A Short Film About Killing

Starring:Miroslaw Baka, Krzysztof Globisz, Jan Tesarz, Zbigniew Zapasiewicz, Barbara Dziekan, Aleksander Bednarz, Jerzy Zass, Zdzislaw Tobiasz, Artur Barcis, Olgierd Lukaszewicz, Krystyna Janda, N. Kowalczykowa, Andrzej Gawronski, Bogdan Niewinowski, Leonard Andrzejewski, Malgorzata Pieczynska, Boguslaw Hubicki, Andrzej Mastalerz, Zdzislaw Rychter, Ryszard W. Borsucki
Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski
Studio: Kino Video
Product Type: DVD

Average customer rating:

Kieslowski collection . . .
Some of the best movies I have ever watched
Bravississimo!

The Krzysztof Kieslowski Collection (A Short Film About Love/Blind Chance/Camera Buff/No End/The Scar/A Short Film About Killing)
Starring: Boguslaw Linda , Tadeusz Lomnicki , Zbigniew Zapasiewicz , Boguslawa Pawelec , and Marzena Trybala
Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski
Manufacturer: Kino Video
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Similar Items:

The Decalogue (Special Edition Complete Set)
The Double Life of Veronique - Criterion Collection
Three Colors Trilogy (Blue / White / Red)
Double Lives, Second Chances: The Cinema of Krzysztof Kieslowski
The Conformist (Extended Edition)

ASIN: B0009UZGQY
Release Date: 2005-08-16

Customer Reviews:

Kieslowski collection . . ........2005-12-31

A dirty Warsaw frames A Short Film About Killing, symbolizing a society in decay. Murder . . . both state sanctioned and random are shown in counterpoint. The film is a powerful indictment about the death penalty, and the barrister reflects the outrage of the heart. The second theme is random chance . . . if only the killer's sister hadn't been killed, if only he had a good friend to talk to, if only someone had intervened. The film is so hard to watch because it reflects the mirror back at our souls.

Voyeurism, love and loneliness mingle in A Short Film About Love. Love, the special world, cannot be approached directly, but only tangentially . . . in the film's case, through the lens. Where Tomek begins as an impassioned voyeur, his love interest takes over as the film progresses. Do we only need a fleeting glimpse to arrive at love? How do we escape from being alone in the world? Such universal question are asked(and answered) in this expanded film version of The Dialogue classic.

Blind Chance is fantastic. Absolutely great. The themes of free choice and predetermination are explored not as opposites but as two qualities somehow blended together. When we think, "ah, I can choose," are we correct, or does each cosmic choice imply similar outcomes, similar problems? If we have three choices, are they really so different? Is the bad choice so bad? On the extra selections, check out the fascinating interview with his film censor, whom he respected so much she became a sort of creative sounding board for his works in progress, while at the same time examining his work in her `official capacity.'

No End is obviously a precursor to Blue . . . where the dead(sometimes literally, sometimes metaphorically)live on, influencing events. There is no Black and White in Kieslowski's films, only gradations. Like Blind Chance, each position/argument on how to handle the case of the prisoner has their pro and con side. Truth or the true side of the prisoner is expressed by the deceased lawyer, revealed through his writings. Check out the short documentary The Office on the extras portion of the disc. It has comedy, wit, grace and tragedy(all in five minutes). It takes place in the black hole of an official state office where some hack drones on in a staccato tone to desperate pleas from several claimants. In this short(shot in film school), one can see the shape and scope of Kieslowski's future films.

On the extras of Camera Buff, Kieslowski's short documentary Talking Heads shows the humanity and hopes of ordinary people, and also of the filmmaker Kieslowski himself. Camera Buff works on several levels. First, it's laugh-out-loud funny(in parts). Second, it raises questions of putting somebody in the spotlight . . . and its implications. Like the dwarf worker or the communist functionary who loses his job. I see implications in news stories everyday . . . the power of turning the camera on ourself. This is Kieslowski's first "breakthrough film," and, perhaps it is here that Kieslowski first all incorporates all of the parts in the sum in combination making Kieslowski a singular genius. No other filmmaker or artist of any kind examines life in this manner, turning the camera inward.

Some of the best movies I have ever watched.......2005-12-10

Each movie of the collection is a masterpiece, a refreshing experience, leaving a deep, intense after-taste. Do not miss them !

Bravississimo! .......2005-08-31

SO FAR THE DVD EVENT OF THE DECADE!

No need to heap more praise upon Kieslowski, one of the greatest masters behind the camera. Just wanted to uncork a flood of this for this nothing short of phenomenal DVD set harvested by the "Kino video" film thoroughbreds! Each of these DVD titles has features aplenty to consider the entire edition a cultural event of the first water ---Kieslowski' rare shorter footage films are added on each of the titles; each title includes interviews with closest associates, friends, critics etc. It seems like that even the critics got inspired -being awara that they are paying tribute to a master that stand on equal footing to a Tarkovski, Fellini or Kurosawa to name but the cream of the crop.
All DVD's from the set are rented relentlessly, around the clock, at least in the video store I frequent. It makesone joyous to see that there's so many film fans hungry for the REAL THING (as opposed to the abominable, unmentionable, ever worse and more offensive Hollywood drek ;-)

Average customer rating:

An extended version of episode V of "The Decalogue"
Brilliant, brutal & disturbing
eerie, powerful and moving

A Short Film About Killing
Starring: Miroslaw Baka , Krzysztof Globisz , Jan Tesarz , Zbigniew Zapasiewicz , and Barbara Dziekan
Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski
Manufacturer: Kino Video
ProductGroup: DVD
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A Short Film About Love
No End
Camera Buff
The Scar
The Decalogue (Special Edition Complete Set)

ASIN: B0001ME576
Release Date: 2004-05-11

Customer Reviews:

An extended version of episode V of "The Decalogue" .......2006-04-08

Krzysztof Kieslowski's "A Short Film About Killing" is an extended version of his episode V of "The Decalogue." It is about 24 minutes longer in length than its television series counterpart, but is basically the same film just fleshed out a bit. As the title suggests, this film is about killing and revolves around the lives of three people: a mean spirited cab driver who is the victim, the reckless young man who is the killer, and an ambitious young lawyer who defends him.

