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Seth Paxton · 08-11-2004, 10:36 PM

Thanks to Lew I just added an extra viewing to my list.

Here I had seen Out of the Past for my Studio Era class a few months ago and had no idea it was on the S&S list till he brought it up.

Cool for me!

I really enjoyed it too. Noir is just a fun, if sometimes too formulaic, genre that makes even some of the lesser efforts quite watchable.

I also just finally worked my way through all of Dekalog. I was torn by the effort. Kielowski plays things slow, and that was even true in Red/White/Blue. Add to this all the Polish and the dreary setting and it comes off as a tedious viewing at times. Part of that also comes from the low level of activity since these pieces are basically character studies.

However Five was incredible (Killing), enhanced greatly by the most artistic look in the set, and I also enjoyed Six and Ten quite a bit.

In the end I liked them all and found the song in Ten to be a great summation of what I had just been through. The films really do need to be taken as a whole, reflected upon. I found myself questioning what these different lives meant to each other as well as thinking about how some person has a meaningless effect in one person's life, seeming to be ordinary and boring, while elsewhere their life is full of drama (such as the post office guy in Ten vs in Six).

I was not affected in a way to make me consider Dekalog a truly great work to me, but the films did affect my POV for the time being, I found myself falling into a different mindset.

I guess to me his films are much like he seems to have been. There is depth but he is reluctant to show it or to commit to saying anything definite. Everything must be mined from between the lines. That makes him and his films frustrating and intriguing at the same time.

He really seems to have had a focus on the idea of fate/chance/interaction. Not quite how lives are critically intertwined, but in how people come to interact in a seemingly random way yet with a determinstic mindset driving each of them individually.

I also think in Dekalog he comments on the idea of a Christian god and some of the shortcomings of human interpretation of God's will. He even says as much in the 100 questions interview (actually he is quoted from an earlier interview and reasked about it) found on disk 3 of the set. He also makes some comments about that random interaction idea in there too.

08-11-2004, 10:36 PM	#2168 of 3726
Seth Paxton Member Join Date: Nov 1998 Local Time: 08:34 PM Local Date: 10-14-2008 Posts: 12,185	Thanks to Lew I just added an extra viewing to my list. Here I had seen Out of the Past for my Studio Era class a few months ago and had no idea it was on the S&S list till he brought it up. Cool for me! I really enjoyed it too. Noir is just a fun, if sometimes too formulaic, genre that makes even some of the lesser efforts quite watchable. I also just finally worked my way through all of Dekalog. I was torn by the effort. Kielowski plays things slow, and that was even true in Red/White/Blue. Add to this all the Polish and the dreary setting and it comes off as a tedious viewing at times. Part of that also comes from the low level of activity since these pieces are basically character studies. However Five was incredible (Killing), enhanced greatly by the most artistic look in the set, and I also enjoyed Six and Ten quite a bit. In the end I liked them all and found the song in Ten to be a great summation of what I had just been through. The films really do need to be taken as a whole, reflected upon. I found myself questioning what these different lives meant to each other as well as thinking about how some person has a meaningless effect in one person's life, seeming to be ordinary and boring, while elsewhere their life is full of drama (such as the post office guy in Ten vs in Six). I was not affected in a way to make me consider Dekalog a truly great work to me, but the films did affect my POV for the time being, I found myself falling into a different mindset. I guess to me his films are much like he seems to have been. There is depth but he is reluctant to show it or to commit to saying anything definite. Everything must be mined from between the lines. That makes him and his films frustrating and intriguing at the same time. He really seems to have had a focus on the idea of fate/chance/interaction. Not quite how lives are critically intertwined, but in how people come to interact in a seemingly random way yet with a determinstic mindset driving each of them individually. I also think in Dekalog he comments on the idea of a Christian god and some of the shortcomings of human interpretation of God's will. He even says as much in the 100 questions interview (actually he is quoted from an earlier interview and reasked about it) found on disk 3 of the set. He also makes some comments about that random interaction idea in there too.