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Poll

What's your favorite by Krzysztof Kieslowski?

The Scar
0 (0%)
Camera Buff
0 (0%)
Blind Chance
0 (0%)
No End
0 (0%)
A Short Film About Killing
0 (0%)
A Short Film About Love
1 (2.2%)
The Decalogue
6 (13%)
The Double Life of Veronique
11 (23.9%)
Three Colors: Blue
11 (23.9%)
Three Colors: White
3 (6.5%)
Three Colors: Red
8 (17.4%)
haven't seen any
5 (10.9%)
don't like any
1 (2.2%)
other
0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 46

Author Topic: Kieslowski, Krzysztof  (Read 8124 times)

AAAutin

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Re: Kieslowski, Krzysztof - Director's Best
« Reply #30 on: August 23, 2012, 11:19:33 PM »
I love that story, and don't get why it's considered lesser.

Nor do I, sir, nor do I.

Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: Kieslowski, Krzysztof - Director's Best
« Reply #31 on: January 23, 2013, 01:19:05 PM »
Hospital (1977)

A grimy look at the dire conditions of a hospital in Poland over 24 hours. Medical procedures are one of the few things that freak me out and this film absolutely disturbed me at some points. The worst was when one of the doctors was hammering in position the bones of one of the patients and he broke the hammer. Even the strong-willed might find this film a bit too much to watch.

Still, the point is conveyed excellently: the general irritation of the doctors and the constant lack of equipment conveys how inadequately equipped this hospital is. The doctors do their best, help a number of patients, but it’s clear that the conditions are simply unacceptable. A very socially charged film, one I imagine was shown to garner some support to improve the condition of the hospitals in Poland.

From a Night Porter’s Point of View (1979)

There’s something darkly comedic about the no-nonsense narration of the titular night porter. He says action films are his favorite and from there on, he perpetuates a very legalistic, rule-driven lifestyle. It’s hard not to laugh when he shows us one of his hobbies: confiscating fishing poles from individuals who don’t have the proper license to fish or the extreme punishments he believes should be given to offenders of the law.

According to my sources (Annette Isdorf and Kieslowski himself), this is indeed the thoughts and life of a real man. In part, it doesn’t surprise me. It would be hard to make up a character this outspoken and strong-minded as this porter without being ridiculed as a hack storyteller. Not only an interesting character, but the constant narration creates for a compelling telling of a man’s life in an effective way.

Seven Women of Different Ages (1979)

A film over seven days, each day following a different ballet dancer. I love the simplicity of it and how it draws out and evolves ideas wordlessly. You see the drive and ambition grow into performance. But the years march on and give way to the realization that one is not up to the task anymore. This ebbs off into the elder years where one stands by, almost feeling helpless, before accepting one’s places in  the world and finds a way to take what one loves and pass it on to another generation.

Totoro

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Re: Kieslowski, Krzysztof - Director's Best
« Reply #32 on: January 23, 2013, 02:12:47 PM »
My school is doing a semester long retrospective on the man! This Thursday it is kicked off with THE SCAR. Can't wait!

---

The Double Life of Veronique (A)
Three Colors: Blue (A-)
Three Colors: White (B+)
Three Colors: Red (B)

Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: Kieslowski, Krzysztof - Director's Best
« Reply #33 on: January 23, 2013, 02:17:53 PM »
Definitely worth seeing those early features of his, particularly No End and Camera Buff.

Totoro

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Re: Kieslowski, Krzysztof - Director's Best
« Reply #34 on: January 26, 2013, 06:06:31 PM »

The Scar (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1976)
Ellipsis, time lapses, moody lighting... Kieslowski begins. A narrative that loosely resembles Oil! in the same vein that There Will Be Blood does, The Scar is about the arduous process it takes to build and run a chemical plant in a small town somewhere in Poland. Scorsese has claimed many times that he wanted to film in "documentary style" in his early career, yet I never felt like I was watching a documentary in any of his films like I felt I was with Kieslowski's debut. My reference points with documentary film styles is limited, but the one that kept coming to mind during my viewing was Barbara Kopple's Harlan County, USA. Take out the montages with the amateurish ultra-folksy music in the background, and the films hold a lot of similarities in the film style. Most striking are the scenes of the film are the ones placed in the city hall where the handheld camera close-ups are married with fast cuts. Kieslowski even portrays himself through a documentary film director who is in constant surveillance of the "Director", our main protagonist film. The director, himself, is a lot more self conscious and sensitive to a Daniel Plainview-type character, but he is pulled back and forth between his duty to his government and his duty to society which includes his screwed-up daughter and a distant wife. It's there, it could be argued that it is the film's main focus, however I found almost everything else about the film to be more interesting. By making the characters physically (and even a little emotionally) distant from the main situations at hand, I was not sufficiently engaged in the film's themes. Like many first films, the aesthetic tricks on hand are more invigorating than the story.

In short, a shrug with a slight smile?

Totoro

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Re: Kieslowski, Krzysztof - Director's Best
« Reply #35 on: February 10, 2013, 07:37:23 PM »

Camera Buff (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1979)
If you have only seen Kieslowski's French films, you might never expect him to make something so down-to-Earth, so funny, so endearing, and so speedily paced. Like Kubrick's The Killing or Scorsese's Taxi Driver, this may not be a debut film, but it in a way it is the debut film because the film maker is healthily assured of what he is doing. Everything has come together perfectly. The last shot of The Scar makes sense now - Kieslowski himself was taking his first steps as a feature director. With Camera Buff, he is running. The film itself shows art, particularly the act of becoming a film maker, to be an almost like virus that latches violently onto Filip's (the protagonist played beautifully by Jerzy Stuhr) life. Cinema becomes Filip's new ambition and obsession from the moment that he starts filming his newborn daughter. Soon, he gets contacted by his work to film an anniversary of the company's creation. Then, it all unravels for poor Filip's personal life. He goes through a metamorphosis as it swallows him whole, pushing and excluding all of those in his once personal life away. Unlike Ozu who would allow his actors to have a moment after the dialogue, Kieslowski quickly cuts away, creating an ever flowing stream of narrative progression. It works for Kieslowski - perhaps the best aspect that has carried over from his documentary directing? The film's final moments give Filip the fullest achievement of artistry as he fully embraces true self actualization in the way only a film maker can.
« Last Edit: February 10, 2013, 07:39:19 PM by Totoro »

1SO

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Re: Kieslowski, Krzysztof
« Reply #36 on: March 05, 2013, 05:19:30 PM »
1. White
2. Camera Buff

3. The Double Life of Veronique
4. Blue
5. A Short Film About Love
6. A Short Film About Killing
7. Red

8. Blind Chance
« Last Edit: May 18, 2018, 11:48:18 PM by 1SO »

jascook

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Re: Kieslowski, Krzysztof - Director's Best
« Reply #37 on: August 03, 2014, 04:47:10 AM »
Camera Buff: 7/10
Three Colors: Blue: 7/10
Three Colors: White: 7/10
« Last Edit: April 18, 2017, 10:07:32 PM by jascook »
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roujin

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Re: Kieslowski, Krzysztof - Director's Best
« Reply #38 on: August 25, 2014, 07:57:18 PM »
1. Red (1994)
2. The Double Life of Veronique (1991)
3. Blue (1993)

White (1994)

Plus some episodes of Decalogue that I don't remember.

Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: Kieslowski, Krzysztof - Director's Best
« Reply #39 on: August 25, 2014, 08:28:43 PM »
You should at least watch Camera Buff.