A Short Film About Killing on DVD (1988)

Polish Brutalism

gothicHM from Herts , 09/08/2004

This philosophical enquiry into the impact of killing on the human psyche lacks the humour and subtlety of its companion piece 'A Short Film About Love'. Here we are presented with the doubts and ambitions of an over sensitive barrister living in a brutalised world where everyone and everything is merely a potential victim.

The opening scene sets the tone as we follow the path of carcasses from the previous night's killings in just one rundown housing estate. As the film progresses we see the experiences of these victims - insects, vermin, pets are a microcosm of the mindless brutality which (according to this director) runs through Polish society. Killing whether a mindless act of vandalism (a rock thrown from a bridge onto speeding traffic), an arbitary act of violence (the murder of a taxi driver) or the planned ritual of a state execution, is shown as a natural outcome of social alienation. With each death human sympathy, imagination and passion is eroded until nothing is left but to survive.

A bleak view in keeping with the bleak landscapes which pervade this film.

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Killing me softly...no way!

Iain Holland from Brighton, UK , 11/12/2004

One advantage of viewing foreign language films is that you can turn off the subtitles and use the soundtrack to explore the film from a new perspective.

I'm not sure, as a previous reviewer seems to imply, that this film is in any serious way worth viewing as a sociological comment.

The main murder (and I give nothing away here) is surely the point. This act is so horrendous, so difficult to achieve, so extended, frighteningly real (particularly the sounds) and hopeless that when juxtaposed against the general images of murder, death and mayhem in the movies today (and so many movies have so many such scenes)it draws a fascinating parallel.

This film is a parable concerning the actual act of killing another human being. This act is the diet of much modern drama, though we scarcely notice this as more than a plot device.

This film tells us something we didn't know - killing is an awful thing to perform as an act.

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Not for me

Bill Hardwick from Cheshire , 28/06/2005

I know this film was critically acclaimed on release, but sadly it didn't push any of my buttons. Too clinically detatched - I got no sense of involvement with the characters or action. As for the message - I didn't really need 90 minutes of semi-reportage footage to convince me that killing someone is really not a very nice thing to do. Perhaps I just wasn't in the right mood for this film on the night.

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Shocking!

walriley from merseyside , 12/11/2004

The precis that accompanies this film says it all; there are sections of this movie that have you squirming in your seat. The killing of the taxi driver is truly horrendous, in that it is protracted and torturous to the victim and also the audience and in my experience, only the end sequence in 'Audition' surpasses it.

This is somewhat mirrored by the cold calculated manner of the state execution of the perpetrator, and this is the very persuasive point of the film. Regardless of whether by individual or state, illegal or legal, murder is murder, and is heinously immoral. I found it to be a very disturbing, thought provoking and deeply impressive film.

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No fate but that which we create ourselves?

Easterbunny from North Somerset , 30/12/2004

An excellent film! There is a sense of foreboding in this film. The protagonist seems mentally unstable, unpredictable, and Kyslowski’s giving nothing away.

Scant dialogue creates intrigue, we are drawn into the bleak landscape. Two men, worlds apart, their lives juxtaposed. A killing results in their paths crossing, which otherwise would have been very unlikely.

The killing is brutal. The killer is cold and detached, almost robotic. We see how difficult it would be to actually kill a man. We experience every blow, how the victim struggles for survival. We hear his pleas for his family, and his last breath.

The film shows two completely different lives, which is interesting in itself. The circumstances under which they cross. How fate can change your life, and to what extent we create our own fate. Ultimately, the state decides.

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Polish Brutalism

gothicHM from Herts , 09/08/2004

This philosophical enquiry into the impact of killing on the human psyche lacks the humour and subtlety of its companion piece 'A Short Film About Love'. Here we are presented with the doubts and ambitions of an over sensitive barrister living in a brutalised world where everyone and everything is merely a potential victim.

The opening scene sets the tone as we follow the path of carcasses from the previous night's killings in just one rundown housing estate. As the film progresses we see the experiences of these victims - insects, vermin, pets are a microcosm of the mindless brutality which (according to this director) runs through Polish society. Killing whether a mindless act of vandalism (a rock thrown from a bridge onto speeding traffic), an arbitary act of violence (the murder of a taxi driver) or the planned ritual of a state execution, is shown as a natural outcome of social alienation. With each death human sympathy, imagination and passion is eroded until nothing is left but to survive.

A bleak view in keeping with the bleak landscapes which pervade this film.

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