‘Jon-Erik Beckjord was a San Francisco-based paranormal investigator and photographer known for his far-reaching ideas regarding such phenomena as UFOs, crop circles, the Loch Ness Monster, and his specialty, Bigfoot, which he believed to be an extradimensional ghost-like entity that lives in mountains, forests, and even farmers’ fields. Beckjord characterized his theories as being “no more bizarre than those of Einstein, Dr. Michio Kaku or Dr. Fred Alan Wolf,” and considered many of his ideas to be continuations or expansions upon Einstein’s work.
‘Beckjord believed that Bigfoot and similar cryptids may be “inter-dimensional” beings that can occasionally take physical form for brief periods of time, but that, like the famed Cheshire cat, can “fade out” and pass through “wormholes”, possibly to other dimensions or parallel universes. He reported having had one of the creatures speak to him using telepathy, communicating the words “We’re here, but we’re not real, like what you think is real”. Beckjord claimed that such entities may be able to actually disappear into thin air, or even shapeshift.
‘Beckjord maintained that the interdimensional hypothesis may possibly, if proven, explain why there are thousands of alleged Bigfoot creature sightings each year, yet no dead zoological physical body is ever found. To evidence these ideas, Beckjord accumulated a large collection of enlarged photographs that he says show, among other things, “half-Bigfoots” and “invisible Bigfoots”, or possible aliens. The forms are often found in situations where the camera picked up images not seen by the witnesses, often due to distance. According to Beckjord, the images show primates, carnivores and beings not readily identified within known zoological classifications that resemble descriptions of aliens submitted to investigators.
‘He conducted much field work, such as camping out at “window sites” where, he said, Bigfoot activity is frequently seen. From 1978–1981, he collected his own photographic evidence of what he believes to be a “tribe” of either Bigfoots or aliens at El Dorado National Forest. Beckjord’s strong beliefs about Bigfoot and similar entities brought him into conflict not only with skeptics, who consider Bigfoot sightings to be a cultural phenomenon purely resulting from wishful thinking or hoaxes, but also with those who believe Bigfoot to be an actual physical creature.
‘Beckjord died at the age of 69 from prostate cancer on June 22, 2008, near his home in Lafayette, California. He had been maintaining the Crosses of Lafayette monument to casualties of the Iraq War before his death.’ — collaged
Interdimensional Hypotheses by Jon-Erik Beckjord
1) A good example in literature is also “Through the Looking Glass” by Lewis Carrol. Alice goes into a mirror and enters a world where everything is reversed. A parallel universe or world. Also, “Alice in Wonderland” – she falls down a rabbit hole, and enters a strange world.
2) Heaven and Hell may be also parallel universes, if they exist. In an infinity of parallel universes, they probably do exist. The question is whether we on Earth have a wormhole to either one? Possibly so.
3) The Bermuda Triangle may be an entryway for a transverse wormhole and all those missing ships and planes may exist in another parallel world in a parallel universe.
4) In the situation of intra-universe wormholes, people may disappear and reappear at some other part of the world, in a different time. There are reports of a Spanish soldier from the 1600s appearing in our time for a short period, and then disappearing again. There are reports of farmers walking into a field and just vanishing. Many missing persons may have gotten into either an intra-universe wormhole, or an inter-universe wormhole. In the latter case, they would reappear in a different universe and world, and not this one.
5) Exotic creatures such as hairy humanoids, black panthers, Nessie,etc, may be made of exotic matter or even antimatter. There is talk in the literature about negative energy being involved. (More on this later). But it should be noted that herbalist Charles Hallmark took a video in OK near his home in a state park, in which four Bigfoot creatures showed up along with one hujman being, that he did not see. Analysis of this video shows that while these are some 200-300 feet away, that they were all watching Hallmark, and that using negative image transfers, (pos to neg,etc) it can be seen that the man is visible only in the negative state, but looks normal, while one hairy humanoid looks negative while three others look positive, in the negative state. When the image is reverted, the man is a white blob and so are the three creatures, while the first creature looks normal. This may relate to exotic matter, anti-matter and negative energy forces. Exactly how is not known.
6) What we think are dreams, but are “out of body experiences”, may take place in other universes that we get to via transverse wormholes.
