The Decalogue (TV Mini Series) Dekalog, cztery (1989) User Reviews

"It's all about love"

[dickback · 8/10 · 12 March 2005]

I borrowed the title of another movie to describe this 4 :-)

In the English language, everything is "love". You can love a song, a pizza, you can love your friends and you can love your parents too (in other languages, often different words are used for such different meanings).

And this film explains very well the difference between the love for your father and the love for your boyfriend. It explains it by showing that sometimes they can be all the way the same thing, for the very simple reason that they can be the very same person - and you don't know that.

At the end, I reckon that this film is not about the love, or the respect, you ought for your parents - there are neither the father nor the mother of this young woman - and so I'd say the film is "off topic". But it is a wonderful off topic, that exists only because we know that the 4th commandment is "to honour the father and the mother", and we know the title. I'd say that the title itself if a character of the film: half of the beauty of the story lies outside of the film: it is in the title, and in what you usually associate with it. And then, you see the film and see the contrast as well.

What happens, then, if the love for your father has been mistakenly addressed to the "wrong" person? To a man, a simple man? As usual, the Decalog never gives an answer pretending it's the only and right answer.

One thing, one simple thing (he is not her father) can start a whole process of rethinking her whole life, her past. Everything is seen from a different point of view, which is like an earthquake I'd really never want to experience. Maybe a pale comparison can be made when you find out that your girlfriend has and had had another story, unexpected, another love, and you think back to those moment you spent with her: she was lying, she was thinking to him, not to me...

Wow. A single moment in your present drastically changes your past! And your future, of course... unless you try to forget, to delete that single moment...

My feeling is that the plot, the underlying idea, is very actual, and a Hollywood remake is not so unlikely.

The film is also full of magical moments, that live their own life, independently from the story.

Yes, it's a film you should see :-)

Decalogue 4 : One of the most mature episodes directed by Kieslowski.

[FilmCriticLalitRao · 8/10 · 12 January 2014]

Decalogue 4 is about a girl Anka and her father Michal who share a playful relationship full of fun. They care for each other and would go to any extent in order to prevent any harm to either of them. However, as all relationships are stable before the discovery of a secret, Anka and Michal have serious misgivings about their relationship when they discover a secret in the form of a mysterious letter addressed to Anka which was written by her mother. The effects are serious with far reaching consequences for them : Anka allows restlessness to settle in herself whereas Michal is merely able to explain that he wanted to tell her about the secret but could not do it due to the age difference. It is quite evident that here Kieslowski seems to be questioning the validity of a relationship whose success or a failure depends on a secret. Hence, we get a clear view of the relationship before the secret and the relationship after the secret. Decalogue 4 is about what it means to be a father as girls view their father differently from how they consider their mothers. One of the most puzzling episodes of ten commandments, Decalogue is the most mature episode due to its mature content. It has ethical implications too as it is a good mix of truth and lies. Lastly, Decalogue 4 and Kieslowski state that fabrication of lies is required to attain a satisfactory amount of truth.

Nature of some relationships

[Behdinderakhshan · 9/10 · 29 June 2023]

Part four of dekalog is about the strange nature of a secretive relationship, Between a father and his daughter.

Part four circles around the illustration of the core desire in women and a forbidden love they sometimes bear with themselves without any actual fulfillment; and a man who builds up a symbol as a father.

During the episode 4 we don't feel god but somehow the ethical part of the fourth commandment is controlling the nature of their relationship.

The pain of this forbidden love is on the shoulders of both woman and man, how they feel about each other in different situations and how they escape from it.

The story itself has been made around a secret which is kept in an envelope, a secret to be opened one day.

But some secret are better to stay unknown.

The character of father in this episode had been built so correct and mysterious which makes the audience wonder about his belief if he has one.

Oof.

[Polaris_DiB · 10/10 · 31 July 2006]

This particular episode of the Decalogue is heavy, heavy.

A young woman who has lived her entire life alone with her father discovers a note from the mother she never met addressed to her to be read after her mother's death. Taking what she's learned in acting class and what she has grown to suspect in her life with her father, she weaves a tale of romantic intrigue and sets out to see who her father really is and how he really feels about her.

The incestuous tones are disconcerting but very effective, especially considering how much it begins to question who and what a father is and meant to be to a daughter. Their relationship at any rate is very peculiar, but effective, even on a visceral level. And the imagination of the daughter is something like a very dark and corrupt version of the infamous Amelie Poulain, one who very loving and lonely, but takes it to the opposite extreme of a dark tale of passion and temptation.

The twist at the end is what makes this film so incredibly heavy. Needless to say, for something that takes only an hour to watch, this movie has weeks of introspective entertainment to offer.

