Dekalog and Other Television Works

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Ribs
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Dekalog and Other Television Works

#1 Post by Ribs » Tue Jul 12, 2016 9:20 am

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When Krzysztof Kieślowski began production on a ten-part Polish television series whose budget was so low that he could only afford two takes maximum, nobody foresaw that the end result would be acclaimed as one of the greatest cinema achievements of the late twentieth century.

But that’s what Dekalog is: as much an intricate work of moral philosophy as it is a collection of psychologically riveting narratives. Each standalone story revolves around the consequences arising from a breach of one of the Ten Commandments, but this is no finger-wagging religious tract: Kieślowski was one of film history’s keenest observers of human nature, and his troubled, vainglorious, self-deceiving, deeply flawed characters (many played by some of Poland’s finest character actors) are all too universally recognisable.

But Dekalog is merely the highlight of a box set that compiles virtually all of Kieślowski’s television work, starting with his first professional short fiction film and continuing with four feature-length pieces that are in every way as probing and incisive as his better-known cinema films.

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS

4K restoration of all ten episodes, presented in their original broadcast aspect ratios
Original Polish mono soundtrack (uncompressed PCM on the Blu-rays), with optional English subtitles
Pedestrian Subway (1973, 29 mins), Kieślowski’s professional fiction debut, about a man trying to repair a failed marriage
First Love (1974, 52 mins), a docudrama about a teenage couple coping with an unwanted pregnancy
Personnel (1975, 67 mins), Kieślowski’s first feature-length fiction film, a partly autobiographical piece about a Warsaw theatre company
The Calm (1976, 82 mins), one of Kieślowski’s most powerful early films, about a man rebuilding his life in mid-70s Poland after a short prison sentence
Short Working Day (1981, 73 mins), Kieślowski’s study of a political strike, controversially told from the viewpoint of a Communist functionary trying to keep order
Krzysztof Kieślowski: Still Alive (2007), an affectionate 82-minute portrait of the director by his former student Maria Zmarz-Koczanowicz, including interviews with dozens of friends and colleagues
Collector’s booklet featuring a lengthy essay on Dekalog and Kieślowski by Father Marek Lis, plus Kieślowski’s own intensely self-critical discussion of all the films in this set and Stanley Kubrick’s famous eulogy to Kieślowski and co-writer Krzysztof Piesiewicz
More extras in development!

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Ribs
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Re: Dekalog and Other TV Works

#2 Post by Ribs » Tue Jul 12, 2016 9:29 am

Is there a rights issue with the Short Films About Killing/Love in the UK? Seems odd to not include them unless they're really committed to the "TV set" idea.

This is infuriatingly complementary to the Criterion set.

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Re: Dekalog and Other TV Works

#3 Post by MichaelB » Tue Jul 12, 2016 9:31 am

Owned by Curzon Artificial Eye. Enquiries were made but rebuffed, which leads me to suspect that they're planning to release the recent Polish restorations themselves.

Hence the decision to go down the small-screen route and include titles that have been next to impossible to see in English-friendly form. (My Polish DVDs of Personnel and The Calm are unsubtitled.)

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Re: Dekalog and Other TV Works

#4 Post by What A Disgrace » Tue Jul 12, 2016 9:46 am

If all else fails, the Criterion will still be a worthy purchase for just the Short Film About... films. But I don't think there's any denying that the Arrow package is the more interesting one.

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domino harvey
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Re: Dekalog and Other TV Works

#5 Post by domino harvey » Tue Jul 12, 2016 9:49 am

This looks like an infinitely more interesting release than Criterion's. Of course it's .01 pound below the free shipping threshold ](*,)

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Re: Dekalog and Other TV Works

#6 Post by TMDaines » Tue Jul 12, 2016 9:53 am

Oh bravo, Arrow! You'll be getting my money and AE can have some too, if they release the extended films.

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Ribs
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Re: Dekalog and Other TV Works

#7 Post by Ribs » Tue Jul 12, 2016 9:54 am

I mean, I know there's still more features to be announced, but surely this is thus far lacking in material that is actually about the films? Admittedly that's all the Criterion has but I don't know if just because this is carrying hard-to-find early material from the director it's inherently better, though it is certainly very interesting.

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Re: Dekalog and Other TV Works

#8 Post by MichaelB » Tue Jul 12, 2016 9:57 am

There will definitely be more material that is actually about the films.

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Ribs
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Re: Dekalog and Other TV Works

#9 Post by Ribs » Tue Jul 12, 2016 9:59 am

Yeah, I figured that argument wouldn't hold up to much scrutiny.

