The double-disc set Dekalog, Parts 6-10, contains the last five of Kieslowski's 10 one-hour modern morality tales, each one loosely linked to one of the 10 Commandments. All set in and around the same drab, high-rise Warsaw housing estate, they intriguingly explore moral dilemmas without ever coming to any glib conclusions. As always, Kieslowski is far more interested in posing questions than in supplying answers. The series was originally made for Polish television, and has since been shown on TV stations all round the world, though never in the cinema. While they... can easily be watched separately, being individual stories, there's no question that they gain in impact from being taken in conjunction with each other. Kieslowski used a different cinematographer for each film (except Nos. 3 and 9, both photographed by Piotr Sobocinski) to give a distinct feel to each story. While none of them--as you might expect from this director--offer a barrel of laughs, some are decidedly lighter in tone. Indeed the series ends on an almost farcical note: Dekalog 10 tells the tale of two brothers seized with paranoia when their late father leaves them a valuable stamp collection. By contrast, Dekalog 6 is one of the most moving and compassionate in the collection: a woman who finds a young lad is obsessively spying on her inflicts an intolerable humiliation on him. This, like No. 5 in the series, was expanded by 25 minutes or so into a feature film, A Short Film about Love. Here too, it seems a pity that the longer version couldn't have been included in the set. On the DVDs: Dekalog, Parts 1-6 is slightly better served for extras than the first set; this includes a 50-minute interview with Kieslowski, one of the last he gave before his early death. As usual, he stonewalls all the questions with barely concealed impatience. The transfer captures the muted colours of the original, and the Dolby 1.0 sound is crisp and clear. --Philip Kemp [show more]
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Originally made for Polish television, Krzysztof Kieslowski's acclaimed 'Dekalog' is a ten-part series in which each episode offers a contemporary dramatic meditation on one of the Ten Commandments. Included here are the second five episodes. In 'Dekalog 6' a young man grows infatuated with a worldly girl. 'Dekalog 7' has a mother and daughter struggle in a battle of wills. 'Dekalog 8' sees past sins picked over as a means to survive. 'Dekalog 9' finds an impotent husband wrestling with his wife's unfaithfulness. 'Dekalog 10' concerns two brothers who are drawn into a bitter feud over a legacy. An expanded cinema version of 'Dekalog 6' was also released under the title 'A Short Film About Love'.
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