A Short Film About Love [DVD] [1988]

Excellent film describing the polemic life of Poland behind the Iron Curtain via an unusual relationship.These people must have existed at some point in some grey Polish town in the '80's.Intriguing!

A rather dated film by Kieslowski but a very powerful film with serious mood and emotional suspense. The cinematography is great and the locations add to the mood.

Haven't seen it yet, but no mention of Portuguese on the DVD, which the description here says it has. I might send it back as I speak Portuguese not Polish.

Released in 1988 just before the fall of communism in Poland this 83 min film by Polish master Krzysztof Kieslowski follows the consequences of a young man's obsession (love?) with his older female neighbour. Starting with 'peeping tom' antics the obsession grows and takes an unexpected turn.The film has only three characters of note and is set against a bleak landscape of an Eastern bloc housing estate. The success of the film is how it chronicles the fascination of the young man in to more and more extreme behaviour.On DVD the movie looked a little grainy and fuzzy reflecting its age and undoubtedly low budget production. However the cinematography and pacing is spot on and there even a few funny moments.

A Short Film About Love is unquestionably a modern masterpiece - lasting only 83 minutes, it says so much about desire, innocence and experience, and looking. And above all it is very moving. The Peeping Tom theme has given rise to several brilliant films, including Rear Window, which this film particularly resembles, with the romantic obsession of Vertigo, but Kieslowski's camera is much softer, and tenderness is the key thing. There's also the interesting French film Pretend I'm Not Here, which must have been influenced by Kieslowski, and Peeping Tom itself, which also has tenderness, but the psychopathic aspect puts it in a different realm, really. Here 19-year-old Tomek is shown with a great deal of warmth, and his vulnerability is almost palpable, so that his actions don't come as that much of a surprise. One of the marvellous things about the cinema version, as opposed to the 60-minute one initially made for TV, is the ending, apparently pushed for by the lead actress Grazyna Szapolowska, which is more romantic than the original, and probably conforms more to audience wishes, without weakening it artistically. Both versions are very good, and the rapport between the two actors is almost miraculous - not just their actual rapport, but how they interlock psychologically, even rarely coming together. Olaf Lubaszenko is outstanding in the lead, his face conveying a range of emotions very directly.Visually it is superb, broadening the range of Rear Window to convey a sense of Poland that is quite strong and makes you feel you are getting a real insight into what it felt like to live there in the late 80s. At the same time, the sense of the blocks of flats and the interior of both is very present and poetic, even if in real life it might seem more dreary. Tomek is a winning presence without any hint of film-star slickness, indeed you wonder whether a man dressed in white whom he encounters twice in the street might not potentially feel for him as he does for his neighbour (Magda); this hint is typical of Kieslowski's manner and opens out the film's scope tantalisingly. We live in a certain intimacy with him, seeing him often in his room in just a singlet which actually looks more like a camisole top with very thin straps. This almost comic element is accentuated by his landlady at one point peering at him through the same telescope he has been using to spy with, when he is in the other flat with Magda. He also goes in to her at night in a semi-confiding manner in this same singlet and a pair of compression shorts, which seems a little unlikely, but conforms to the generous, tender soul of the film. Not to be outdone, Magda also dons some revealing black satin outfits when receiving her lovers, leading one to conclude that these flats must have been well-heated, whatever other hardships there were. But to get back to the landlady, actually his friend's mother, she is almost like a guardian angel to him and adds a benevolence seen in other aunt-like figures in Kieslowski. And the climactic moment of the film, already given at the outset, is completely heartrending. There's nothing more moving, really, in cinema, Kieslowski takes us to this point with such skill and insight.

DVD unreadable! Returned!

This film makes me instantly nostalgic for 1980's Poland. I've never been to that country they call the "European Tiger" but such is the power of Kieslowski's film making that he captures something about his native country which reaches through the camera into our very heart and soul. When I watch his Polish based films, I feel like I'm a native, not just some tourist cineaste on vaccation for the duration of the film's running time.Another thing that strikes me about this film after repeated viewings is the humanity of Kieslowski. He allows you to identify with Tomek in a way that is totally authentic and honest. There's no hiding the slightly creepy "Peeping Tom" aspect of his nature, no doubt born out of loneliness, but so too we recognise his basic goodness. And what is also effective is that we're spying on Tomek ourselves so we've intrinsically become voyeurs ourselves. We watch Tomek's every move as he watches Magda in her apartment and we share his pain and joy as he charts her life from the window in his room.The music is a big part of how we understand the film's heartbeat. Preisner, a movie composer par excellence is at his very best with this beautifully modest film. His music here recalls the adagio from Mozart's Piano Concerto 23. The guitar strings that express the main theme are almost as delicate as the sound of Tomek's heart breaking when Magda humiliates him in her apartment."A Short Film About Love" would make a great double bill with Hitchcock's "Rear Window". Both films are lovingly made by two directors at the very pinnacle of their powers and whether we be in Hitchcock's studio rendering of Greenwich Village or Kieslowski's authentic Warsaw, both absorb us with their use of story and location. Both films are love letters to the medium of cinema and the fact that so much action takes place in stationary settings only heightens the brilliant ingenuity of both directors.