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Finch
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Re: Dekalog and Other TV Works

#10 Post by Finch » Tue Jul 12, 2016 10:37 am

Excellent news though the enforced exclusion of A Short Film About Love and A Short Film About Killing means I'll prioritise the Criterion BD set and use my accrued bonus points from the Arrow site on this set in a sale next year.

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Re: Dekalog and Other TV Works

#11 Post by MichaelB » Tue Jul 12, 2016 10:40 am

Just to expand on my earlier answer now I'm back in front of a proper keyboard, there is in fact lots of background info in the booklet, whose word count is currently 22,000 and rising. There's also plenty in the wonderful 82-minute Still Alive doc, whose director Maria Zmarz-Koczanowicz (a former Kieślowski pupil at Łódź) has interviewed a huge number of friends and colleagues ranging over his entire career.

But we will certainly be including original Arrow-produced extras as well.

I'm very pleased this is going down so well - we knew that Criterion had got hold of the Short Films about Killing and Love and that we couldn't compete with that, but we thought there was a very strong case for turning the spotlight onto Kieślowski's television output, if only because (bar Dekalog) it's been so neglected in comparison with his cinema features and documentaries. And there's no especially good reason for it - in the mid-Seventies, he shot three features more or less back to back, Personnel, The Scar and The Calm, and I don't think it's remotely a minority opinion to assert that The Scar is the weakest of the three and The Calm is by some distance the strongest. (Kieślowski would firmly agree with this assessment himself.) And yet The Scar is deemed more "important" because it was made for the cinema.

It's not quite a complete TV survey, but the three exceptions, Checking the King (Szach królowi, 1972), Two for the Seesaw ([ Pozwolenie na odstrzał, 1976) and The Card Index (Kartoteka, 1979), don't count as proper films d'auteur - they're all theatrical pieces restaged in the TV studio for the Polish Television Theatre series, and Kieślowski doesn't seem to have regarded them as any more than rent-paying chores, a bit like his early industrial documentary The Principles of Safety and Hygiene in a Copper Mine (1972).

Incidentally, I'm very happy to confirm that Pedestrian Subway and Short Working Day will be in 1080p HD. And after much investigation and debate, we're opting for 1080i/50 presentations, which will effectively be a carrier for a progressive 25fps image. Everything in this set originated in 25fps - including Dekalog (and we checked episodes five and six against the soundtrack CD in case they were exceptions) - so that seemed like the most sensible presentation option. Granted, this will exclude some non-European purchasers, but they have the Criterion as an alternative option - I'm assuming that will be 24fps throughout for unavoidable technical reasons.

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Re: Dekalog and Other TV Works

#12 Post by swo17 » Tue Jul 12, 2016 10:42 am

Is there any chance of the "other TV works" getting a standalone release at some point?

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Re: Dekalog and Other TV Works

#13 Post by MichaelB » Tue Jul 12, 2016 10:45 am

swo17 wrote:Is there any chance of the "other TV works" getting a standalone release at some point?
No plans. I'd be very surprised.

Put it like this: I haven't been asked to make sure that they're all on separate discs from Dekalog, which is usually the giveaway. (For instance, I don't know if there are plans to release the Female Prisoner Scorpion quartet separately, but they've authored each disc to ensure that this would be very straightforward indeed.)

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Re: Dekalog and Other TV Works

#14 Post by rwaits » Tue Jul 12, 2016 10:55 am

I was about to pull the trigger on the Criterion today, but now I'm conflicted. If the "A Film About" films were included this would be a no brainer.

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Re: Dekalog and Other TV Works

#15 Post by MichaelB » Tue Jul 12, 2016 11:01 am

They're not. But I wouldn't be at all surprised if Artificial Eye was considering releasing them: existing 2K restorations can be pulled off the shelf so it wouldn't be a very expensive proposition for them at all.

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Re: Dekalog and Other TV Works

#16 Post by Ribs » Tue Jul 12, 2016 11:02 am

When/why does a booklet become a perfect-bound book? I've been wondering about this with regards to the Human Condition set as well, which at least partially is supposed to be in the same vein as the Yoshida set in design but apparently features a booklet rather than a book.

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Re: Dekalog and Other TV Works

#17 Post by rwaits » Tue Jul 12, 2016 11:32 am

MichaelB wrote:They're not. But I wouldn't be at all surprised if Artificial Eye was considering releasing them: existing 2K restorations can be pulled off the shelf so it wouldn't be a very expensive proposition for them at all.
Is Criterion using the same scans that AE would use for a potential release?

