250 - Dekalog: Six, 1990, Poland. Dir. Krzysztof Kieslowski.

Thursday, September 7, 2017

250 - Dekalog: Six, 1990, Poland.  Dir. Krzysztof Kieslowski.

Exodus 20:17a - "Thou shalt not covet. . . . "

Deuteronomy 5:21 - Neither shalt thou desire thy neighbor's wife. . . .

Tomek has three jobs.

He works at the post office.  He delivers milk.  He spies on the woman who lives in the apartment across the way.

Tomek is 19.  He is an orphan.  He lives with an older woman.  He has never had a girlfriend.

So Magda becomes his love.  The object of his affection.  He longs for her.

Tomek leaves phony money orders in Magda's mailbox to induce her to come to the counter.  When she comes, he says there is no money.  Wait for another notice and come again.  He places another notice.  She comes again.

Tomek hides Magda's empty milk bottle so that he can knock on her door and ask her for one.  (The milk man is to leave a full one and take an empty one.)

He watches her through a telescope.

Madga entertains gentleman callers.

Tomek is jealous.

He calls to report a gas leak in her apartment.  The gas men come to check on it.  He watches as they spoil her date.  He smiles.

He is busted when she brings a notice to the counter and asks to see his supervisor.  A man and a woman come.  They check the money order.  They announce it is a counterfeit.  They accuse her of creating a forgery to try to steal money.

Frankly, that is the premise of a movie.  Follow up on that idea.  But no.  There are no legal ramifications for her submitting a fake money order.  Instead, she walks out angrily.  Confused.

Tomek chases her.  He confesses to her.  Now she is really angry.

But then things take another turn.

Magda takes him on.  She teaches him.  She teaches him what she knows, anyway.  What she knows comes from her own experience.  Which presumably includes past hurts.  She has found a way to survive and be content and not expect very much.  She has built protective walls around her heart.

Tomek has no walls.

He gives everything.  He discovers he knows nothing.  In their encounter he is premature.  His experience with her hurts him.  He tries to end it.

We have seen this before.  Ejaculatio praecox leading to attempted auto-immolation.  In movie 240 on August 28.  Jiri Menzel's Czechoslovakian New Wave film.

Now imagine the director's pitch to the producers.  "It's Rear Window meets Closely Watched Trains." Sounds great!  Greenlight it.

Magda teaches Tomek what she knows.  She is experienced.

But in the end Tomek teaches Magda.  He is not experienced.

And in his innocence, he knows.

Songs of innocence.  Songs of experience.

William Blake would approve.