7) I suggest that there is not just one transversable worm hole accessing this Earth, but thousands, even millions, separately, 24/7. Envision thousands, millions of such wormholes (passageways) twisting and crackling all over the Earth, sendng and receiving, taking and returning, over and over.
8) Life after death may be explained in some cases by the deceased’s life-force moving to another “plane” (parallel universe) via a transverse wormhole, and visits by spirits of the deceased may visit back here by the same method. If this is true, nobody truly dies. In some cases, where reincarnation is shown (studies by a Dr. Casey in Indian villages) (details tba) the visiting life force may “take” with a newborn child.
9) I suggest that Nirvana or Satori in Zen, is a result of accessing a wormhole, personally. Meditation is the attempt to enter a wormhole. Za-Zen, or sitting meditation, tries the same. I personally had such a trip, Satori, while sitting in the drivers seat of an Air National Guard bus, in a spring setting with green grass and sunlight, a driver for other troops, and waiting for them to return from a hike. Dreams, visions, “voices” in the head, the voices of Joan of Arc, divine visions, miracles, missing people, all can come via wormholes. IMHO.
10) Critics will level the charge that I am trying to explain all mysteries, under the catch-all of wormholes, but all I can offer in response is that while not every situation can be explained by wormholes in use, I suspect it will be found, over time, as we find tools to test this hypotheses with, that a large number of the mysteries will be explained in this manner. In the meantime, I have yet to see any better solution to mysteries.
11) Other applications are the famous “lost sock in the dryer” – which is not a joke, lost keys that later reappear on a plain table, missing money from a secure spot, travel by dying people 3000 miles to appear briefly to relatives, cases where priests are seen in two widely separated spots at the same instant, giving mass, and more.
12) In closing, I quote Albert Einstein “Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.” Skeptics are those who, when seeing the handwriting on the wall, declare it to be a forgery.
The Bigfoot Alien Connection Revealed
Does The CIA Have Evidence of a UFO Bigfoot Inter-Dimensional Connection?
p.s. Hey. ** David Ehrenstein, Always happy to get a big holiday up from the great genius Sly Stone. I wonder what’s happened to that documentary in the works about him. ** Sypha, Yes, I did read and remember really liking ‘Forbidden Colors’. Damn, I’m going to finally find that Schrader film somewhere today. Old schlock horror can be really wonderfully distracting if you ever want to turn your life completely if briefly off. ** Tosh Berman, Hi, Tosh. It would be so great to read Mishima in Japanese. The English translators always seem to give his writing a slightly different style, so it’s impossible to know how he actually writes or at least which translation is the closest. Yeah, him, Dazai, Tanizaki, and especially Kawabata for me, total gods. I might add Endo, Akutagawa, Inoue, and what little I’ve read of Fumiko Enchi was incredible. ** wolf, Can the Can, or, wait, 48 Crash! I’ve looked into the legal use of gifs a little. It’s kind of vague. If they’re considered ‘movie’ clips, their brevity makes them fair game. If they’re lumped in with still images, it’s dicier. One of the main reasons my gif novels are free is because I didn’t want to draw the ire of the owners of the source material or the gif makers themselves by monetising them. I guess if one did a high profile show of gif projections that reached the ears of the gifs’ source owners, they might cause a fuss. Or at least if they were employed/ distorted in such a way as to render them as other than free publicity. Good question. I’d be willing to take the chance. No, gifs with sound don’t exist that I know of. Excellent idea though. Not sure why they don’t. Rumor (that I’ve heard) is that the Hayward might be permanently closing, so I guess I’ll wait to see if that pans out before I hit up my old pal. ** _Black_Acrylic, You’re most welcome. How was the class? I don’t know ‘Limmy’s Show’, but that clip of the girl is totally fantastic. I’m going to see what else she makes. Thanks, Ben. And, yeah, how did your story go over? ** David S. Estornell, Hi, David! Very happy the post sat so well with you. How are you? Getting through the quarantine with relatively flying colors, I hope. ** Steve Erickson, Hi. His was a very untimely early death, yes. You guys can still eat outside. Lucky you guys. We can grab and go at very select venues, mostly fast food joints, but that’s it until January 20th. A Thanksgiving song! My holiday is saved! Everyone, Steve marked yesterday’s US holiday by composing and posting a timely song called “What Are You Thankful For?”. Go find out what that entails here. Yes, I saw that an actual official Screamers release is imminent. So many questions on the order of, ‘If that demo tape existed all this time, why did it take decades to release it?’ Etc. Very odd. And, yes, I heard the ‘single’ of ‘Punish or Be Damned’ and it’s revelatory and fantastic. Wow. ** Misanthrope, Hi, G. I would say yes, Derek’s work has gotten more intense. I think ‘Castle Faggot’ is his masterpiece so far, as you have already gathered if you’ve read Zac’s and my gush fest. In fact, Derek made a gorgeous ‘welcome’ post for the book that will be here tomorrow. It’s true the pressure on TC was pretty vivid. Dude, I might hit you up on that mac and cheese through the mail offer at some point. I normally bring a few boxes back with me from LA, but … yeah, LA might as well be Mars at the moment. Now your stomach is rebelling? Lord, man, make the docs go over you inside and out with a fine toothed comb or its medical equivalent. And how strange that your earhole has survived all these years. I should make a post about it. I love secret passages, as you well know. ** Brian O’Connell, Hi, Brian! I haven’t seen ‘Dekalog’, but pretty much everyone I know, whether they love him or are ‘meh’ about him, seem to think that’s his greatest thing. Ozu’s color films are startling when you’re used to his b&w films, but they’re also astonishing. There was a very odd film made of ‘The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea’ back in the 70s, I think, that ends with boys preparing to eat Kris Kristoferson, and that I remember liking but which may not hold up at all. Yes, I’m going to finally find a way to see the Schrader ASAP. Surely it’s on one of the illegal sites I’ve bookmarked. Glad your Thanksgiving did its thing. No, I didn’t do anything out of the ordinary, but the ordinary was all right. Yes, the pundits on the US news channels I can watch over here are predicting a swift post-Thanksgiving total doom. May they somehow be naysaying wackos. Great talking with you too, and happiest Friday. ** Right. I thought I would drag today’s goofy post corpse out of the blog’s graveyard for reasons I’m not sure I know or could explain if I did. See you tomorrow.
‘It’s perhaps comical to describe a filmmaker revered in some circles as underrated when they’ve been nominated for some of the biggest prizes in cinema — the Palme d’Or, Venice’s Golden Lion, the Academy Awards, Berlin’s Golden Bear. But perhaps because Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Kieslowski never really took many of these major prizes home, and never gained global status until later in his career, we find that the filmmaker is not as revered as we’d like (though he tied for a Golden Lion in 1993). Perhaps this observation is very relative. Perhaps it’s because he didn’t enter the Criterion canon until 2006, perhaps because his career ended too abruptly just as it was truly ascending, or perhaps simply because he’s one of our most adored filmmakers: we routinely never give up an opportunity to celebrate Kieslowski’s work when we can.
‘A Polish director who spent much of his life behind the country’s postwar communist regime (and felt the pains of its control and censorship), Kieslowski started out as a documentarian and then made his first feature-length drama in 1975. While the early narrative films contained many elements of social realism and political dimension within the intangible and mystical conceits Kieslowski is known for, the filmmaker’s work soon discarded many of his overly political ideas and shifted into his unwavering purpose: exploring the metaphysical, random mysteries and paradoxes of the universe via themes of chance, interconnectivity, identity, destiny and more. The films had some high-concepts on paper — movies about doppelgangers, rewriting one’s time and history, second chances, reaching beyond parallel alternative universes and even death — but each one had a spiritual resonance, an emotional weight, a soulful humanism, and a dramatic texture that made them beautifully profound and enigmatically enrapturing.
‘Stanley Kubrick himself once said of Kieslowski and his constant screenwriting companion Krzysztof Piesiewicz — a lawyer and now a prominent politician — “I am always reluctant to single out some particular feature of the work of a major filmmaker because it tends inevitably to simplify and reduce the work… They [dramatize life] with such dazzling skill, you never see the ideas coming and don’t realize until much later how profoundly they have reached your heart.”
‘There’s arguably a before and after period in Kieslowski’s work that is divided by 1985’s “No End.” That film marked the first collaboration with screenwriter Piesiewicz and composer Zbigniew Preisner and both men would work on every subsequent Kieslowski picture. Arguably, Kieslowski’s metaphysical sonnets of intuitive nature from that period forward became masterful symphonies of sound, color, and rich emotional transcendence. Interestingly enough, this new period would center almost exclusively on ravishing female protagonists (though “The Dekalog” was mixed).