It portrays events where a life is taken by a killer and then the state uses the same method to punish the killer. In a sense, the film is about the death penalty, but does not make any obvious conclusions on the ethical use of this punishment. It merely shows the events that lead up to the murder, the murder itself, and the state handing out the punishment. The killer and victim both got on my nerves in the events leading up to the murder, as both of them were annoying people often reckless and inconsiderate of others. Interestingly enough, the victim and killer shared more in common than this, as the victim was choked with a rope, and the killer was hung with a rope. We truly have an "eye for an eye" punishment, adding some symbolism to the film.

The move was very emotional and thoroughly depressing as it depicts the insanity of one who takes the life of another and reminds us that this really is the crazy world in which we live in. Although this is not one of my favorite films by Kieslowski, it really is a work of art and seems to be more appreciated by those outside Poland than by the people in it.

Brilliant, brutal & disturbing.......2005-04-07

A truly amazing film - I cannot promise that you will enjoy it, in fact I can almost guarantee that you will find it disturbing and difficult to watch. This is not because of the quality of the film, which is outstanding, but because of the subject matter and the directness with which it is tackled.

It is a film about two killings - the murder to a taxi driver by a young man and the trial and execution of the same young man by the state. There is little editorial, the films simply presents both killings in their full horrific detail. The murder of the taxi driver feels interminable as with no warning or explanation he is strangled and then battered to death with a slab. He execution of the young man is, if anything even more harrowing, as he is dragged kicking, screaming and crying to the noose. As is often the case it is the little things that are the most chilling and leave the longest lasting impact: the tears of the condemned boy, the pan to collect the human waste.

In my opinion Kieslowski was the greatest European filmmaker of the twentieth century and this film is one of his best.

eerie, powerful and moving.......2004-06-13

The late Polish film-maker Krzysztof Kieslowski, who began his career as a documentarian, has, with the Decalogue, produced what is surely one of the defining moments in late twentieth century cinema. Kieslowski's project, out of whose fifth episode this film grew, was nothing less than a wholescale re-interpretation of the Ten Commandments, applied to modern life.

In A Short Film About Killing, Kieslowski shows us a murder and its aftermath. Jacek, a young man, dreams of escaping the Warovian housing projects and dreary, late-Communist life to visit the mountains with his girlfriend. At the same time, a young lawyer graduates from law school, is called ot the Polish bar, nad has his first child. In what is surely one of the most horrific killings on screen, Jacek brutally strangles and beats a cab driver to death. Kieslowski's film goes on to examine the consequences of the murder on not only Jacek but his young lawyer.

Kieslowski's film achieves its brilliance in its delicate balance of condemnation with compassion. Even as we see the justice of Jacek's execution, the subtly riveting scenes where we hear of the major trauma of his childhood undermine any easy sense of moral certainty we have developed. The final execution is nearly impossible to watch, as Kieslowski has, by then, made his point-- that there is an ineffable beauty in life, and that, as Plato suggested in the Republic, justice is somethign that improves us, not which destroys.

Warsaw, ably filmed by the brilliant Slawomir Idziak (the cinematographer of GATTACA), is soaked in green and yellow colours, pestilential, and sometimes oddly beautiful. Kieslowski's pacing is superb. The film paints and whispers when it needs to, then it simply and quietly rips the viewer's heart out.

Product Description

Miroslav Baka ("Tuda, gde zhivut jeskimosy"), Zbignev Zapasevich ("ZHizn' kak smertel'naja bolezn', peredajuwajasja polovym putem"), Dzekan Barbara ("Tri cveta: Belyj") v drame Kshishtofa Kes'levskogo ("Tri cveta: Krasnyj", "Tri cveta: Sinij") - "Korotkij fil'm ob ubijstve". V fil'me tri central'nyh personazha, do pory - nikak mezhdu soboj ne svjazannyh, dazhe neznakomyh. Kazhdyj zhivet v svoem mire. No v kakoj-to moment ih sud'by peresekutsja... Pervyj, 20-letnij JAcek - nichem ne primechatel'nyj, prazdnoshatajuwijsja provincial, ne znajuwij, chem sebja zanjat'. On slovno pytaetsja zacepit'sja za chto-to v gorodskom pejzazhe, ustanovit' s mirom kakuju-to svjaz'. No kontakt vse ne voznikaet... V paru emu rezhisser daet nemolodogo taksista, stol' zhe bessmyslenno kruzhawego po ulicam Varshavy. Ego s#edaet beznadezhnost' i mizantropija. Oba oni - neudachniki, chelovecheskie oskolki bol'shogo neprivetlivogo goroda, vyzyvajuwego u nih shozhuju neprijazn'. I, nakonec, tretij geroj - advokat, polozhitel'nyj, molodoj i krasivyj, verjawij v svjatost' i gumanizm svoej missii. Odnako i emu suzhdeno stat' uchastnikom i dazhe v kakom-to smysle provodnikom sobytija, vynesennogo v zagolovok fil'ma...

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