you must not be a false witness.
DECALOGUE EIGHT
THOU SHALT NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS AGAINST THY NEIGHBOR is
a bit abrupt at the beginning. An adult leads a child and passes in front of the camera. Later, the camera always stares at their tightly held hands. , A bit peculiar, but there will be an explanation later.
The eighth part of the Ten Commandments has a bit of a summary.
The protagonist of this episode is two women, one in her 60s, Polish nationality, who seems to be a famous scholar, and the other just 50, American nationality. She has translated the work of the former and came to Warsaw to listen to the former's lectures. The old scholar was talking about moral purgatory. She asked the students to give examples. At this time, a girl asked to speak, and the example she told was the story of the doctor and the woman in the second ten commandments. The old scholar smiled happily. She also lived in the apartment and knew about this. She just said "No matter when, the child's life is the most important", and then she wanted to enter the link of analysis. But at this time, an American woman wanted to speak. She also gave an example: Warsaw in 1943, February, it was very cold. A Jewish girl is in a dangerous situation and there is a place where she is willing to receive her, but the premise is that a certificate of the girl's baptism must be presented. So the girl’s guardian helped her find a young Catholic family to serve as her "godfather and godmother." But just before the baptism, the couple did not agree. Their reason was that God did not allow people to give false testimony, and the Jewish girl had to leave before the curfew.
After the camera flashed across the face of the familiar God’s messenger among the students in the audience, it finally drifted to the face of the scholar. She tried to restrain her and was uncontrollable anxiety. The confirmation that she received later was similar to that of most people at this time. As I thought of it, the American woman was the Jewish child, and the old scholar was the woman in the couple. In the middle of the American woman's story, suddenly a drunk student broke into the classroom, shocked everyone, and then was kicked out. This is a very interesting design, which expresses the mental state of the two in a form of externalization. The American woman is like that drunk intruder. The old scholar is surprised and overwhelmed. According to the later point of view, It is also the old scholar’s phrase "Whenever the child’s life is most important", it became an intruder in the hearts of American women. It is entirely possible that American women said at that time), the two consciously and unconsciously broke into each other, and the situation was as frozen as the classroom later.
The story is about to stop here. There are several places in this play that are different from the previous Ten Commandments style. First of all, what is described in the front of the Ten Commandments is basically about the things around you and what is happening, but what is described here is what has happened, and even the results have already been there. More importantly, at this time, there is a little bit of me. What I don’t like is that other stories are relatively ordinary in life and can happen to everyone, but this story, you don’t think too many specific factors make it too special, and lose the Keishi style. Has the charm of "seeing deep in the ordinary"? Secondly, because of the difference in the first point, the way of telling is different. Most other stories are expressed through the language of the film, that is, the lens of the picture and the sound, which is more cinematic, and this story, as well as what will be mentioned later Some of the relevant plots are mostly revealed in lines through a more dramatic and staged means. This is also the episode with the most lines in the eight episodes of the Ten Commandments I have watched. This difference is different from the third point. The difference is related, but I won't talk about it first, let's see the story behind.
The two met after class. From the conversation, I could feel the grievances of American women that were almost non-existent. It was also known that scholars saved many Jews after that incident, and it seemed that they had violated the phrase "don’t be a false witness". Commandments. This has formed a little bit of a mystery. In the previous class discussion, many uninformed students discussed the motives of the couple who did not save their lives in the story. Some of them talked about "fear". Is it fear? The director delays the answer a bit here. Before telling the answer, he arranges for the two to revisit the old place and go to the apartment that year. The American woman first went in alone, but she stopped at the door, and then quietly hid in the shadow of the door. The old scholar waited for a long time to find that she hadn't come out, and was very anxious, so he went in to look for her and asked each room one by one, only to find that the American woman was lying peacefully in the car. The plot is very interesting. It looks like a little prank played by an American woman. She tried to use this method to make the old scholar feel a little bit of guilt and regret at the beginning, but she herself stood at the door. Willing to go in. For example, she herself later answered the scholar "Why didn't you come back and have a look": These are memories of shame, why should I look back on my shame. This is the key!
Returning to the scholar's house, the old scholar told her the real answer that she did not accept at the time: her husband was an officer of the resistance organization, and the person who arranged the girl to come was a Gestapo informant. Once the girl came, their entire resistance organization would be destroyed. It was dangerous, but when the girl left, they found an intelligence error. The so-called "informant" was almost assassinated by the resistance organization. The old scholar said very lightly, but he did not forget to say with confession: But when you came, I was really scared. Both of them laughed. The American woman offered to see the person who almost saved her back then. The old scholar agreed, but said that he did not want to go in: I only saw him once after the war, and I could only say "I'm sorry". Although I know it is not enough, but it can only be so. OK, look at the last two sentences of the above paragraph, do you understand? This feeling is like the picture frame that has appeared many times in the old scholar’s house. Although it has been corrected countless times, it will fall down every time. This is the corner that people cannot bear and try to avoid, no matter what you are looking for. reason.
The next day, when the American woman found the prospective benefactor who was a tailor, he was unwilling to mention anything related to the war. He just asked this woman: Do you want me to make a coat for you?
Look, this is the third time the real subject has been mentioned. At this time, I should say the third difference, that is, around the central story of "fake testimony", Keith built another space, and this story about the commandments has actually been secretly removed from the central topic. The status of "is around that text space. In the real space based on this, people's confrontation of inaccessible memories is the subject that Keith really wants to talk about. This is the first time the theme of the film has deviated from the space of the Ten Commandments, but it does not appear abrupt, and it can even be seen as a breakthrough by Keith for himself.
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