‘Frustrated by the medium of cinema and/or his own limitations — a terminally cynical Kieslowski didn’t believe the interior mysteriousness of the human condition could be aptly captured on film, though that hardly ever stopped him — and exhausted by the speed in which he made his final masterwork and triptych Three Colors trilogy (he directed all three in under ten months and at one point he was editing, shooting and writing all three films simultaneously), Kieslowski announced his retirement at the age of 52 during the premiere of “Red” at the Cannes Film Festival. Just under two years later, as word came out that he was considering leaving retirement to form a new trilogy loosely based on the concepts of heaven, hell and purgatory (one of which was later directed by Tom Tykwer), the filmmaker died during open-heart surgery at the all-too early age of 54. Krzysztof Kieslowski passed away 17 years ago today, and so simply we use this opportunity to celebrate the filmmaker who believed that strangers were perhaps not so estranged; who sometimes believed the our existence was a cruel trick with deeper meaning we couldn’t fully comprehend; who believed in contemplating the mysterious elements of the universe that unified us as people beyond nationalities, race religions, political and personal philosophies.’ — Rodrigo Perez
30-Minute Interview w/ Krzysztof Kieślowski on Filmmaking
Krzysztof Kieślowski: A Prison Made of Light
1-Hour Masterclass / Workshop with Krzysztof Kieślowski from 1994
Slavoj Zizek on Krzysztof Kieslowski
_____ Interview
Q: Why were you interested in the French motto: Liberty, equality, fraternity?
Krzysztof Kieślowski: Precisely for the same reason that I was interested in “Decalogue.” In ten phrases,the ten commandments express the essential of life. And these three words — liberty,equality, and fraternity — do just as much. Millions of people have died for those ideals. We decided to see how these ideals are realized practically and what they mean today.
Q: How did you conceive the films in relation to each other?
KK: We looked very closely at the three ideas, how they functioned in everyday life, but from an individual’s point of view. These ideas are contradictory with human nature. When you deal with them practically, you do not know how to live with them. Do people really want liberty, equality, fraternity? Is it not some manner of speaking? We always take the individual, personal point of view.
Q: So you turned to fiction — yet you stick very close to real life.
KK: I think life is more intelligent than literature. And working so long in documentaries became both a blessing and an obstacle in my work. In a documentary, the script is just to point you in a certain direction. One never knows how a story is going to unfold. And during the shoot, the point is to get as much material as possible. It’s in the editing that a documentary takes place. Today, I think I still work in the same way. What I shoot isn’t really the story — the footage just contains the elements that will make up the story. While shooting, details which weren’t in the script are often thrown in. And during the editing process a lot is cut out.
Q: If you took this way of thinking far enough, don’t you think you might end up using scripts merely as pretexts?
KK: No, not at all. Absolutely not. For me the script is key because it’s the means to communicating with the people I work with. It may be the skeleton, but it is the indispensable foundation. Later, many things can be changed: Certain ideas may be eliminated, the end may become the beginning, but what’s between the lines, all the ideas — that stays the same.
Q: You call yourself an artisan, as opposed to an artist. Why?
KK: Real artists find answers. The knowledge of the artisan is within the confines of his skills. For example, I know a lot about lenses, about the editing room. I know what the different buttons on the camera are for. I know more or less how to use a microphone. I know all that, but that’s not real knowledge. Real knowledge is knowing how to live, why we live… things like that.
Q: Did you shoot the films separately, with an interval between them?
KK: We started with “Blue” and shot from September to November 1992. On the last day, we started “White” because in the courtroom scene, you see the characters from both films together. As it is very difficult to shoot in a courtroom in Paris, since we had the permit, we took advantage of it; we immediately shot about 30% of “White” because the first part takes place in Paris. Then we left for Poland to finish it. After ten days of rest, we went to Geneva to start “Red” which was shot in Switzerland from March to May 1993.
Q: Do the names of the characters have a particular meaning?
KK: I tried to think of names which would be both easy for the audience to remember and reflective of the characters’ personalities. In real life, there are names that surprise us because they don’t seem to suit the person at all.
Q: For “The Double Life Of Veronique” — did you have Veronique from the Gospel in mind?
