Movie Director:Krzysztof Kieslowski

[242sumner]

Kieslowski is pure magic...pure cinematic pleasure!
His movies are both intellectual and humanistical.
The three colours trilogy("Blue","white","red" ); The Decalogue(the ten part epic masterpiece).

[boilermaker]

The Decalogue alone gives him a NO CRAP vote!

[simmo]

Fucking brilliant. Dekalog is amazing. So incredible that these were made-for-tv movies!

[GuyMercier]

totally awful wayward christian fundamentalist

UTTER CRAP (with a nice eye)

[sparky]

totally awful wayward christian fundamentalist

UTTER CRAP (with a nice eye)

Funny. I thought he was atheist. This is a vague impression having read Kieslowski on Kieslowski ten years ago. Which was why I thought his taking on subjects closely associated with religion and metaphysics was compelling.

A quick google search only gives this:

Kieslowski regarded himself as an atheist, and his long-time writing partner, Krzysztof Piesiewicz, identified himself as a Christian but not a Catholic. Their intention with the series was to ponder what role the commandments might have in contemporary dilemmas without using interpretations that were necessarily Christian -- it's more a matter of religiosity than religion.

Atheist or no, NOT CRAP.

I disagree with him, but David Thomson's take on him in The New Biographical Dictionary of Film has some validity:

"There is no doubting his feeling for things seen and heard; there is no question but that he is a filmmaker, and one following in the steps of Bresson. But, for me, Kieslowski frequently runs the risk of being precious, mannered, and so cold as to forbid touchig."

I like Kieslowski's chilliness. From reading him describe himself, his aesthetic and beliefs, he was a bleak guy, but funny. This coldness was just his way of dealing with this bleakness he felt about the world.

[space junk]

I like Kieslowski's chilliness. From reading him describe himself, his aesthetic and beliefs, he was a bleak guy, but funny. This coldness was just his way of dealing with this bleakness he felt about the world.

Very nicely put.

[madmanmunt]

K on K is a great read even if you don't like his films. Just the bit about him getting out of going into the army is worth it.

The Double Life of Veronique does not get the recognition it deserves. I think it is by far his most perfectly realised work and is one of the most beautiful films (and not just in a visual sense) I have ever seen.

I don't find his outlook bleak. On the contrary, I feel his films represent a certain strain of tender humanism, which I think he perhaps shares with Nabokov, and that he is misunderstood for the same reasons people misunderstand Nabokov (but maybe that is because I am a cold-hearted motherfucker).

RANK:

Blue
White
Red

[Eierdiebe]

Double Life Of Veronique is finally coming out, on Criterion no less. i look forward to seeing it.

when i was at the Berlinale ealier this year i saw a presentation on Kieslowski which featured a panel including Wim Wenders. the guy who did the commentary on the Diary of a Country Priest DVD was the moderator. he specifically introduced Wenders as a filmmaker who had explored a lot of the same themes as Kieslowski (stuff like modern day alienation, anxiety, etc.).

so, at the end of the presentation, when it came time for questions, i decided to raise my hand. someone passed a mic to me but the wireless connection went screwy all of a sudden and things were confusing for about thirty seconds, to the point that i kinda lost my train of thought. to make matters worse a camera with a bright light on top of it was pointed in my face. when the technical problem was rectified, i wnet ahead and asked my question, but it came out sounding much more roundabout than i'd worded it before the interruption. (i wanted to know why, if wenders and kieslowski had such similar themes that many of the characters in kieslowski's films came across as much more stern than in wenders'. i wondered if this had something to do with the fact that kieslowski's characters were more relegated to their surroundings, while wenders' characters had more mobility, or if this had anything to do with the difference between german and polish sensibilities or simply the two filmmakers personalities.) the english moderator guy cut me off because he thought i was just asking a wenders question. then a tremor went through the auditorium. to save face and make my point, i interjected and quickly finished the question. somehow i'd recovered, and my question seemed sensible enough in its entirety, but wim wenders wasn't particularly nice to me with his response. instead he was standoffish. i wasn't crushed or demoralized, but i felt silly, as if somehow i was being a painted as a dumb american asshole or dishonoring the great kieslowski becuase my question didn't come out so well. so after the anticlimatic answer i just said fuckit and went to go smoke a cigarette before the presentation was over. then, aboard the shuttle from the the house of world cultures to potzdamer platz, i saw one of the guys responsible for my being there (he'd personally selected me from several filmmakers). he tried to give me the evil eye, but i looked right back, as if to say, "what?"

so, whenever i see kieslowski's name i think about this incident.

i like his films, those that i've seen anyway, but i don't love them. and i take serious issue with his statement that the film is inferior to the novel, and that if he had a chance to do it over he would've become a surgeon instead of a filmmaker. (i can see his point, given the demands and limitations of the film world, but it seems calculatedly contrarian of him.)

not crap, a waffle or two.

