Episode VI : Peeping Tomek

Tomek is a mail clerk at the local post office who has taken a liking shall we say to Magda, a women who lives opposite his apartment building. Each night he watches her through a telescope as she has sex with her men, while "pleasuring himself". Initially, he is content to call her phone just to hear her hang up on him. Then his need for interaction increases & he takes a second job as a milk delivery lad just to see her up close & personal every morning. In addition to his already bizarre behavior, he begins sending notices to her mailbox identifying the need to pick up funds that have been left for her. Needless to say, upon her visits to the post office, she is advised that there are no funds for her to collect. On the second visit she asks to speak with Tomek's supervisor regarding the inability of collecting funds deposited to her account. Customer service in Poland is a lot like their Medical services, deplorable & insulting. Here, the manager of the Post office attacks Magda & accuses her of attempting to defraud the postal service. In a huff, Magda leaves the post office only to be followed by Tomek. He confronts her on the street & tells her that he was the one who sent the notices. He further discloses that he knows that she was crying on the night before. When she asks how he knows this he spills the beans & tells her that he has been spying on her from across the courtyard. Highly upset, Magda, pushes him away & warns him not to do it anymore. As night falls, she rings his home & tells him she has a show for him this evening. One of her dalliances is coming over & she plans to bed him down as Tomek watches. Not really wanting to watch yet, excited all the same, Tomek watches as Magda invites the man into her bed. Then as things begin, Magda tells her lover, they are being watched & by whom! Her lover falls from the bed & looks to be running away. Actually, he's headed outside to call, Tomek out for a showdown of sorts. Tomek in the dumbest thing he's done yet, goes down to meet him, is soundly beaten & warned off peeping on Magda. The following day, Tomek delivers Magda's milk as usual & is greeted by a grinning Magda. When Magda asks why Tomek peeps at her he tells her simply that he loves her. Doesn't know a thing about her, has never had a girlfriend or a lover for that matter but…he loves her! Intrigued by his innocence, Magda agrees to go out with him. This brings Tomek, the greatest joy of his life & he prepares for his evening out! When he arrives at Magda's flat, he is invited in & sat down. Magda is planning to give him something she has given away a great many times & to a great many men however, with Tomek, she will be his first & that has a ring of "special ness" about it. In the midst of their foreplay, Tomek prematurely climaxes-fully clothed, & is chided by Magda that he now knows what "love" is all about. So great is his embarrassment, Tomek runs from the apartment home where he cuts his wrists in an attempt to commit suicide. Days go by & Tomek is nowhere to be found. Magda checks the post office to no avail & is shocked to find his mother delivering her milk. It is then that Magda learns what Tomek has done & tries desperately to find where he's been taken. It is not for several days but eventually, Tomek returns to his first job at the post office exclaiming, I'm not peeping you anymore! Interestingly enough, Magda looks as if she's fallen in love with Tomek! Who knows where this will end? Anyway, that's the meat of episode # 6.

Episode VII : Bitter Rivalry

Ania is a six-year old child being raised by Ewa, her "mother" & her "sister", Majka. What t she doesn't know is that Majka is really her mother. Evidently when Majka was just 16 years old she became pregnant after a brief relationship with one of her teachers at her boarding school. In an attempt to keep everything quiet, her mother took the child & raised her both publicly & privately as her own daughter, a mistake if you will in later married life. In any event Majka is treated so horribly by her mother regarding Ania, it's difficult to understand why she has stayed in the house for so long. One day as Ania is participating in a school play, Majka, "kidnaps" her & whisks her away to parts unknown. Then finally, she reveals herself to Ania as her real mother. After they leave the train, they find themselves in a rather barren stretch of woods with only a small chalet in view. When the occupant comes out to see who's in his yard, he's surprised to recognize his visitor. Majka has brought Ania to meet her father, Stefan who now makes teddy bears for a living. Majka explains the entire scenario to Stefan who is entirely not happy to see either one of them. He convinces Majka to at least call Ewa to let her know what's happened to Ania. Reluctantly, she calls Ewa & gives her demands. She'll return home with Ania only if Ewa will allow her to raise Ania as her daughter. Ewa is relieved to hear that Ania is safe however, she cannot for the sake of reputation allow Majka to raise Ania as her daughter. Somehow, Ewa tracks down the origin of the phone call & arrives to take Majka & Ania home. When Ania sees Ewa, she instinctively calls out "momma" & leaps into her waiting arms. Dejected & upset, Majka grabs her belongings & boards the next train, leaving her parents & her daughter behind without so much as a word of goodbye for her child. Sadly, as the train leaves the station, Ania pulls away from Ewa & runs after the train for Majka, once again calling out for her mother, only this time, she gets no reply. You couldn't help but feel for Ania as the true victim in the story. Majka had good intentions however, she never spent one day caring for Ania as a mother & was wholly unfit to carry out her responsibilities as such. Her mother was repugnant in the way she dealt with the situation & her father was essentially along for the ride, no matter how it turned out. Yet another depressing entry in the series.

