Decalogue 3 & 4

Jenna Wynn

*I know this is late but I had it saved on my computer for a while and just remembered I had not published it yet.

-Keep The Sabbath Day Holy

I am really enjoying Kieslowski and his films. The Decalogue is interesting because it creates gray areas and leaves me going back and forth on my opinion.
In the beginning, you see this man leaving his family, on Christmas Eve of all nights, to help a woman who was very much in need. At first I'm thinking “ Ok...this guy is a jerk. How could he leave his family like that?” He then continues to follow her and her crazy antics and at the end of the night, you come to find out that if the man had not stayed with her, she would have killed herself. That changes everything. I suddenly realize that what the man did was not for his own personal gain, he did it to help this very sick woman. Sure, he left his family on Christmas Eve, but he also saved this woman's life, in a strange way. That is where these lines are blurred a bit. Does it make it acceptable that he left his family on Christmas Eve to help this woman? I think there are times in everyone's lives where you have to chose the lesser of the two evils. I think that's why Kieslowski is so successful, because he shows what us as humans truly go through. Life is not always unicorns and rainbows...the decisions we make affect the people around us so much more than we would like to believe. Even then, the good decisions we do make are often the most difficult ones to face.

-Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother

Yes, I am enjoying Kieslowski, but how far is he going to go? [Little did I know at the time about 'Thou shall not kill'...] This one was just disturbing for me, and I honestly did not understand at all how it could possibly relate to honoring your mother and father. How is that a girl testing her father, in such a way, could be honoring him? Isn't she dishonoring him and her mother by burning the letter in the end? If they never know the truth, then doesn't that mean that the relationship they have is based on false pretenses? I guess by asking that question, I am answering my own question in a way. Maybe that is why she feels the need to burn the letter, to hold on to the relationship they have and to not destroy it. It's still just extremely odd how she feels that she needs to challenge him in that specific way. Could she have thought of a less disturbing way to evaluate their relationship? All I know is that I wish she had.