KK: Later on I did, but not when I chose the name, and although it had been unconscious, it seemed like a good association to have made. For “Red,” I asked Irene Jacob what her favorite name was as a little girl. At the time, it was “Valentine.” So, I named her character Valentine. For “White,” I named the hero Karol (Charlie in Polish) as a tribute to Chaplin. This little man, who is both naive and shrewd, has a “chaplinesque” side to him.
Q: “The Decalogue” was full of chance meetings — some of them failures and some successful. And in “Three Colors”, from one film to another, people seem to run into each other.
KK: I like chance meetings – life is full of them. Everyday, without realizing it, I pass people whom I should know. At this moment, in this cafe, we’re sitting next to strangers. Everyone will get up, leave, and go on their own way. And they’ll never meet again. And if they do, they won’t realize that it’s not for the first time. In the trilogy, these encounters have less importance than in “A Short Film About Killing” in which the fact that the future killer and the lawyer fail to meet each other is key. In the trilogy, they’re included mainly for the pleasure of some cinephiles who like to find points of reference from one film to another. It’s like a game for them.
Q: Each film has a scene with an elderly person trying to put the bottle in the trash can. What does this mean?
KK: I merely thought that old age awaits all of us and that one day we won’t have enough strength left to put a bottle in a container. In “Blue,” to avoid having this scene seem moralistic, I over-exposed the image. I figured that this way Julie doesn’t see the woman, and doesn’t realize what lies ahead for herself. She’s too young. She doesn’t know that one day she’s going to need someone’s help. In “White” Karol smiles because he realizes this is the one person worse off than he is. In “Red” we see something about Valentine’s compassion.
Q: Valentine knows the price of fraternity and Julie will learn to love again. The same can be said for Karol and Dominique. Even when you’re talking about liberty and fraternity, love is the final word.
KK: To tell you the truth, in my work, love is always in opposition to the elements. It creates dilemmas. It brings in suffering. We can’t live with it, and we can’t live without it. You’ll rarely find a happy ending in my work.
Q: Yet the screenplay for “Red” seems to say that you believe in fraternity. And the end of “Blue” is optimistic since Julie is able to cry.
KK: You think so? For me optimism is two lovers walking into the sunset arm in arm. Or maybe into the sunrise — whatever appeals to you. But if you find “Blue” optimistic then why not? Paradoxically, I think the real happy ending is in “White” which is, nevertheless, a black comedy.
Q: A man who goes to visit his wife in prison. You call that a happy ending?
KK: But they love each other! Would you rather have the story finish with him in Warsaw and her in Paris – with both of them free but not in love?
Q: The theme of equality is not, at first glance, very obvious in “White.”
KK: It can be found in different areas: between husband and wife, at the level of ambitions and in the realm of finance. “White” is more about inequality than equality. In Poland we say “Everyone wants to be more equal than everyone else.” It’s practically a proverb. And it shows that equality is impossible: it’s contradictory to human nature. Hence, the failure of Communism. But it’s a pretty word and every effort must be made to help bring equality about… keeping in mind that we won’t achieve it — fortunately. Because genuine equality leads to set-ups like concentration camps.
Q: You’ve lived in France for a year now. Has the experience modified your notion of liberty — hence the tenor of “Blue?”
KK: No, because this film, like the other two, has nothing to do with politics. I’m talking about interior liberty. If I had wanted to talk about exterior liberty — liberty of movement — I would have chosen Poland. Since things obviously haven’t changed there. Let’s take some stupid examples. With your passport, you can go to America. I can’t. With a French salary you can buy a plane ticket to Poland, but this would be impossible vice-versa. But interior liberty is universal.
Q: “Blue” seems like a continuation of “The Double Life of Veronique,” which itself picks up on an element from “Decalogue 9” (the cardiac singer). We could go on and on… Each film seems to give you a rough outline for another film.
KK: Of course, because I’m always shooting the same film! There’s nothing original in that though. All filmmakers do the same, and authors are always writing the same book. I’m not talking about “professionals,” I mean authors. Careful, I said authors, not artists.
Q: Each color is shot in a different country. Was this out of duty to the European film industry?
KK: The idea of a European film industry is completely artificial. There are good and bad films: that’s it. Take “Red” — we filmed in Switzerland for economic reasons — Switzerland is co-producing. But it’s not only that. We started thinking… Where would a story like “Red” take place? We thought of England, then Italy. Then we decided that Switzerland was perfect, mainly because it’s a country that wants to stay a bit off-center. The proof is the referendum concerning its connection to Europe. Switzerland leans towards isolation. It’s an island in the middle of Europe. And “Red” is a story of isolation.
