The Film I Love Most

A Short Film About Love by Kieslowski

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One evening in November 1999, when I was re-watching my treasured tape of The Double Life of Veronique (1), I lamented that neither it nor A Short Film About Love, both by the late Krzysztof Kieslowski, were available in digital (i.e. DVD or VCD) format in Hong Kong.

As year-end approached, I came across a TV programme which asked actors and directors which film(s) meant the most to them. I asked myself this same question, and the answer was clear: it had to be A Short Film About Love.

Then on Boxing Day, when I was strolling aimlessly along the street, I spotted A Short Film about Love on the shelve of a small VCD shop. Imagine my joy and excitement!

I am not going to write a long piece about why I love this particular film most. Suffice to say that I was moved like never before when I first watched it and never got bored watching it over and over again subsequently.

Like other Kieslowski films, it is deeply humanistic and intellectual, but not too heavy as to become "unlikable" - a label I put on the works of many great European directors. In my opinion, it stands above other Kieslowski films because the story line is simple and the approach direct.

After The Decalogue and the two associated feature-length films (A Short Film about Love is one), Kieslowski moved on to make four more ambitious films (The Double Life of Veroniker, Blue, White and Red). They were great, and helped firmly stablish his international reputation (which probably meant little to Kieslowski, apart from earning him enough cigarette money). But to me, my true love remains the seemingly more modest A Short Film about Love.

For those who are not familiar with this film, it is about an uninitiated teenager Tomek who spies on a mature, sexually-active woman Magda through his telescope and becomes infatuated. When he finally gathers his courage and declares his love towards her, Magda's cynicism towards love wins over her affection towards Tomek, resulting in his feeling disillusioned and subsequently trying to commit suicide. All that Magda gets from this "love affair" is regret.

To me, the film is about the fragility of love and the consequence of a moment's decision. Love slips away if you do not grasp it. Yet more often than not, you crush love when you try to grasp it. There are many ways to handle love, each leading to a different outcome. But there can be no experiment in life. You make a move and face the consequence.

Magda was appalled by the behaviour of the peeping Tomek. At the same time, she was flattered by the pure love from this young man. And it was obvious that she had a certain affection towards him as well. Yet, in a sexually-charged moment during their date, she decided to teach him a lesson: "so this is love, it's just like this."

Obviously, this is only my interpretation of the film. Other, including the director himself, may see it differently (2). Watch it yourself to form your own opinion. Watch it again and again, and your opinion may change.

A Short Film About Love vs Decalogue VI

As I mentioned in footnote 2, Kieslowski's focus in this film was the irony, the contrast between Tomek and Magda, and the reversal of roles. Decalogue VI ends when Tomek told Magda curtly that "I don't spy on you anymore". This ending, said Kieslowski, was "very dry, laconic and also very simple. ... And we know that he really won't spy on her ever again and maybe he won't spy on anybody. And when somebody spies on him, he'll hurt her the same way as Magda hurt him. The television ending is far closer to the view I have of how things really are in life." (p.170) Closer than what? Closer than the suggested ending by Grazyna Szapolowska, who played Magda in the film.

Szapolowska's suggestion formed the basis of the cinema version (i.e. A Short Film About Love). In Kieslowski's words, "Possibilities are open, in the cinema version. The ending is such that everything is still possible, although we already know that nothing is possible". (p.170) (3)

After reading Kieslowski on Kieslowski, I am quite convinced that the director still preferred Decalogue VI. I beg to differ. And I would even suggest that the success of his last four films owes much more to A Short Film About Love than Decalogue VI.

The turning point in the film, to me, is Magda's blunder. It is thus more artistically convincing that it should switch the focus from Tomek's infatuation towards her in the first half of the story to Magda having to face the consequence of what she did in the second. It is better that Tomek remain silent. Possibilities are open!

A Short Film About Love is my choice of Kieslowski's best film, not Decalogue VI.

DVD trailer from Kino

Footnotes:

(1) I first encountered Kieslowski's films in the early 1990s when living in Australia. SBS, a publicly funded broadcaster originally envisaged to provide news and entertainment to those whose mother language is not English, offers lots of non-English art films. I remembered on every Thursday, it would show a "Movie of the Week". An old gentleman, David Stratton, would spent a few minutes introducing the film to the viewers. David's opinions are always objective, concise and unpretentious. I learnt a lot from him. He also co-hosts a programme called The Movie Show. I taped The Double Life of Veroniker from this TV station. It is the only major Kieslowski film which I do not own a digital copy. [back to text]

(2) See Kieslowski on Kieslowski edited by Danusia Stok (faber and faber 1993). According to Kieslowski, "we watch from the point of view of the person who is loving and not the person who is loved. ... This love is difficult both for the boy and also, later on, for the woman. So we're always looking at this love through the eyes of the person who is suffering because of this love. ... Tomek spies on Magda. Then Magda tries to find Tomek. This is because of guilt but also, no doubt, because she's reminded of the fact that she was like him at some stage, too. ... She was pure and believed that love existed. Then she probably got burnt. She touched something hot which hurt her very badly and decided never to love again because she realized that the price was too high. Then this surfaced." (p.169). In short, Kieslowski focused on the irony, the contrast between Tomek and Magda, and the reversal of roles. [back to text]

(3) Sounds like he was talking about someone who is in purgatory? It was rumoured that before his death in March 1996, Kieslowski and Piesiewicz (another Krzysztof, the script writer for all of Kieslowski's films from No End onwards) had largely finished the script of another trilogy Heaven, Hell, Purgatory. Tom Tykwer, of Winter Sleepers and Run Lola Run fame, will be the director of Heaven. This film is said to be scheduled for release in mid 2001. Interestingly, when Winter Sleepers was released theatrically in Hong Kong sometime ago, Tykwer was billed as "the director with the most Kieslowski feel". In my opinion, his films seem rather Kieslowskian, but are very different in essence. Let's see how he handles Kieslowski's heaven. [back to text]

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Last updated: 10 January 2006. Maintained by Joseph Tsang 曾錫堯