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Re: Dekalog and Other Television Works

#18 Post by MichaelB » Tue Jul 12, 2016 11:40 am

I imagine they're using the Polish 2K restorations - no point reinventing the wheel.

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Re: Dekalog and Other Television Works

#19 Post by criterion10 » Tue Jul 12, 2016 11:51 am

This seems like a situation where there is enough of a difference between the Arrow and Criterion releases that both are essential for fans of the director and films. Even looking past the Criterion inclusion of the two Short Films..., there is a plethora of interviews (both new and archival) with the cast, crew, and even Kieślowski himself, plus a new analysis on the films themselves.

It'll be interesting to see what extras the Arrow adds that are specific to the films themselves. (I wonder if we'll see the other TV work pop-up on a Criterion release down the line.)

And before I forget, will Arrow be slowing down the films to 24 frames, like Criterion, or presenting them in 1080/50i, like the Clarke set? I'm sure that'll be a deal-breaker for some.

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Re: Dekalog and Other Television Works

#20 Post by Drucker » Tue Jul 12, 2016 12:04 pm

criterion10 wrote:And before I forget, will Arrow be slowing down the films to 24 frames, like Criterion, or presenting them in 1080/50i, like the Clarke set? I'm sure that'll be a deal-breaker for some.
David Mackenzie says on Facebook he is going to endeavor to present at the original broadcast speed, but TBD at the moment.

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Re: Dekalog and Other Television Works

#21 Post by MichaelB » Tue Jul 12, 2016 12:06 pm

criterion10 wrote:And before I forget, will Arrow be slowing down the films to 24 frames, like Criterion, or presenting them in 1080/50i, like the Clarke set? I'm sure that'll be a deal-breaker for some.
I've already answered this, but to repeat: everything will be in 1080i/50, although as with the BFI's Clarke/Russell/Watkins releases this will simply be a carrier for a fully progressive 25fps image.

We did a lot of research into the original framerate, and there's no doubt at all that 25fps is correct across the board. You'd expect that for productions intended for PAL television broadcast, of course, but it's also true of Dekalog Five and Six, over which there were legitimate question marks - a check of the 25fps pitch against the soundtrack CD established a perfect match.
Drucker wrote:David Mackenzie says on Facebook he is going to endeavor to present at the original broadcast speed, but TBD at the moment.
"TBD" in this context refers to whatever the original broadcast speeds were, not that it hasn't already been firmly decided that Arrow will match them.

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Re: Dekalog and Other Television Works

#22 Post by criterion10 » Tue Jul 12, 2016 12:28 pm

MichaelB wrote:I've already answered this, but to repeat: everything will be in 1080i/50, although as with the BFI's Clarke/Russell/Watkins releases this will simply be a carrier for a fully progressive 25fps image.
My bad, didn't read that part of your initial post. Anyway, that is undoubtedly an improvement over the Criterion (though a matter entirely out of their hand).

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Re: Dekalog and Other TV Works

#23 Post by dwk » Tue Jul 12, 2016 1:41 pm

rwaits wrote:
Is Criterion using the same scans that AE would use for a potential release?
Criterion's site currently says
New, restored 4K digital transfers of all twelve films, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks on the Blu-rays
So it looks like Criterion is not using the same scans for those two.

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Re: Dekalog and Other Television Works

#24 Post by knives » Tue Jul 12, 2016 1:51 pm

I suspect I already know the answer (and of course the framerate thing could make this moot), but any word on region coding? To be honest these television films are much more interesting sounding to me then the About films so I really would prefer to be able to get this set.

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Re: Dekalog and Other Television Works

#25 Post by McCrutchy » Tue Jul 12, 2016 2:33 pm

I'm overjoyed that Arrow have these, and in particular, that they'll be taking proper advantage of the shared 25 fps framerate to present everything natively. Obviously, this set will be the definitive version to own and treasure for years, if not decades, and I am so, so happy that Michael and David and everyone at Arrow are the ambassadors for Dekalog in the UK, as well as a number of Kieślowski's other television works which I did not know of, but which will nonetheless be taken care of so well.

This, along with the BFIs Alan Clarke set, and a raft of fine releases from Eureka/MoC, easily makes 2016 the greatest year for independent UK labels on Blu-ray yet, in my humble opinion. There are just so many releases from you three that are the definitive editions in the Anglosphere, at least, if not the entire world.

There's simply nothing better that can be said: Bravo.

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