Decalogue IV

Year: 1988

Grade: B-

Country: Poland

Director: Kieslowski

Review

part four of a ten part series of short films by kieslowski. the work, as a whole, is supposed to be a crowning cinematic achievement (time called it “the greatest film achievement of the past decade”). i’ve seen two so far and my premature opinion is that it’s overrated, but good. kieslowski did this kind of concept cinema later in his career as well with the three colors trilogy (which i haven’t seen). maybe the decalogue gets so much credit because it’s an unusual piece of work which happens to be pretty good as well…i don’t know. at any rate, this one is strange story of a woman who discovers that her father isn’t really her father and so she wants to jump his bones claiming it was an impulse she always had, but was never able to act upon. the end is sort of similar to memento’s ending in that it involves a deliberate act to be ignorant. the characters are well acted and written, the direction is appropriate, but not amazing.