¶ … 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.

While both films cause the viewer to go to that place of trust, faith, love; they take us there in very different ways. DeMille is much more Biblical than Kieslowski, and because Kieslowski is more rooted in experiences all viewers can relate to, then it is, perhaps not a better film - because we cannot them as the same because the differences between them as film products are significant. However, as a work that the viewer can relate to, it is Kieslowski who creates the more definitive viewer experience.

Works Cited

Kieslowski, Krzysztof, 1989, Dekalog (Decalogue USA), motion picture film, Sender

Freies Berlin Production Company, Poland.

DeMilles, Cecil B., 1956, the Ten Commandments, motion picture film, Motion Picture

Associates, USA.