[242sumner]

kieslowski has reached a much higher level than Wenders.
The films of wenders have never really touched me emotionally.His caracters just have never involved me the same way of Kieslowski`s.

[242sumner]

...And yes,I know It's all about your own personal, highly subjective experiences.

[sparky]

K on K is a great read even if you don't like his films. Just the bit about him getting out of going into the army is worth it.

This is an excellent story!

To get out of the army, he went for an interview with an ary psychiatrist (I think) and was asked about what he had done the other day. Kieslowski then talked described how he had replaced a plug in his flat in minute detail: "first I went to my toolbox to find the right screwdriver, then..." Just describing how he replaced a plug managed to persuade the authorities that he was mentally unfit for service.

I don't find his outlook bleak. On the contrary, I feel his films represent a certain strain of tender humanism

Fair point. I mean to say that his personal outlook was bleak, which filtered into his style of representation. But you're right, his films do hold out a lot of hope and humanism, which gives them a balance. Life is hard and full of impossible questions, but it is manageable, and can be beautiful.

[emmanuelle cunt]

i'm truly ashamed i'm only familiar with one of his movies (blue) as i loved it.

2 years ago i was walking around at a cemetery and saw this:

very nice.

[GuyMercier]

i'm truly ashamed i'm familiar with one of his movies (blue) as i loved it.

well, it's a truly reactionary view of catholicism
which itself is the epitome of reactionary
the heroin is such an awful bourgeois asshole...

total CRAP

very nice.

I think you are obsessed with vagina symbolism

[emmanuelle cunt]

i'm truly ashamed i'm familiar with one of his movies (blue) as i loved it.

well, it's a truly reactionary view of catholicism
which itself is the epitome of reactionary
the heroin is such an awful bourgeois asshole...

total CRAP

very nice.

I think you are obsessed with vagina symbolism

square shaped vagina! on a grave! french people are unbelievable!

[gio]

i'm truly ashamed i'm familiar with one of his movies (blue) as i loved it.

well, it's a truly reactionary view of catholicism
which itself is the epitome of reactionary
the heroin is such an awful bourgeois asshole...

total CRAP

wait, wait, wait...

the portrayal of a "bourgeouis asshole" as a character in a film means the director is crap?

that's news to me.

besides, she suffers a great deal in the film... some of which are the side-effects of a bourgeois lifestyle (finding out her husband was unfaithful, etc)... so maybe you missed a chance to relish that.

KK made awesome films (whether or not you sympathize with the characters).

Try "Amator"... you might be able to stomach that one. The protagonist is a member of the proletariat.

not crap.

[GuyMercier]

square shaped vagina! on a grave! french people are unbelievable!

you think it's an L7 tribute ?
perhaps!

[GuyMercier]

the portrayal of a "bourgeouis asshole" as a character in a film means the director is crap?

as a hero ? certainly
all this woman has for problems is...

finding out her husband was unfaithful, etc)...
KK made awesome films (whether or not you sympathize with the characters).

yes, "white" is great

but, hey, do you remember that little old lady struggling to get her glass bottle in the correct trash container ? that was so stoopid!

and do you remember the closing credits which says "oh all those pervert homos are going to die from god's given aids", that was really something out of this secular world

but, "white" is truly great.

[Eierdiebe]

kieslowski has reached a much higher level than Wenders.

i think Wenders' 70s stuff is really top-notch. ever seen The Goalies' Anxiety At The Penalty Kick, or Wrong Move, or Alive In The Cities? those and Paris, Texas are pretty fucking impressive, thanks in no small part to the EXCELLENT cinematography of Robby Muller. this dude is to the killer interior car shot what albini is to the bombastic roomy drum sound. Kieslowksi had some good cinematographers too though. (word on the street is, if you wanna do learn good cinematography, Poland is the place.)

i would like to see the earlier Kieslowksi films like Camera Buff and Blind Chance. i kinda have the feelign that the Three Colors triology is a bit watered down in comparison. like, for instance, that part in Red in which somebody throws a rock through the ex-judge's window and he puts it on the table, and then the camera makes this really overly-obvious zoom so that we can see that several rocks have been hurled at him. that part makes me cringe everytime i see it.

woah, a hot jewsih girl just walked by. i need to get busy with a jewish woman at some point. my big nose requires it.

anyway, i don't think Kieslowski was an atheist, he just wasn't religious. there an interview on the last Dekalogue DVD, in Poland, for Tv, with Keislowksi and he's tlakign to polish film people and he says so, that he's not an atheist, that he beleives (beleived?) in somesorta god.

[Eierdiebe]

and do you remember the closing credits which says "oh all those pervert homos are going to die from god's given aids", that was really something out of this secular world

are you jokign? it seems you are. this is the one film of that triology i haven't seen.

[GuyMercier]

are you jokign? it seems you are. this is the one film of that triology i haven't seen.

well, do not see it because I am not joking

"red" sucks too
but I forgot why...