Allie Stough Decalogue

1. How does the visual medium of film work as Midrash?

The medium of film works to depict Midrash in many different ways. Midrash is the whole series of short story books of holistic preaching teaching on the Torah about ethics and morals used in the Jewish faith. The film works as Midrash through visual medium by depicting the Ten Commandments through acting. The film media is the perfect medium for telling a story because the viewer can see and hear the story being told. Another characteristic of Midrash is asking questions about the story. In the beginning of Decalogue 5 the viewer is asked many questions and is shown many statements which gets the viewer thinking about what he is gong to see. For example, ‘Punishment means revenge.’ ‘It aims to harm but doesn’t prevent crime.’ ‘The law should improve nature.’ ‘People invented the law.’ ‘We observe it or break it.’ These statements make you think. Do the innocent make the rules? The film uses the Midrash technique of storytelling to help one understand.

2. Be specific in answering this question, relating the answer to the Commandment and the way the medium works to throw you into the struggle to find meaning.

Instead of just telling us about the Ten Commandments, they are acted out with much description. Faces are used as a way to show meaning. In Decalogue 1 the film is getting you to question your faith. The boy is questioning life. The medium of the film is trying to get the viewer to question their faith. People have thoughts that are fighting against their feelings.
Decalogue 1
There shall be no other God before me.
The dad thinks that he can use reason instead of faith in God. He lacks faith. The aunt blindly believes and has faith. The telling of the story and the focusing on the characters tries gets the viewer personally into the story.
Decalogue 5
Thou shalt not kill.
Is killing ever justified? The 21 year old just killed the taxi driver. He may have had mental issues because he is guilt ridden about his sister’s death. Jacek and his friend had been drinking and his friend ran over the sister with a tractor in a meadow. Jacek feels that his sister’s dearth was his fault. The attorney felt empathy towards Jacek almost like a son. He struggles with the idea of death and killing. People try to live their life based on the commandments, but life is not black and white. The viewer is brought into the struggle that the attorney feels.

3. Do any of the visuals of the films work as symbols that bridge the gap of understanding?

There are visuals of the film that work to help better understand the meaning. For example, in Thou shalt not kill; the boy uses a piece a rope to choke a man to death. He uses a rock to throw over an over pass. It hits a car and the car swerves. He pushes a man down in the bathroom. They all are showing us the mental tormual of Jacek over the death if his sister. It leads up to the hanging and what your beliefs are about it. There are also symbols in I am thou God, you should have no other gods before me. I believe that there are a lot of representations of God in this movie: the man sitting by the pond, the woman playing the chess game, when the dad sees the computer say, “I am ready.” The dead dog symbolizes death that is to come. The pond represents life. The ponds ice changes from when the dad checked it and the boy went on it: life changes. The man by the pond is like Christ because Christ is always watching us and knows what will happen. Just like the Lords prayer “Thy will be done.” The computer is like a false God and the father believes the computer over faith. The dad thinks he can solve everything rationally. There is a church by the pond where Jesus like man is. The ink that the dad spills is like the blood of Christ, and then the dad washes his hands of it. He doesn’t believe. The symbols make the viewer think more about what he is seeing.

4. How did the film relate feeling to meaning?

The film helps relate feeling to meaning in many ways. There is love between the Father and the son, Pavel. The Icon at the church has a tear in its eye as if it is crying over Pavel’s death. We see a lot of faces in the movie and they have a lot on emotion and feeling. The Aunt, Irena, says that life is a gift. The computer says, “I am ready.” He listens to the computer instead of using his faith. The dad knocks over the altar in the church because he is mad at himself. The attorney goes to a meadow where there is a light. This is where his sister was murdered. The light seems to symbolize the sister. During the execution they put a pan under him, because you loose all of your bodily fluid when you get hung. The boy struggles and thrashes as he walks up to be hung. All of the focusing of the events in the film makes the viewer thinks about his feelings. For example, in the scene where the executioner is preparing everything for the hanging the viewer cant help but think about how that might feel to be hung. In the end of Decalogue 5 the attorney yells over and over “I abhor” – I hate it. He hated that he had to do his job. He couldn’t save Jacek. The law is the law. His screaming makes us feel the turmoil of the death penalty.

5. Note that Kieslowski said, “It very quickly became clear that these would be films about feelings and passions, because we knew that love, or fear of death, of the pain caused by a needle-prick, are common to all people, irrespective of their political views, the colour of their skin or their standard of living.”

Kieslowski is the Polish writer of the film. He wanted it to be universal to all life and not just Polish. He is trying to level humanity and he used the medium of film to portray the morals of the commandments in a way that everyone could understand.


6. Finally, does this film cycle work to contextualize the integrate the code into an individual’s life, bridging the flux of the moment to the ultimate meaning of eternity?

The film cycle of the Ten Commandments in the Decalogue’s relates the meaning of the commandants in an everyday way. The director takes a moment in time and makes you think beyond this work. He makes them more alive because he brings them to events that are happening today. It is a mental picture that one cannot get out of their head. The Ten Commandments become alive and help the viewer think beyond the moment of where they are.