Dekalog: Six (1988)
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Review #1,438 |
THE SCOOP
Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski
Cast: Olaf Lubaszenko, Grazyna Szapolowska, Piotr Machalica
Plot: A teenage poster worker, Tomek, routinely spies on his older neighbour Magda, a sexually liberated artist who lives in the apartment across the courtyard from his. As their private worlds merge, fascination turns to obsession, and the line between love and curiousity becomes violently blurred. (from The Criterion Collection)
Genre: Drama
Awards: Won FIPRESCI Prize & Children and Cinema Award (Venice). Official Selection (Cannes).
Runtime: 60min
Rating: Not rated (likely to be PG13 for some sexual references)
Source: Telewizja Polska S.A.
Reviews:
Dekalog: One
Dekalog: Two
Dekalog: Three
Dekalog: Four
Dekalog: Five
Dekalog: Seven
Dekalog: Eight
Dekalog: Nine
Dekalog: Ten
IN RETROSPECT (Spoilers: MILD)
“Thou shalt not commit
adultery.”
Content-wise,
there’s nothing remotely adulterous about the sixth episode of Dekalog, but as the sin of adultery
almost always revolves around the intertwining nature of love and lust, the
film loosely suggests that humans are vulnerable beings in need of connecting
with someone. This notion is dramatized
in the affecting story of a young man, Tomek (Olaf Lubaszenko), who spies on an
older woman, Magda (Grazyna Szapolowska), who lives opposite his block.
Through
a voyeuristic setup that immediately calls to mind Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954), Kieslowski’s film
explores love, passion and sex with a potent sense of emotion and human
connection. This is, without a doubt,
one of the finest episodes of the series.
Tomek
doesn’t hide his stalking actions from Magda, and the duo forms an unlikely if
awkward relationship. Magda, the more cynical
party, shuns the idea of love, declaring it impossible and unattainable—for
her, sex is the consolatory substitute for love, of which she actively engages
with a male partner (of similar age), whose relationship with her is unclear.
Tomek,
on the other hand, is attracted to Magda, but is he naïve to think that love is
as what he feels? One might read Dekalog: Six as Tomek’s coming-of-age
tale, where he finds sexual awakening, but also confusion and frustration
toward his own feelings.
What
makes the film intriguing is how the tables are turned in the final twenty
minutes or so, adding thematic and emotional complexity to the
proceedings. Tomek slits his wrist after
an upsetting encounter with Magda, an act of rashness that sends him to the
hospital. In the absence of Tomek, Magda
cuts a desolate figure, plagued by guilt.
She spies on Tomek’s apartment, hoping to find him back home, perhaps
spying on her again.
The
final scene, which I’ll leave you to savour, is one of the truly standout
moments of the series, imbued with a nuanced touch of Kieslowskian ambiguity
that suggests either reconciliation or indifference towards the future of their
relationship. Whichever way you read it,
the constant is that both characters have grown through the course of the
narrative. But are they none the wiser
about love?
Verdict: One of the standout episodes of Dekalog, the sixth film explores love
and sex through a voyeuristic setup, but not without a potent sense of emotion
and human connection.
GRADE: A
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