Ten Commandments in Film Decalog

¶ … Ten Commandments in Film

Decalog (Decalogue in the U.S.) is a series of ten stories focusing on one of the Ten Commandments (Kieslowski, Krzysztof, 1989, motion picture film). Each of the ten stories is thought provoking, and a lot of work was put into the storyline and structures to keep them on a high concept level of filmmaking. The films are not going to appeal to everyone, because they are subtitles, but for those of who love foreign film, they're unforgettable experience and it becomes difficult not to compare them to the 1956 Cecil B. DeMille epic version, starring Charlton Heston, Ten Commandments (DeMille (dir), 1956 motion picture). While DeMille's epic was long before Kieslowski's ten story film collage,

Both films cause the viewer to find that place inside their self where they keep their sense of faith, and, when it is challenged by the world around us, we draw upon it, like a well, to find meaning and understanding. Kieslowski's stories play out beautifully, with Commandment emerging as the message, or the moral of the story. It is far from the epic drama of DeMille, but it is dramatic, and moving, and the story lines - the Holocaust, and thou shalt not covet the neighbor's whatever, which is entertaining as it is thought provoking.