--PolarisDiB

Decalogue 4

[Michael_Elliott · 14 November 2008]

Decalogue: Four, The (1989)

**** (out of 4)

Michal (Janusz Gajos) and his daughter Anka (Adrianna Biedrzynska) have lived together ever since her mother died but when her father goes away on a trip Anka opens a letter that her mother wrote her before her death. Inside this letter could contain a secret about Michal that might ruin their relationship. The "Honor thy father and mother" is the theme here and once again Kieslowski does a brilliant job at asking some tough questions and making for one incredible drama. I didn't think the previous two films in the series were as strong as the first one but this fourth chapter really hits a grand slam and makes for some highly dramatic scenes. Once again it seems people could view this film in terms of the commandment that's its influenced by or they could just see it as any type of drama. I think this series really depends on how you react to the story and this one here is just downright memorable and at times disturbing. The drama in this film is so incredibly strong that I found myself getting more and more depressed as the movie went along. This in large part is do the the incredible performances by the two leads, which is the one common ground of these first four films. Biedrzynska really comes across with a certain naive nature that is really understandable considering where her character is coming from. I thought Gajos was downright brilliant and unforgettable in the role of the father who gets asked some very tough questions about sexuality and lying. Once again, if you decide to look at this as a religious film, it asks some very tough questions and these questions handle the subject unlike any other film that I've seen. I'm sure a lot of people will be turned off by this film but it's drama at its best.

'Dekalog': Part 4- Family and social relationship and the sanctity of authority

[TheLittleSongbird · 10/10 · 11 February 2017]

'Dekalog' is a towering achievement and a televisual masterpiece that puts many feature films to shame, also pulling off a concept of great ambition brilliantly. Although a big admirer of Krzysztof Kieślowski (a gifted director taken from us too early), and who has yet to be disappointed by him, to me 'Dekalog' and 'Three Colours: Red' sees him at his best.

Although Episodes 2 and 3 are still very, very good episodes indeed, Episode 4 is the best since Episode 1 and both are two of the best of the entire series. Then again even when 'Dekalog' was not at its very best, none of the episodes came close to bad and had so many great merits.

Every single one of 'Dekalog's' episodes are exceptionally well made. This is certainly true of Episode 4, perhaps not quite one of the very best-looking or fascinating of the series but still beautiful and atmosphere enhancing with some memorable images. The direction is quietly unobtrusive, intelligently paced and never too heavy, and the music is suitably intricate.

The themes and ideals are used to full potential, and the characters and their relationships and conflicts feel so real and emotionally resonant without being heavy-handed. Despite being based around one of the ten commandments, don't let that put you off, resemblance to religion is relatively scant. The dialogue is thought-provoking here, and the story is powerful and moving. It also is deserving of credit for pushing boundaries in its layered exploration of family and social relationships.

Here the characters are among the series' most interesting and the interactions and how they're developed are fantastic, some of the series' richest. The acting is superb as to be expected, again the complexity and nuances of the performances is to be admired. As moving as Adrianna Biedrzyńska is the acting honours belong to an unforgettable Janusz Gajos.

All in all, simply magnificent and one of my favourite 'Dekalog' episodes. 10/10 Bethany Cox

An uncommon and ambiguous father-daughter relationship.

[Aquilant · 10/10 · 26 March 2005]

"How long have you known it?" asks Anka, giving voice to her emotions. She bears marks of suffering in her face. Her eyes are veiled with tears. "I don't know for certain, but I have always suspected it," Michal answers, "it doesn't matter anyway, you've been always my daughter for me!" "You have deceived me. But you should have told it to me!" tells Anka with a quiver in her voice, cutting a long story short. Sprinkled with a sublime and intense poetic vein, imbued with a touch of adolescential romanticism, full of subtle little nuances and pulsating waves of musicality, the Dekalog 4:"Honour thy father and thy mother" is a despairing example of an uncommon and ambiguous father-daughter relationship close to being incestuous, named "Elektra complex", a feeling of deep affective attraction similar to Oedipus complex with both sex-roles reversed. Kieslowski describes with great clearness of mind the shadows of passion and the anomalous attitude of mind of a teenager who "clings to love-life" with all the impetuousness of her young age, showing an air of contemptuous indifference and disdainful attitude, completely scornful about any codes for moral behavior and ethics, taking great pleasure in hurting his father's feelings and urged by her restlessness to make spiteful and irreversible death choices (a procured abortion) to take her revenge against a kind of paternal affection mistaken for morbid love. Dekalog 4 is a real life drama comparable to a Pandora's box spreading ill-smelling effluvia all over the troubled world of two human beings caught in perverse trap and bound to come to a painful compromise, on the point of facing a future full of uncertainties as regards their relationship. So the two characters are trapped in a net made of subtle cause-effect concatenations, woven by the director himself to divert the course of the story in a moral and ethical direction, turning a juvenile passion into an intense, palpable frustration in consequence of an unsuccessful crossing of the last moral divide. The unavoidable generational conflict is outlined without eschewing authorial involvement, bringing back some suffering Bergmanian memories of life but lived with a less despairing soul predisposition, far from any "Munchian screams". The open rebellion against a distressing existential pilgrimage of souls in torment and the precarious human condition in search of opportunities assume a different aspect in Kieslowski who, even if skeptical of any religious problems, bestows a touch of decisional attitude on his characters to allow them to make less defeatist choices and to face life with serenity. Maybe the best episode of the whole Dekalog series: "between the fire of the passion and his fire-extinguisher patiently arranged" says a famous French movie critic.