Episode VIII : A Simple Life

Elzbieta, researching the fate of Jewish War survivors, is visiting from New York and sits in on lectures in ethics at the University of Warsaw. Zofia, is an accomplished ethics professor who is forced to acknowledge her past as Elzbieta reveals herself as the young Jewish girl whom Zofia refused to hide from the Nazis during their occupation of Poland. As Zofia explains that the reasons were open cowardice in the face of certain death, her long-standing sense of personal guilt is cleared while Elzbieta's faith in humanity is restored. Deep subject matter that was really lack luster in its presentation. The problem was, you couldn't really care one way or another for either one of the main characters & their issues of self worth & reliance. They were believable as suffering souls but, the execution of this particular episode was so exacting & methodical that as it unfolded you could not help but pray for the ending of the episode. Simply boring.

Episode IX : Never Again

Here a successful surgeon is diagnosed with impotence. As he is no longer able to perform in bed he, tells his wife to take a lover so that her sexual needs will be met. Once he gives the OK, jealousy begins to set in & in no time he is tapping her phone calls, reading her mail & rummaging through her belongings. Well, after all, he did tell her to go & get a lover & she did just that. Not because she really wanted to but because she thought it would make her husband happy. Come to think of it, it would probably make her happy too! That is, as long as she didn't flaunt it in his face. The good doctor however has his issues as well. There is a young 20-something patient of his that he would like nothing more than to bed however, both his condition & hers make that an impossibility. Not to mention, she's not feigning any interest in the doctor. Anyway, the doctor begins following his wife in hopes of catching a glimpse of the man she's sleeping with. Finally, he finds them & sits on the steps outside the apartment & listens to the couple making love. At the conclusion, it appears as though he'll confront the two but in the light of being found out, he ducks behind a dark passage & waits while they leave. To make matters more interesting, on their next visit to the apartment, the husband hides himself in the wardrobe so that he can actually see them well…together. However, the egg is on his face because, his wife realizing the terrible strain this has put on an already strained relationship, ends the affair & catches her husband crouching in the wardrobe. Tremendously embarrassed he apologizes to her for his voyeurism & sends her on a skiing trip to clear her head. When he finds out that the young lover also goes to ski at the same mountain & at the same time, he attempts to commit suicide by riding his bicycle off the end of an unfinished highway. Realizing what her husband must think about the boy also showing up at the ski resort, she runs home as quickly as she can, only to find an empty house & a suicide note on the phone. Evidently, the doctor is a better physician than he is a judge of distance & gravity. In his attempt to kill himself he has merely severely injured himself & ends up in a total body cast. The two end up on the phone being glad the other is still there for them.

Episode X : The passion of the Deceased

Two brothers are alerted to the death of their father, a man neither one knew too well. In going through his belongings, they are met with a debt their father incurred-220,000 dollars in Polish currency. Interestingly enough, they find a stamp collection among their father's things. Knowing there is value of some sort in the collection, the brothers have the collection assessed & find it's value to be tens of millions of dollars. Evidently, the father used all of his earnings to amass the collection & spent his entire life collecting rare stamps. Ready to sell the collection, a fellow collector of their father's not to squander all that remained of their father's memory admonishes them. Namely, the stamp collection. One son, gives a particularly expensive set to his son who promptly sells it for a fraction of it's total worth. The father then spends a fair amount of time trying to regain the bits of the collection that seem to be slipping out of his hands. The other brother is a member of a rock band called civil death. He cares nothing about his father's legacy, rather he cares how much he can get from the old man's estate. Unwilling to help his brother do anything that will not net them substantial profit. This episode was supposed to be a comedy of sorts. I have to tell you nothing funny here. Interesting storyline but again, lackluster production & not exactly engaging cinema.

Audio:

Each episode is presented in a mono soundtrack. Given that there are no special effects that would benefit from a surround presence, the audio as it's presented while, lackluster & passive is satisfactory. There are incredibly long moments where there is nothing said in each feature. This lends itself fully to open boredom. I am unsure as to what the director was attempting to achieve but, what he did succeed in doing was boring me to death! Additionally, there are a great many instances where nothing is translated from Polish into English so, you are left wondering what is going on far too many times for my liking.

Video:

The video is 4:3 full screen which was the way in which it was originally presented on Polish television in the 80's. The transfers are full of scratches & flecks & imperfections of just about every sort. The quality of the video presentation is probably best evaluated at a 1st generation VHS tape/PBS broadcast. No better, no worse. For a DVD presentation, they could have cleaned the films up just a bit however, one must look to the source materials & obviously, they were not well maintained at all.

Extras:

Real easy, there are none.

Overall:

Firstly, this collection is 10 hours long! That alone doesn't give it much repeat or initial viewing perks. Secondly, These stories are all incredibly depressing! None of them were funny or light or even had any kind of great feeling to them that would bring about the desire to watch any of these episodes again. There are those who deem this work a "Masterpiece", I am not among that bunch! While I felt the acting & storylines were well put together, I think the language barrier coupled with the lack of total translation a bit distressing. I cannot really recommend this two-disc collection to anyone other than a fan of Polish cinema & in particular, this director's work. For the casual observer, The Decalogue is less like a cinematic experience & more like a prison sentence.