December 13th: A SHORT FILM ABOUT KILLING (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1988)
NOTE: This film will be projected in the high-definition Blu-ray format.
A young man senselessly kills a taxi driver and is sentenced to death for his crime.
Krzysztof Kieslowski attended the renowned film school in Lodz, Poland during the mid-1960s, a brief period when the government had eased back on Soviet restrictions on artists. After a series of documentaries depicting daily life in Poland, he began making narrative features in the mid-70s, growing in stature in the film community while facing further scrutiny and interference from censors.
One of Kieslowski's new collaborators, the trial lawyer Krzysztof Piesiewicz, suggested an idea about a project based on the Ten Commandments. After discussing various scenarios and settings, the pair decided to focus on the present-day residents of a single Warsaw housing complex, exploring their private lives against the themes of the various commandments, often in oblique, ironic, or unexpected ways.
They proposed the idea to the television board as a 10-part serial and were approved. Kieslowski originally planned to have different directors on each installment, but decided to helm all of them after growing attached to the material. Instead, he worked with 9 different cinematographers, giving all a considerable amount of freedom in terms of camera placement and movement.
Part of the funding deal was Kieslowski's offer to expand two of the episodes into feature-length for theatrical release. His personal selection for one of them was Dekalog V, based on the commandment 'Thou Shalt Not Kill", which concerned itself less with individual murder and more with state-sponsored executions, Kieslowski being strongly against the death penalty.
Cinematographer Slawomir Idziak, repulsed by the material, agreed to participate on the condition he had more control over the film's look. He built hundreds of filters to distort and color the image, bathing almost all of the film in an unpleasant greenish hue, much in keeping with Kieslowski's intention to depict the bleakness of Poland at the time.
The series was a critical success with very high viewing ratings, and was considered instrumental in Poland's suspension of the death penalty that same year.. A Short Film About Killing was selected for competition at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Jury Prize and the international critic's prize. It also won Best Film at the inaugural European Film Awards.
Running time is 85 minutes.
A young man senselessly kills a taxi driver and is sentenced to death for his crime.
Krzysztof Kieslowski attended the renowned film school in Lodz, Poland during the mid-1960s, a brief period when the government had eased back on Soviet restrictions on artists. After a series of documentaries depicting daily life in Poland, he began making narrative features in the mid-70s, growing in stature in the film community while facing further scrutiny and interference from censors.
One of Kieslowski's new collaborators, the trial lawyer Krzysztof Piesiewicz, suggested an idea about a project based on the Ten Commandments. After discussing various scenarios and settings, the pair decided to focus on the present-day residents of a single Warsaw housing complex, exploring their private lives against the themes of the various commandments, often in oblique, ironic, or unexpected ways.
They proposed the idea to the television board as a 10-part serial and were approved. Kieslowski originally planned to have different directors on each installment, but decided to helm all of them after growing attached to the material. Instead, he worked with 9 different cinematographers, giving all a considerable amount of freedom in terms of camera placement and movement.
Part of the funding deal was Kieslowski's offer to expand two of the episodes into feature-length for theatrical release. His personal selection for one of them was Dekalog V, based on the commandment 'Thou Shalt Not Kill", which concerned itself less with individual murder and more with state-sponsored executions, Kieslowski being strongly against the death penalty.
Cinematographer Slawomir Idziak, repulsed by the material, agreed to participate on the condition he had more control over the film's look. He built hundreds of filters to distort and color the image, bathing almost all of the film in an unpleasant greenish hue, much in keeping with Kieslowski's intention to depict the bleakness of Poland at the time.
The series was a critical success with very high viewing ratings, and was considered instrumental in Poland's suspension of the death penalty that same year.. A Short Film About Killing was selected for competition at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Jury Prize and the international critic's prize. It also won Best Film at the inaugural European Film Awards.
Running time is 85 minutes.
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