The letter

[jotix100 · 10/10 · 3 November 2006]

The fourth commandment is loosely adapted by Kryzsztof Kieslowski into a compelling tale about a secret that has been kept for a long time. In the hands of another man, the material would have probably been a disaster, but Mr. Kieslowski, a man with a great insight, makes an amazing job in keeping real and credible.

The theme is "Honor thy father and mother". Anka, a student of dramatic art, who lives with her widower father, Michal, in the same apartment block, as the rest of the people that surface in "The Decalogue" lives a normal life. Michal, the father, who is going abroad for a short trip, remembers at the airport he has forgotten to pay a bill and asks Anka to do it for him as soon as she gets back home.

When Anka, arrives home, she discovers an envelope in a drawer of her father's desk marked "To be opened after my death". The message triggers great curiosity on her, as she wants to know what could be such a secret her father wants to tell her from the beyond. The discovery of not being Michal's real daughter hits her like a ton of bricks. She can't imagine how could this man, who up to a few hours ago she thought was her father, could suddenly change the picture.

Michal is surprised to find Anka at the airport at his return. She is frantic because of what she perceives as a deception. Anka doesn't take into consideration, for one moment, the enormous sacrifice Michal has gone through raising her without the help of a mother to guide Anka as she grows and matures. For a moment Anka's reaction acquires a shade of incest, because one can see it's possible she has loved Michal in a different way.

By way of explanation, Michal, tells Anka, he was going to reveal the secret when Anka was a young girl, but for some reason, he thought it was the wrong moment. The second time he had tried to tell her the truth, he ended up keeping it within himself. As far as he knows, Anka is his daughter and that's all there is to it. His fatherly love has never ceased.

Adrianna Biedrzniski, and Janusz Gajos are wonderful as Anka and Michal. Under Kieslowski's guidance these two actors bring to life characters that find themselves facing a crisis that has the potential of separating them forever. One feels for Michal, but it's easy to see how betrayed Anka must feel upon learning the truth.

Identity

[Hitchcoc · 10/10 · 19 June 2021]

A young woman has a close relationship with her father. She misses him when he is gone and she has trouble getting close to other men. Why? She doesn't know, but she is able to create a scenario when she begins to open a letter from her mother, who died shortly after she gave birth. There is something almost incestual about this relationship. If what she believes is true then what is next; what is her identity? What is hers? An engaging, captivating hour one should not miss.

More compelling interaction between people

[snoozejonc · 9/10 · 10 November 2023]

The plot focuses on a very close father-daughter relationship that has a number of uncomfortable truths brought to light by the discovery of a letter.

Interactions between the main characters are excellent thanks to the cinematography and physical performances of the actors. How much of it is down to strong direction by Kieslowski I am unsure, but there is a consistency to the father-daughter intimacy that makes you believe what you see is real.

I am not going to be pretentious and say I understand every bit of symbolism and imagery, but as a father I found it to be quite powerful and pretty disturbing in those Electra Complex moments. The cameo by a character from a previous episode is also perfectly timed.

The story resolves in quite a cinematic way considering it is a series of conversations. People cannot help what they feel, but how they act upon the feelings is what matters. From that perspective it ends on a positive note with the father doing the right thing. Saying that, I doubt they could ever get back to their previous relationship after making certain admissions to each other.

Hmmm...

[Daniel Karlsson · 6/10 · 20 January 2004]

I don't see what is so fantastic about this film. The Dekalog series has been ranked as one of the greatest achievements in movie history. I have seen no 3 and 4 so far. They were good, but I was not exactly crazy about them. First of all, I see they have very little in common with the biblical commandments. Of course, you could interpret them in a way so that it would fit the commandments. But that goes for every other movie as well. Furthermore, it's a tad boring, and a lack of joyfulness. It's definitely not bad, but I would recommend something else.

