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A Short Film About Love on DVD (1988)

A Short Film About Love cover art
Average rating: 77%
1111271220612
3.5
from 578 members
 
Starring: Grazyna Szapolowska, Olaf Lubaszenko
Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski
Studio: ARTIFICIAL EYE
Run time: 83 mins
Certificate: 15
User collections: My World Cinema Favourites
Genres: Drama
Languages: Polish
Subtitles: English
Released: 29/09/2003

Brief synopsis of A Short Film About Love

A SHORT FILM ABOUT LOVE was expanded from an episode in director Krzysztof Kieslowski's DEKALOG, his cycle of shorts based on The Ten Commandments. A young voyeur falls in love with the older woman he's been spying upon, and, having seen her with a string of lovers, is finally confronted with a sexual invitation from the woman. The theme of the commandment against adultery is explored alongside the concepts of love and voyeurism.

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Critics Reviews

Rating of 3 stars out of 5 Radio Times

From its bitingly ironic title to its downbeat conclusion, this is one of the most damning pictures of modern city life ever made. Expanding on Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery, the seventh part of the Ten Commandments or Dekalog series he made for TV, director Krzysztof Kieslowski revisits the themes of obsession and voyeurism touched on by Alfred Hitchcock in Rear Window and Michael Powell in Peeping Tom. But his main preoccupation here is with the impossibility of love and the breakdown of community. It's impressive and provocative film-making, but ultimately the dispassion and the pessimism may render you little more than a detached observer.

Time Out

Like A Short Film About Killing, this is a movie spin-off from Kieslowski's ten-part TV series The Decalogue, each... Read more on www.timeout.com

Rating of 2 stars out of 4 Halliwell's Film Guide

Grim but gripping film on the impossibility of love.

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Members Reviews

Reviews Voted Most Helpful

Rated - 5 starsA short film about love

steve7 from Wilts , 17/03/2004

I was expecting this film to be rather miserable (set in Poland etc). I now think it is one of the finest, most sophisticated films I've ever seen! The photography is superb, as is the acting. The storytelling is excellent, and contains many strange twists. Highly recommended.

  12 out of 15 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 5 starsBrilliant film about love

pipo from Hants , 18/04/2004

This movie is a brilliant saga about the love of a young man for an older woman. The shy boy resorts to peeping and some assorted harassment techniques that would get him in trouble in modern Britain (and possibly Poland).

It is utterly believable and extremely well acted. A definite must-see!

  8 out of 9 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 5 starsQuite exceptional

Ed Funnell from Bromley, England , 04/09/2005

If you try one european arthouse film, then make it this one. A simple, uninvolved tale of the obsessive love of a 19 year old postal worker for a prostitute in the block of flats opposite who he spies on, forms a relationship with, and then.. Rarely are films as successful as this in portraying the complexities of love in a visually simplistic, ordinary way. The performances are superb throughout, multi-layered, clever and full of little tragedy.. Nothing finer has come out of Poland; this is a splendid, directorial masterclass; and acting at its finest (roll over Hollywood).

  7 out of 7 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 4 starsA genius at work

SK from Edinburgh, Scotland , 29/07/2004

Lifted out of Kieslowski's Dekalog, A Short Film About Love tells the story of a young man obsessed with an older woman neighbour that he spies on from his bedroom window. His life revolves around her, and he manages to insinuate his way into her life too. A pretty slim story, but Kieslowski is a master at exploring these characters' lives. Some of the themes in this were reworked in Three Colours Red, so if you enjoyed that then this might also appeal to you. Beautifully shot and acted, and it has a typically wonderful score from Zbigniew Preisner.

  6 out of 6 people found this review helpful
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Most Recent Reviews

Rated - 5 starsBrilliant film about love

pipo from Hants , 18/04/2004

This movie is a brilliant saga about the love of a young man for an older woman. The shy boy resorts to peeping and some assorted harassment techniques that would get him in trouble in modern Britain (and possibly Poland).

It is utterly believable and extremely well acted. A definite must-see!

  8 out of 9 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 5 starsBrilliant

A customer from england , 25/09/2004

Breathtaking film about the devastating and redeeming effects of love in this voyeurism fueled masterpiece from the God of Polish cinema.

  2 out of 2 people found this review helpful
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