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Eight: Thou shalt not bare false witness
The set-up? Would you lie to save a life?
The players? Zofia, an old college professor. Elzbieta, her American translator come to visit.
Zofia is quietly famous and respected, several foreigners eagerly sit in on her lecture. She begins her class in ethical hell by throwing open the auditorium to questions from the students. One young woman retells the story in Episode two. Zofia underlines the moral for them: the life of a child is always more precious than any adult. Elzbieta asks if she could add an example, since hers seems to be at odds with the story they have just heard. Kilvinski appears as a student in the lecture hall, at the moment when Zofia realizes Elzbieta is not telling some anonymous story from the past, but one that features her, and back then, a child's life was singularly unimportant.
I'd like to point out the nice control Kieslowski has over his actors; the emotive spins and restraint he easily coaxes from them. The scene in the Dean's office is a perfect example. Everyone is festive and happy when the professor is introduced to her foreign translator. Then an instant later, a chill goes through the room, as if a Nazi commandant has committed a social faux pas by swaggering into the office with brain splatter on his leather boots. This is probably because Elzieta specializes in the Polish history during the holocaust. Though Nazi barbarism was probably an common everyday occurrence during the war, most people didn't get involved and looked the other way. If you don't know, after a war, everyone turns out to have been in the resistance. So her unearthing unspeakable and unpunished acts of collaboration done by the same important people now in power is not a remote possibility. She's one dangerous woman.
This underlines an interesting idea: Courage has to be learned, it can't be taught. Have all great heroes, been shamed by an act of cowardice at a some earlier period in their lives? Turning away a little Jewish girl during the holocaust has haunted Zofia her entire life, reflected by the serial gesture of her straightening painting in her living room---she's forever resetting the world right. There also seems to be an undeveloped theme of debt in the story. A debt of gratitude. What do you say to someone who saved your life? Elzbieta admits that it's beyond humiliating.
Incredibly Elzbieta accepts the explanation for turning her away when Zofia qualifies her excuse. Her defiance seems strangely to fizzle out---which seems false---she's been waiting 40 years to confront the old bitch. To fill out her story, Zofia asks if Elzbieta would like to meet the couple that originally volunteered to shelter her. The man is still alive; he now lives a quiet, uneventful life as a tailor. Although he does react when she tells him she was the little girl he was going to hide. Unfortunately, the man is now a steely vault: the war; the post-war; the current situation; all are out of bounds. He refuses categorically to talk about anything. So she leaves. But that image of that old man in the shadows looking out his dingy window at Zofia and Elzbieta in the sunshine is one of most intriguing of the series: what secrets could he tell about being an honest man in a time of wolves? The only thing I can be sure of is, he doesn't toss and turn at night, worrying about any damn ethical problems.
The set-up? Would you lie to save a life?
The players? Zofia, an old college professor. Elzbieta, her American translator come to visit.
Zofia is quietly famous and respected, several foreigners eagerly sit in on her lecture. She begins her class in ethical hell by throwing open the auditorium to questions from the students. One young woman retells the story in Episode two. Zofia underlines the moral for them: the life of a child is always more precious than any adult. Elzbieta asks if she could add an example, since hers seems to be at odds with the story they have just heard. Kilvinski appears as a student in the lecture hall, at the moment when Zofia realizes Elzbieta is not telling some anonymous story from the past, but one that features her, and back then, a child's life was singularly unimportant.
I'd like to point out the nice control Kieslowski has over his actors; the emotive spins and restraint he easily coaxes from them. The scene in the Dean's office is a perfect example. Everyone is festive and happy when the professor is introduced to her foreign translator. Then an instant later, a chill goes through the room, as if a Nazi commandant has committed a social faux pas by swaggering into the office with brain splatter on his leather boots. This is probably because Elzieta specializes in the Polish history during the holocaust. Though Nazi barbarism was probably an common everyday occurrence during the war, most people didn't get involved and looked the other way. If you don't know, after a war, everyone turns out to have been in the resistance. So her unearthing unspeakable and unpunished acts of collaboration done by the same important people now in power is not a remote possibility. She's one dangerous woman.
This underlines an interesting idea: Courage has to be learned, it can't be taught. Have all great heroes, been shamed by an act of cowardice at a some earlier period in their lives? Turning away a little Jewish girl during the holocaust has haunted Zofia her entire life, reflected by the serial gesture of her straightening painting in her living room---she's forever resetting the world right. There also seems to be an undeveloped theme of debt in the story. A debt of gratitude. What do you say to someone who saved your life? Elzbieta admits that it's beyond humiliating.
Incredibly Elzbieta accepts the explanation for turning her away when Zofia qualifies her excuse. Her defiance seems strangely to fizzle out---which seems false---she's been waiting 40 years to confront the old bitch. To fill out her story, Zofia asks if Elzbieta would like to meet the couple that originally volunteered to shelter her. The man is still alive; he now lives a quiet, uneventful life as a tailor. Although he does react when she tells him she was the little girl he was going to hide. Unfortunately, the man is now a steely vault: the war; the post-war; the current situation; all are out of bounds. He refuses categorically to talk about anything. So she leaves. But that image of that old man in the shadows looking out his dingy window at Zofia and Elzbieta in the sunshine is one of most intriguing of the series: what secrets could he tell about being an honest man in a time of wolves? The only thing I can be sure of is, he doesn't toss and turn at night, worrying about any damn ethical problems.