3/5

My favourite of series... so far

[Look Closer · 9 September 2002]

While I'm only halfway through Decalogue so far I just had to write a comment about how much I loved this particular episode, honour thy father and mother. Let's just say this episode is my favourite thus far because its characters are so beautifully drawn out, each one dealing with their own separate issues (it'd be interesting to hear differing perspectives from male and female viewers). Thanks to Kieslowski's direction which refuses to waver from the characters unlike the meandering camera of some of the other episodes, the emotional tension between the father and daughter is able to constantly build upon itself reaching a higher level than that of the other series' characters. Decalogue is definitely an empathetic series in which we're constantly being asked to identify with all the varying characters (and through them examine the issues that spring out of their situations). From this perspective, "honour they father and mother" is perhaps the most effective. While other series' generally settle into a certain

"intellectual state" for the majority of each episode the characters of episode four are almost always in a state of emotional flux, constantly being thrown new twists. Because the episode is so short and yet full of so many twists we're not given the ample time supplied by other episodes to think through each viewpoint which is exactly what's so brilliant about it. Each character's constant struggle to balance their physical, emotional, intellectual and social needs perfectly captures what it is to be human, which is precisely what I found to be Kieslowski's greatest and most unique gift to the art of film.

Acting Acting

[tedg · 10 December 2005]

You really cannot be a centered adult these days unless you seriously look for where the razorblades are hidden in the beachsand. Any of the rich experiences in life can tear as well as nourish.

Art is our only defense. Cinema is our most visceral art. Within that, Kieslowski knows wounds from frolicking -- dangerous breathing -- as well as any and better than nearly anyone.

This is to say that everyone should watch "Decalog." No, more than watch it, you should accept it in the way it is formed, a series of emotional encounters that relentlessly teases you into baffling conundrums. No escape.

These are tools for life and really should be seen as originally intended, in sequence over a couple weeks. Do it with the person you love, because love is the price of entry into these.

This one is a message that you can either interpret or make up as you wish, about a message that might have been made up.

(The spoiler is: there is a letter and its forgery. Both are hidden but not. At the end, one is burned but you do not know which one.)

Within this story is a sequence in acting class, where the young girl and her older male teacher act out love. This exercise folds into the "real" play we see. Who is acting? Who is fooling themselves? Who can escape fooling themselves about love? Which messages are genuine?

If you just encounter this by itself, you may think it a simple, beautiful drama. But if you see this as one of ten, it is already the fifteenth colorful Persian carpet murderously unfurled under you and your lover.

It cuts.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

heavy emotion

[Kirpianuscus · 3 November 2018]

Gloomy atmosphere. Bitter clash. Doses of unrealism. And the feeling about improvisation. An episode who could be shorter or out of status of moral speech. Something missing, something is too much. Sure, in the context of serie, the four episode works. But it is only source of heavy emotions. And the letter, axis of the story, seems used as pretext not always convincing.

A Tease

[simuland · 29 December 2000]

Flirts with the sexual ambiguity of the father-daughter relationship. A mysterious letter left by her dead mother to be opened only upon her father's death disinhibits the daughter's Electra complex. The father, of course, is complicit in its opening. The movie, deliciously slippery and sly, matches its playful ambiguity to that of its subject matter; appearances are skillfully manipulated, realities shift. The friendly sexual antagonism is the female counterpart to the Oedipal hostility of Polanski's Knife in the Water.

Like the artificially notched-up conflict in III, there's a long unconvincing scene of direct confrontation between father and daughter at the heart of the movie that would have been better toned down or left out; the daughter's acting lessons similarly could have been deleted or minimized (we don't need to be told about subtext); both are too expository, too obvious, and detract from the momentum. Intrusive symbolism takes the form of a man repeatedly seen carrying a white diamond-shaped punt, i.e., for all intents and purposes a cross, which I found inadvertently funny. I thought the plot reversal near the end ingenuous; others have complained. After all, the letter and its contents are trivial compared to what they represent psychologically. It's a tease.

Dekalog 4

[chaos-rampant · 12 March 2016]

This is Kieslowski doing Bergman again and teasing with fluid boundaries of truth (which Bergman usually keeps frigid and unyielding).

A daughter and her father. A letter left behind by the long ago deceased mother to be opened upon her death but it was stashed away for years. She makes a duplicate of that letter but did she copy the content of the original or only the shorthand?

Kieslowski devotes most of the time to an overbearing exposure of feelings between them, which I find dreary and hard as a point of entry and the incest tones seem dragged by the hair to create deliberate discomfort; unnatural not simply in what it depicts but how it arrives there and insists on staying. Hard to sit through and takes me really nowhere. It's a drain.

But is Kieslowski only copying Bergman's shorthand, playing with the content? Is this Autumn Sonata or Certified Copy?