A Short Film About Love

Krzystzof Kieslowski, Poland, 1988, 87 minutes

Kieslowski originally made a ten-part TV series called The Dekalog, each part being an examination of one of the Ten Commandments. He remade two of these as films, A Short Film About Killing (1987) and A Short Film About Love (1988), extending the original material to more closely examine each subject.

A Short Film About Love's proscribed theme is realised through the feelings of a nineteen year-old postal clerk who is fascinated by the woman who lives in the flat opposite. He spends his spare time watching her through his telescope. When she learns of and is amused by the attentions of her admirer (whose obsession is more absolute than she realises) her actions become increasingly dangerous.

The realism of A Short Film About Love is to be admired, and Kieslowski has created a film which is as warmly human and acutely well-observed as its sister film, A Short Film About Killing, harsh and brutal. Although the film is not without precedents, such as Hitchcock's Rear Window, this does not make it any the less worthy of seeing.

Review by Iain Lang
Taken from EUFS Programme 1994-95