Q: Is it difficult to shoot in France without speaking the language?
KK: Of course, but I have no choice. Here I get financing. In other places, I don’t. At the same time, it’s more interesting than working somewhere I know too well. It enriches my perspective. I’m discovering a world that’s so different, a language that’s so complicated and rich! This is shown when I suggest — in Polish of course — a slight change in the dialogue. Everyone comes back at me, in France, with suggestions for twenty ways to change it.
Q: You’ve created a European symphony during your three shoots…
KK: As you may have gathered, we speak French, English, Polish, and German. We’ve created an atmosphere in which everyone is comfortable. I have no problem being with people of different nationalities.
Q: Do you feel European?
KK: No. I feel Polish. More specifically, I feel like I’m from the tiny village in the Northeast of Poland where I have a house and where I love to spend time. But I don’t work there. I cut wood.
_____________ 15 of Krzysztof Kieslowski’s 41 films
____________ Tramway (1966) ‘While a film student in Łódź, Krzysztof Kieślowski made the 1966 silent short THE TRAM, about a flirtatious boy and a pretty girl. The film is presented here courtesy of the Polish National Film, Television, and Theatre School in Łódź.’— The Criterion Channel
the entirety
_____________ Before the Rally (1971) Documentary about international auto rallying.
the entirety
____________ Refrain (1972) ‘Bureaucracy of death. Only shows the clerks coldly responding to people’s inquiries on what to do with their dead loved ones. Interspersed are shots of people on the street and ends with babies being born. People are born and then they die and it simply boils down to certificates and numbers to these people and the government.’— _kubrick
the entirety
___________ Murarz (1973) ‘A bricklayer and former communist party official looks back at his life, while taking part in a parade of May 1st.’— IMDb
the entirety
____________ The Scar (1976) ‘Kieslowski’s first theatrical feature is a rather dour slice of social realism. Adapted from a journalist’s report, it’s set in 1970 and examines the ramifications surrounding the construction of a huge chemical plant near a relatively backward rural community. Pieczka’s project director suffers an ongoing crisis of conscience when the locals complain about the disruption. Meanwhile Stuhr’s sinister Party manager tries to keep the lid on negative reporting by a roving film crew. There’s understanding for points of view on all sides, but the absence of dramatic impetus reveals the film-maker’s difficulty in adapting from the documentary work which had comprised the bulk of his previous output. That’s bespectacled Agnieszka Holland as the factory secretary.’— Time Out (London)
the entirety
______________ Camera Buff (1979) ‘A reflexive meditation on art and documentary and a key film in Krzysztof Kieślowski’s career, CAMERA BUFF follows a factory worker’s growing obsession with filmmaking after he captures the birth of his daughter on his new 8 mm camera.’— The Criterion Channel
Trailer
___________ No End (1984) ‘The first film that Kieślowski made after the implementation of martial law in December 1981, Bez końca (No End), avoids easy, generic classification. It contains elements of psychological drama, ghost story, romance, courtroom drama, as well as political and metaphysical film. With Agnieszka Holland’s Kobieta samotna (A Woman Alone, 1981, released in 1988), No End is also among the bleakest films ever made in Poland.’— Marek Haltof
Trailer
_____________ Blind Chance (1981) ‘Before he stunned the cinematic world with the epic series The Decalogue and the Three Colors trilogy, the great Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Kieślowski made his first work of metaphysical genius, Blind Chance, a compelling drama about the difficulty of reconciling political ideals with personal happiness. This unforgettable film follows Witek (the magnetic Bogusław Linda), a medical student with an uncertain future in Communist Poland; Kieślowski dramatizes Witek’s journey as a series of different possibilities, suggesting that chance rules our lives as much as choice does.’— The Criterion Channel
the entirety
_____________ A Short Film About Killing (1988) ‘The film is not easy to watch, being the story of a lumpen young man who kills a taxi driver and is caught, brought to trial, condemned to death and executed. Both deaths are dreadful; Kieslowski is clearly trying to tell us that both are morally repugnant. The taxi driver is battered with a stone and dies slowly, while the long-winded bureaucratic precision of the hanging was apparently so horrendous to film that Kieslowski’s team had to break off in the middle.
