Decalogue


Midrash is an ancient genre of literature used by the Jewish religion that tries to interperate script from the Torah in order to find or display the meaning. Decalogue is in the genre because the visual mediums interoperate the 10 commandments, and the meaning behind them in a chilling and dark way, but also very beautiful. Decalogue one is a representation of the 1st of the 10 commandments and we can see it throughout the film. In this visual medium, Krzysztof lives at home with his son Pawel, and in this gut wrenching visual medium Kieslowski brings emotion to all his viewers.  The first commandment “You shall have no other gods before Me” can be related to this film because Krzysztof believes in science over God, and uses science to see if it is safe for Pawel to skate. Kieslowski uses this as a lesson to teach this first commandment in the film and the death of Pawel is very emotional in the film. The emotional impact is very large during the visual medium. Pawel is an innocent character full of life, which is cut short. A symbol in this visual medium is when Kieslowski goes to the chapel, and knocks over the candle and the wax forms what appears to be tears on Mary’s face. It is almost as if she is crying with him and makes you feel the pain both of them went through, losing their child. In Decalogue five, we see the 5th of the 10 commandments, “You shall not murder”. In this visual medium, we see the main character Jacek, wander around almost aimlessly in the city of Warsaw. The 6th commandment “You shall not murder” can be seen in this visual medium twice. In Gods eyes, all murder is the same. So by that, Jacek is just as guilty as the men who killed him. No killing is justifiable by God and the judges are not innocent after this occurs. Before Jacek is killed, we see his softer side, where he is much more emotional to his lawyer. We also see a symbol with the ladder, as it is a symbol for Jacek to climb it to heaven after he dies. Both if these were very emotional films that brought the 10 commandments to “life” with the visual representation of what happens when we do not follow them. Both were done very beautifully but also were very dark the sense that the stories were sad and did not have the ending that a viewer would see as happy.

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