Krysztof Kieslowski

IntroductionKrysztof Kieslowskis genius germinated as a truly original and aspect provoking film director was deeply influenced by the presence of Communism in Poland,. Later to join the ranks of the worlds greatest filmmakers, Krysztof was quoted as apothegm asking questions about our existence was more important than existence concerned with political reality why get up from bed ? If one was not at either concerned about the metaphysics of things. In this context his fascination towards the parameters of memory and complexities of survival developed and was later manifested in his works.The land of his birth, Poland, was the background for some(prenominal) of his movies. He shifted his focus from documentary reality as a filmmaker working in his country. The gaze of his camera shifted from documenting reality to the probing the inner animateness of human beings, deeply affected by their reality in different ways. The oeuvre of Kieslowski straddled over many concerns. Two of his recurring themes were the persistence of memory and survival amidst the harsh realities of liveness. Death and violence was a feature of life in communist Poland.Every vestige of idealism was stripped away in the wake of headway numbing regimentation and the murder of freedom and humanity almost reducing people to bargon survival level. On a apparitional level the characters in Kieslowskis works seem to agonizingly grope their way forward out of this bluishness.Each in their own way resolve a dilemma of existence, to find reunion, double-dyed(a) truth, even death, happiness and yet the films never work their way to some artificial conclusion ambiguous as life is, in fact. An examination of the directors projects will throw up evidence of these recurring themes. Yet, the films are never completely pessimistic, even if some strength go deep into the dark side of human nature or seem to be concerned with erotic obsession. Thus in one hand it magnified memory or the reco nstruction of memory and on the other hand he juxtaposed the manifestation and complexities of survival.However, the director was himself a very warm person who simply felt up that depicting fictionalized reality was simply a better, if oblique, way to show reality. One tends to get an impression from the whole body of work that a lot is being said in the films but very subtly. Of course, helping Kieslowski was his immensely talented cast who seem to draw every shade of feeling out in films as diverse as No End and The forked life of Veronique. On the face of it nothing very much seems to be fortuity in these films. It is all astute emotional underplay and a trueheartedly controlled interplay of human conflicts and deeply moving responses. (Dollard, 89-92)Two of his films are representative of the aforementioned themes Three Colors muddy and Decalogue 2Three Colors Blue (1993)Blue is a work of such intensity that one is eternally grateful that Juliette Binoche plays Julie Vign on De Courcy, the protagonist of the film with such a delightful texture of emotions.Blue is the Polish directors penetrating and highly involving work on loss and freedom and is also the dominant hue of his film. It is also partition of a trilogy, Red, White and Blue the director made.A bluish candy wrapper in a small girls hand, reflects, sunlight through a railcars window the next shot cuts to a leaking pipe, hinting at the imminent accident involving the car. Julie Vignon is the only survivor in the accident, which kills her miss and husband. Fortunately for viewers, the car crash is heard not seen. The rest of the incident is shown in fragments and slivers of shattered glass. This reflects the state of the injured Julie in hospital.Extremely painfully she recollects the incident in fragments. The fragments hint at her life so far. She is the wife of a well known musician. The husband has been lately rumored to have run out of original ideas for composition his scores are s aid to have been penned by his wife. Julie seems to fighting these memories off almost as if they cause great suffering. She seems to find it difficult to survive.Through these initial terse cuts , Kieslowski draws us simple eyed into a private world of pain and suffering mad acute by lingering memory this is a devastated world , and very subtle action depicts this . Dialogue would be utterly contrived in this situation. A typical approach would be to take the path of resolution of this pain shown in quick recovery. True to his commitment, the director does not make it so easy. In the hospital, Julie attempts suicide by an overdose of pills but does not really go all the way she survives. Here there is a further hardening of the situation. (Lamb, 243-245)After her release from hospital, Julie wants to kill herself off psychologically by withdrawing from the world. Her grief in fact, is so penetrating that she can neither cry nor even feel. Yet, her body language reveals that she is still in great pain. Her mouth quivers as she watches her familys funeral on television and her daughters casket. She visibly goes limp as she approaches her husbands study. This is depicted with an economy which truly emphasizes the slow grade up of grief. She withdraws herself completely from the world somewhat her and shifts