connection between an episode and the commandment it’s based on, and yet a sense of metaphysical anxiety pervades.
“Kieslowski was a unique filmmaker in that he had this deep intellect mixed with some mysticism,” says Alexander Soifer, a professor of math, film studies and art history at the University of Colorado.
This mixture is apparent in each of the series’ self-contained episodes. In “Decalogue One” — inspired by the commandment “thou shalt have no other gods before me” — a father teaches his small son about the wonders of the computer, only to find that a computer error has caused the boy’s death. Much of the power of this celebrated episode comes from the footage depicting the son, played by the preternaturally adorable Wojciech Klata, going about his daily life. In the famous fifth episode, released in an extended version under the title “A Short Film About Killing,” the ethics of capital punishment are considered via the execution of a murderous youth. In the last episode, which features Zbigniew Zamachowski of “Three Colors,” two brothers find their love for each other competing with their greed.
Kieslowski wasn’t conventionally religious, and his choice of the Ten Commandments as a topic, particularly in the midst of the political turmoil of late-’80s Poland, remains fascinating to many.
“Just as he resisted the label of `political filmmaker,’ he also resisted the label of `religious filmmaker.’ His films do not conform to any strict Christian dogma,” says Annette Insdorf, author of the recent book “Double Lives, Second Chances: The Cinema of Krzysztof Kieslowski.” “I think he did believe in a life of the spirit, something beyond what we can see and hear, but he did not label it in a strictly religious way. He would never leave the viewer complacent — it’s something that the viewer must find within himself.”
This ephemeral quality is present in the “Three Colors” trilogy, particularly in “Blue,” in which a woman searches for meaning after her husband and child are killed in a car wreck, and “Red,” in which diverse characters struggle with urban alienation. But the explicitly religious theme of “The Decalogue” makes its subtlety all the more startling — as Soifer points out.
“Its very unusual that he talks about the Ten Commandments without bringing in biblical decorations like Charlton Heston and `Ben Hur,'” he says. “It’s just an apartment block in Warsaw and ordinary people with whom viewers feel affinity. They’re just like us.”
Kieslowski may have had still more to say on religious matters. In 1996, when he died at 54 after cardiac surgery, his longtime co-writer Krzysztof Piesiewicz said they were at work on a new trilogy. According to Piesiewicz, these new films were to be titled “Heaven,” “Hell” and “Purgatory.”
For followers of Polish film, the political restraint of “The Decalogue” is as striking as its delicate mysticism. Veiled political commentary is a strong tradition in Polish cinema, largely because of the influence of celebrated director Andrzej Wajda, who received an honorary Oscar at this year’s Academy Awards. Kieslowski’s early films had been suffused with political themes, but at a time when questions of democracy and national identity were convulsing the country, he created a work of epic inwardness. Even when “The Decalogue” puts larger ethical concerns in the foreground, as in episode five, the characters’ dramas are timeless and personal.
“It really countered trends,” Stehlik says. “It really had a different objective, which was to make people think about their lives and about the ethical content of their lives in some way. It wasn’t directly political in terms of Polish cinema at the time. You know, who’s going to make a film in 1989 dealing with the substance of the Ten Commandments? It’s kind of a crazy notion. But obviously he knew what he was after.”
Having at long last secured the North American rights, Facets is coordinating “The Decalogue’s” release in a variety of formats. (In addition, the full series will be aired this summer on cable’s Sundance Channel.) A five-volume slipcased set of VHS videotapes will be available for order, as will a DVD, which Facets is releasing in collaboration with Image Entertainment.
Sales have been strong so far to independent video stores and chains — including, yes, Blockbuster. “The Decalogue” will be available at about 500 of the mega-chain’s locations.
“This was our biggest event — it’s certainly the biggest release we’ve ever done,” Stehlik says. “This was a scary commitment for us, but I think it will come out.”
