Kieslowski on The Decalogue:
"I believe the life of every person is worthy of scrutiny, containing its own secrets and dramas. People don't talk about them because they are embarrassed, because they do not like to scratch old wounds, or are afraid of being judged unfashionably sentimental. Therefore we wanted to start each film in such a way that would suggest that the lead character had been chosen by the camera almost by accident, as if one of many....We decided to place the action of Decalogue in a large housing estate, with thousands of similar windows framed within the establishing shot. Behind each of these windows, we said to ourselves, is a living human being, whose mind, whose heart, and even better, whose stomach is worthy of investigation."
Makes me want to watch all ten films again.
Blurry
My days are starting to blur into one another. I miss the clarity and sharp thrill that the acceptance e-mail brought a month ago. Now, I'm still waiting for the official letter in the mail, I haven't applied for a visa yet, I've sort of and kind of made living arrangements, but I haven't updated generous relatives yet. Toronto is on the other side of summer; it still seems like a faraway dream. Right now I'm waist-deep in real estate writing and meta descriptions and YM chats (and occasional singing breaks with Peachy), and I need something to jolt me into action again.* * * * *
Some highlights of the past 2 weeks:
1. Watched and fell in love with Cameron Crowe's Elizabethtown. Though at times it reminded me of Garden State (parent's funeral as a plot trigger) and Almost Famous (Kirsten Dunst's perky blonde Claire is a more grounded and idealized Penny Lane), it had a peculiar charm all its own, with precious chuckle-worthy moments. Like when Orlando Bloom's Drew duct-tapes a knife to an exercise machine in one of the most ingenious suicide attempts I've seen onscreen. Or when two guys hug in a hotel corridor ("death and life staying next door to each other, man!") and the beer bottles in their robes clink against each other. Or when the widowed Susan Sarandon does a comedy and tap-dancing bit at her husband's memorial service.I love the road trip (complete with mix CDs!) that Claire plans for Drew, I love how Drew calls himself "a secret conoisseur of last looks," and I love how the love angle is threaded into a story that's essentially about homecoming, about acceptance despite the trappings of success and failure.You want to be really great? Then have the courage to fail
big and stick around. Make them wonder why you're still smiling.
I'm still a sucker for well-written feel-good movies that "extract joy from life" without being saccharine. My time for collecting last looks is still months away.
2. I pulled someone's hair, for the first time since...grade 2? This was after 4 or 5 beers, and after a Holy Kettle popcorn fight at Congo Grille El Pueblo, where a co-worker kept hitting me in the eye until it watered, and he kept deflecting my stray popcorn missiles. In an unlikely fit of rage, I stood up, cornered him, and pulled his hair. God knows what the waiters and other customers must have thought. And just when I thought I'd outgrown juvenile behavior...tsk tsk, we surprise ourselves every day.3. Dinners with friends I haven't seen in over a month --- a corporate-looking Nikko, a happy and fresh-from-Boracay Marie, and a dazed-from-one-month-in-Thailand-Spain-and-France Elmo. I enjoy listening to other people's adventures, I love the vicarious kilig and awe. As well as that quiet little feeling that accompanies meeting friends after a long time, the feeling that says both "This person is a bit of a stranger to me" and "but I still like and feel comfortable with him/her."
"I believe the life of every person is worthy of scrutiny, containing its own secrets and dramas. People don't talk about them because they are embarrassed, because they do not like to scratch old wounds, or are afraid of being judged unfashionably sentimental. Therefore we wanted to start each film in such a way that would suggest that the lead character had been chosen by the camera almost by accident, as if one of many....We decided to place the action of Decalogue in a large housing estate, with thousands of similar windows framed within the establishing shot. Behind each of these windows, we said to ourselves, is a living human being, whose mind, whose heart, and even better, whose stomach is worthy of investigation." 