‘It should be emphasised, though, that the two most violent scenes are not lingered over. We see neither too little nor too much. They are there to shock us, but for a good reason. What makes them powerful is the rest of the film. It is shot by Slavomir Idziak with the aid of lowering, ochre-coloured filters that render the young man’s world like a purgatorial nightmare. Never has Warsaw and its environs looked so depressing.’— Derek Malcolm
the entirety
_______________ A Short Film About Love (1988) ‘Short Film About Love is a feature version of Krzysztof Kieślowski’s The Decalogue – VI from 1988. The film talks about an innocent boy who falls in love with an older, experienced woman who treats love as a noncommittal game.
‘The starting point of the plot is the Seventh Commandment (the Third Commandment is omitted in the series, whereas the Tenth is split into two films): ‘Thou shall not commit adultery’. The famous television cycle was meant by its creators to explore the functioning of Old Testament’s ethical and existential impact in the contemporary world. In terms of film’s structure the co-writer of the script Krzysztof Piesiewicz emphasizes the influence of Hitchock and Bergman. A Short Film About Love is a combination of Rear Window and a subtle psychological drama.’— Robert Birkholc
the entirety
______________ The Double Life of Veronique (1991) ‘Krzysztof Kieślowski’s international breakthrough remains one of his most beloved films, a ravishing, mysterious rumination on identity, love, and human intuition. Irène Jacob is incandescent as both Weronika, a Polish choir soprano, and her double, Véronique, a French music teacher. Though unknown to each other, the two women share an enigmatic, emotional bond, which Kieślowski details in gorgeous reflections, colors, and movements. Aided by Slawomir Idziak’s shimmering cinematography and Zbigniew Preisner’s haunting, operatic score, Kieślowski creates one of cinema’s most purely metaphysical works. The Double Life of Véronique is an unforgettable symphony of feeling.’— The Criterion Collection
Trailer
Excerpt
______________ Three Colours: Blue (1993) ‘Three Colors: Blue is the first part of the Three Colors triptych, followed by White and Red. The whole cycle – like The Decalogue – was created in opposition to Kieślowski’s previous films, which dealt with the characters’ problems from a political and social angle and contained many realistic background details. In the half of the 1980s, Kieślowski decided to slightly change his tactics and present characters facing existential dilemmas, understood more universally than in his previous, more realist films.
‘All films in the cycle allude to the French Revolution. Their plots loosely refer to the mottos of the revolution: Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, whereas formally, by symbolic use of hues, they hint at the colours of the French flag. In accordance with this assumption, while trying to interpret Three Colors: Blue, one should treat the ideal of liberty as the starting point.’— culture.pl
Trailer
Excerpt
______________ Three Colors: White (1994) ‘The most playful and also the grittiest of Kieślowski’s Three Colors films follows the adventures of Karol Karol (Zbigniew Zamachowski), a Polish immigrant living in France. The hapless hairdresser opts to leave Paris for his native Warsaw when his wife (Julie Delpy) sues him for divorce (her reason: their marriage was never consummated) and then frames him for arson after setting her own salon ablaze. White, which goes on to chronicle Karol Karol’s elaborate revenge plot, manages to be both a ticklish dark comedy about the economic inequalities of Eastern and Western Europe and a sublime reverie about twisted love.’— The Criterion Collection
Trailer
Excerpt
______________ Three Colors: Red (1994) ‘Krzysztof Kieślowski closes his Three Colors trilogy in grand fashion, with an incandescent meditation on fate and chance, starring Irène Jacob as a sweet-souled yet somber runway model in Geneva whose life dramatically intersects with that of a bitter retired judge, played by Jean‑Louis Trintignant. Meanwhile, just down the street, a seemingly unrelated story of jealousy and betrayal unfolds. Red is an intimate look at forged connections and a splendid final statement from a remarkable filmmaker at the height of his powers.’— The Criterion Collection
Trailer
Excerpt
Camera Movement in THREE COLORS: RED
_____________ The Photograph (1995) ‘After looking at photo taken on celebration day when Warsaw has been freed by Polish and Russian soldiers, showing 2 young boys holding guns, Kieslowski tries to find them to discover how their lives went.’— IMDb
the entirety
