Friday, December 23, 2011

I almost missed "The Decalogue"

     In 1989, Polish Director Krzysztof Kieślowski released a ten part series titled "The Decalogue."  At an hour long each, the episodes are a modern interpretation of the "Ten Commandments."  The third episode is based on the Commandment, "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy." We are introduced to a taxi driver named Janusz, who plans to spend Christmas Eve with his wife and two children.  While the family attends Christmas Eve mass, he runs into Ewa, his ex-lover whom he had an affair with three years prior.  Later that night, Ewa asks Janusz to help look for her missing husband.  They drive all over the city, with no luck.  As the film goes on, it becomes excruciatingly evident her husband is not missing, and she must be trying to seduce Janusz to rekindle their past relationship and convince him to leave his family.  Her intentions, or at least what we assume them to be, are extremely frustrating.  She is portrayed as a selfish, unsympathetic character who doesn't want to let her ex-lover go.
     However, this perception of Ewa quickly changes when she reveals the real reason she has called upon Janusz that evening.  She admits her husband is not missing, in fact, he divorced her shortly after he discovered her affair with Janusz.  He is now re-married, and while he and her ex-lover now enjoy life with their new families, she has not been so fortunate.  Three years later, she is still alone, and she couldn't bare to spend Christmas Eve by herself, which is why she lied to Janusz, not to start up their affair again, but to simply have someone to spend the holiday with.  She is now a completely sympathetic character, one who has had to watch others move on with their lives while she is still struggling to find happiness of her own.  Just before this revelation, I was so frustrated with her character that I seriously considered turning off the film.  Thankfully, I stuck with it, leaving me incredibly empathetic for Ewa and her desire to be rid of her loneliness.  Of the ten installments of "The Decalogue," this is the one that had the greatest impact because of how drastically my opinion was changed over the course of the film.  Now, whenever I think of giving up on a film, I think of the third episode of "The Decalogue," and what I could be missing.

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