from the familys country estate to an apartment, in her maiden name. She wipes out all traces of the past, even of her family except a few slivers of glass. Reflections in glass are a persistent device used in the film meant to convey the distance Julie is creating for herself and her memories.But the distance Julie wants to create cannot really stave off her past, try as she might her reaction is to further withdraw into an enigmatic silence. At this point, her husbands bu vilenessess partner, Olivier, searches her out and offers to complete her husbands unfinished symphony as a tribute to his memory. Here is the working out of a cathartic device. The audience would find it relieving to have Julie come out of the prison of grief and re attach to the world.The resolution of the films mesmerizing tone of grief is toward a brighter shade. Blue is the color of grief but Juliets slow exit back into personal peace helps to overcome this. Oliviers role is cathartic meant to bring a closure. Towards the end of the film, she decides to collaborate on finishing her husbands symphony and gives off the familys country estate to her husbands mistress. (Fletcher, 188)Losing everything can be freedom too.DECALOGUE 2Decalogue was a series of ten I second films, each based on one of the Ten Commandments. The work was however, no rendering of the Biblical story but a reframing of the commandments to contemporary Poland. Each sin attributed to a particular moral lapse in each of the ten films. These films offered Kieslowski the convenience of working with some of his favorite themes and some new ones. They obliquely match to Kieslowskis religiou s concerns but in a way totally in synch with the directors typically understated and subtle style. They are tightly made and form a work of considerable cinematic importance.The central theme of Decalogue 2 is of the purest moral dilemma. Dorotas husband is seriously ill and in hospital. What she needs to know from the doctor is whether he will survive or not. She is pregnant by some one else and if her husband survives, she will abort the claw .If he dies, she will keep the child.The doctor denies any knowledge of her husbands prognosis saying he doesnt clearly know how to dish up her. The doctors story is then told in flashback and we find that his family has been killed in a World War 2 bombing raid. His tragic loss in the past and his memory of it makes him conscious of another life at stake. Here we have a clear glimpse of the directors humanity and his strong convictions as a person even when working or dealing with a lot of abstraction in his films. The doctors dilemma is should he tell her the husband will be well thus making Dorota abort the child? In the end the doctors brilliant fare will help to save two lives (Dorotas and the childs).The film is embellished like the others in this collection with the many small details that help build up the situation in a one hour film details that keep audiences involved in the story unfolding. The film reveals that the doctor lives in the same apartment block as Dorota, walks to work. There are scenes involving Dorotas smoking which obviously increases the danger to her.The theme of survival is cleverly shown in scenes where a bee tries to draw itself out of a bottle on a table in the husbands hospital bed, making the connections to the issue of the fragility of life and strong survival instincts at work both within the film and in living beings. Human beings seem to be longing for contact or withdrawing in their own private world. Meaning is ambiguous in these films there are the sub themes to consider v iolence, chance, fate, and destiny. Dream sequences are an extension of memory large us a glimpse of the depth of anguish or obsession which different in the human beings. (Kar, 145)Rather, as his other creation like The Double Life of Vronique, the films take on a life of their own with individuals in a society, in a state, in a family. More is happening to these characters than the films makes apparent. The director does not observe from the wings but probes deep in to what makes human conflict, what goes on in their minds. Thus the aspects of memory and complexities of survival become unpatterned again and again.ConclusionThroughout the latter part of his career, Kieslowski reveals a streak of pessimistic humanism. The works show a fascination for the inner life of human beings and a spiritual quest for the meaning of existence, with carefully structured camera compositions and an almost sparse narrative. The deeper truths lie beneath the surface of reality and the unraveling o f it is as unpredictable as life the creator does not contrive situations to fit his view. However, he remained loyal towards his belief of greater truth regarding memory and complexities of survival. (King, 126)Works CitedDollard, John Krysztof Kieslowski looks into Tomorrow. (New Haven and London Yale University Press. 2006) pp 89-92Fletcher, R artifice Beliefs and Knowledge Believing and Knowing. (Mangalore Howard & Price. 2006) pp 188Kar, P History of Cinema & Market Applications (Kolkata Dasgupta & Chatterjee 2005) pp 145King, H Art Today (Dunedin HBT & Brooks Ltd. 2005) pp 126Lamb, Davis Cult to Culture (Wellington National Book Trust. 2004) pp 243-245