*
p.s. Hey. ** Misanthrope, Hey, G. Sure, gotcha, totally. Yow, about your ear. Your body is such a prankster. Mixed with a brat. Well, high hopes that the antibiotics do what scientists thought they could do when they were considered newfound miracle workers. Huh, maybe all it took to mature David was a car? Hey, why not? I’m still awaiting Derek’s new one in the post. I didn’t see that Woody Allen, but it was a big hit and critical fave over here where he’s not persona non grata. Didn’t Timothee Chalamet disown it or something? Not his finest moment, if so. Right, it’s Thanksgiving. I almost forgot. There’s this American store here in Paris where you can order/buy a whole Thanksgiving classic dinner, the whole shebang, but the people who run it are far right QAnon weirdos, so I avoid the place even though they sell Kraft’s Macaroni and Cheese, which I often crave. ** David Ehrenstein, Thanks for thanking Carlos. He popped me a note and seemed happy with how y’all took it. Yep, watching pretty much all of those movies on late night TV when I was a wee little thing was a big part of my having grown up dark and ironic. I’ll look for that COVID doc, thanks. ** _Black_Acrylic, Yes, RIP the great Maradonna! ** wolf, Wolf, meshuggah! Guest-host Carlos seems to be a pretty thorough follower of the blog because when he sent the post to me, he said — and this is the god’s honest truth — ‘I hope wolf likes it.’ So he’s a fan of your commenting manifestation. Or maybe he actually knows you? Hm. Maybe he’s Esther or Chris Goode or someone in disguise. Honestly, I only really don’t like the Hayward’s insides. But I’ve never seen a show there that I didn’t think was fucked by the architecture. Oh, maybe the Carsten Holler show worked okay there. But the Brigit Riley show was an unmitigated disaster, I thought. Like the Deftones! Ha ha, okay, that’s pretty convincing. Well, okay too, yeah, I wouldn’t say no to that gif show thing. That’s true. And the head curator of the Hayward, Ralph Rugoff, is an old pal of mine, so … who knows? Good, ping me, I’m free as a bird. Would love too. ** Sypha, I was in Providence once as an adolescent on a family vacation, and I do remember it being very nice in this kind of Stephen King setting kind of way. ‘The Crawling Eye’ was the first horror movie I ever saw when I was knee-high to a grasshopper. It’s … terrible. And incredible! ** Steve Erickson, And I’ll look for ’76 Days’. Seems like that would play here once the movie theatres get reopened yet again. Wow, that 80s synth pop duo redo project by your friends sounds really fun. Alert me when their EP hits bandcamp, if you remember. I do know Volur, but I haven’t heard the new one. Cool, I’m on it, thanks! ** Bill, ‘The Crawling Eye’ will turn you into a wide eyed pre-teen giggling stoner, if I’m any indication. I hope the holiday Zoom does what it intends. ** Brian O’Connell, Hi, Brian. Oh, thanks a lot, man. Very happy that you liked the Ozu so much. Yeah, he’s a singular and great artist. For all the reasons you point out. My very favorite of his is ‘Late Spring’, but he’s kind of always wonderful for pretty much always the same reasons, so you can’t really go wrong. Ah, so that’s why there were a strangely large number of pix of Mishima in my Facebook feed yesterday. I like Mishima a lot. I haven’t read him in a long time for no good reason. And I have never seen the Schrader film even though I’ve always wanted to. I think my favorite Mishimas when I was particularly into him were ‘Confessions of a Mask’ and the ‘Sea of Fertility’ trilogy. Oh, and ‘The Temple of the Golden Pavilion.’ What are you favorites? I hope whatever your Thanksgiving consists of is a total treat. We start reopening here on Saturday. Shops and galleries and stuff will reopen then. And, if things don’t nosedive, museums and theatres and stuff on the 15th. And, if things still don’t nosedive, restaurants and cafes and bars on January 20th. Or so they semi-predict. ** Okay. A short time back I was hanging out with someone who said, ‘Have you done a Krzysztof Kieslowski post on your blog?’ ‘No, I haven’t,’ I said, ‘Do you think I should’. He looked at me with horror, like I had just asked him the world’s stupidest question. And that was my cue to make a Krzysztof Kieslowski Day. And there it is right up north. I hope you enjoy it. I hope that if you’re doing Thanksgiving, it rocks. And I will see you tomorrow.
Now available in North America 