"Actor: Grazyna Szapolowska"

• Dekalog - The Ten Commandments - Parts 6-10 | DVD | (27/05/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The double-disc set Dekalog, Parts 6-10, contains the last five of Kieslowski's 10 one-hour modern morality tales, each one loosely linked to one of the 10 Commandments. All set in and around the same drab, high-rise Warsaw housing estate, they intriguingly explore moral dilemmas without ever coming to any glib conclusions. As always, Kieslowski is far more interested in posing questions than in supplying answers. The series was originally made for Polish television, and has since been shown on TV stations all round the world, though never in the cinema. While they can easily be watched separately, being individual stories, there's no question that they gain in impact from being taken in conjunction with each other. Kieslowski used a different cinematographer for each film (except Nos. 3 and 9, both photographed by Piotr Sobocinski) to give a distinct feel to each story. While none of them--as you might expect from this director--offer a barrel of laughs, some are decidedly lighter in tone. Indeed the series ends on an almost farcical note: Dekalog 10 tells the tale of two brothers seized with paranoia when their late father leaves them a valuable stamp collection. By contrast, Dekalog 6 is one of the most moving and compassionate in the collection: a woman who finds a young lad is obsessively spying on her inflicts an intolerable humiliation on him. This, like No. 5 in the series, was expanded by 25 minutes or so into a feature film, A Short Film about Love. Here too, it seems a pity that the longer version couldn't have been included in the set. On the DVDs: Dekalog, Parts 1-6 is slightly better served for extras than the first set; this includes a 50-minute interview with Kieslowski, one of the last he gave before his early death. As usual, he stonewalls all the questions with barely concealed impatience. The transfer captures the muted colours of the original, and the Dolby 1.0 sound is crisp and clear. --Philip Kemp

• A Short Film About Love | DVD | (29/09/2003) from £6.99   |  Saving you £13.00 (185.98%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Kieslowski's 'A Short Film About Love' was expanded from one of the most lyrical episodes in 'Dekalog' his celebrated cycle of short films based on the Ten Commandments. A young man falls in love with an older woman who lives across the courtyard in the same Warsaw apartment block. He watches her and her succession of lovers until she becomes aware of his spying and confronts him with a sexual invitation.

• A Short Film About Love | Blu Ray | (29/07/2019) from £9.95   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Krysztof Kieslowski’'s A Short Film About Love was expanded from one of the most lyrical episodes in Dekalog, his celebrated cycle of short films based on the Ten Commandments. A young man falls in love with an older woman who lives across the courtyard in the same Warsaw apartment block. He watches her and her succession of lovers until she becomes aware of his spying and confronts him with a sexual invitation.

• Cinema of Conflict: Four Films by Krzystof Kieslowski Limited Edition | Blu Ray | (20/04/2020) from £54.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Few names are as synonymous with Polish cinema as that of Krzystof Kieślowski, the renowned auteur responsible for the Dekalog and Three Colours trilogy. Prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall and his subsequent creative and critical success in France, Kieślowski plied his trade within the confines of the Eastern Bloc, capturing the realities of everyday life under Soviet rule. This collection gathers his four earliest narrative feature films, encapsulating the years 19761984. In 1976's The Scar, a well-intentioned Party loyalist is charged with overseeing the construction of a new chemical plant in the face of fierce resistance and is forced to confront the conflict between his good intentions and local opposition. In 1979's Camera Buff, a family man and amateur filmmaker experiences a dramatic change in fortunes when his newfound hobby opens up new horizons but also results in deep marital and philosophical conflicts. Blind Chance, completed in 1981 and denied a release in its native Poland until 1987, presents three possible outcomes to a single, seemingly banal event a young medical student running to catch a train and, in the process, explores the relationship between chance and choice. Finally, in 1984's No End, a recently bereaved translator juggles the conflicting demands of her work, caring for her son and her continued visions of her late husband, all against the backdrop of a Poland under the grip of martial law. As socially conscious as Kieślowski's earlier documentary shorts, this quartet of films covers a tumultuous period in Polish and Eastern European history, shot with unflinching realism by a filmmaker of distinction. LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS: Limited Edition collection (2000 copies) High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentations of all four films Original lossless mono audio for all films Optional English subtitles for all films Brand new audio commentary on Camera Buff by critic Annette Insdorf Brand new audio commentary on Blind Chance by film historian Michael Brooke Ghost of a Chance, a brand new visual essay on No End by Adrian Martin and Cristina Alvarez Lopez Moral and Martial Anxieties, a brand new discussion with Michael Brooke, exploring the brief and remarkable Polish film renaissance of the turn of the 1980s Brand new introductions by scholar and critic Michał Oleszczyk to all films Michał Oleszczyk looks through archive materials for each film Archival interviews with filmmakers Agnieska Holland and Krzysztof Zanussi, cinematographers Slawomir Idziak and Jacek Petrycki, actress Grazyna Szapoloska, sound designer Michal Zarnecki, critic Annette Insdorf and Kieślowski collaborator Irena Strazakowska Three short films by Kieślowski: Talking Heads (1980), Concert of Requests (1995) and The Office (1995) Workshop Exercises, a 1987 short film by Marcel Lonzinski Reversible sleeves featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Corey Brickley Collector's booklet featuring new writing on the films by scholars and authors Ewa Mazierska, Marek Hatlof, Dina Iordanova and Joseph G. Kickasola, and original writing by Kieślowski

• Battle of Warsaw | DVD | (04/03/2013) from £3.59   |  Saving you £12.40 (345.40%)   |  RRP £15.99

  From the Oscar-nominated cinematographer who brought you Black Hawk Down, King Arthur and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Battle of Warsaw is a high-octane, action-packed account of one of the most important events in Europe's history - Poland's victorious battle against Soviet Russia.

• Karol - A Man Who Became Pope | DVD | (14/11/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  He was marked by history and he changed its course. This remarkable drama reveals the heroic true story of John Paul II a man who ""rose to become a Pope of revolutionary worldwide change."" Before he became Pope Karol Wojtyla's life was a vigorous search for love and freedom. His transformational journey led him to the theatre to profound experiences of love friendship and loyalty to scholarship to the Catholic priesthood. And finally it led him to Rome and the Chair of

• No End | DVD | (24/11/2003) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-0.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Poland is under martial law and in 1982 Solidarity is banned. Ulla a translator working on Orwell suddenly loses her husband Antek an attorney. She is possessed by her grief but Antek continues to appear to her...

• Another Way | DVD | (03/10/2005) from £14.49   |  Saving you £-1.50 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Following the failed 1956 coup in Hungary a militant lesbian journalist returns to her job as a reporter for a Budapest newspaper where she falls mutually in love with the wife of an army officer. Their relationship - and its doomed consequences - reflects the intransigence and oppression of forced Soviet rule over a would-be sovereign nation. For her efforts Jadwiga Jankowska-Cieslak won Best Actress Winner at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival.