Line #56 Film/TheDecalogue


1	->''"I am always reluctant to single out some particular feature of the work of a major filmmaker because it tends inevitably to simplify and reduce the work. But in this book of screenplays by Creator/KrzysztofKieslowski and his co-author, Krzysztof Piesiewicz, it should not be out of place to observe that they have the very rare ability to dramatize their ideas rather than just talking about them. By making their points through the dramatic action of the story they gain the added power of allowing the audience to discover what's really going on rather than being told. They do this with such dazzling skill, you never see the ideas coming and don't realize until much later how profoundly they have reached your heart."''
2	-->--'''Creator/StanleyKubrick'''
3
4	''The Decalogue'' (Polish: Dekalog) is a series of ten MadeForTV movies by acclaimed director Creator/KrzysztofKieslowski. Each movie represents one of the Ten Commandments of Literature/TheBible, dealing with different characters that are related only in the setting and making small appearances in some of the other chapters. There is also a strange man that appears in almost all the movies, usually as a bystander playing different roles.
5
6	* '''Decalogue One''' ''(I am the Lord thy God... thou shalt not have other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image... Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them.)'' - An atheist university professor trains his young son in the use of reason and the scientific method using a computer he bought. One day, the computer miscalculates the thickness of the ice on a lake where the boy usually goes skating.
7	* '''Decalogue Two''' ''(Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.)'' - An elderly doctor is approached by a woman who asks about her gravely ill husband's chances of survival. She is pregnant by someone else. If her husband dies, she wants to keep the child, but if he has a chance of living, she will have an abortion.
8	* '''Decalogue Three''' ''(Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.)'' - On Christmas Eve, a taxi driver has to choose if he will help find his former mistress' missing husband or spend it with his family.
9	* '''Decalogue Four''' ''(Honor thy father and thy mother.)'' - A young woman and her widower father start to feel attracted to each other when one day, she discovers a letter from her mother that says he might not be her father after all.
10	* '''Decalogue Five''' ''(Thou shalt not kill.)'' - A malicious young man murders a rude taxi cab driver for no reason. He is caught and sentenced to death.
11	* '''Decalogue Six''' ''(Thou shalt not commit adultery.)'' - A naive young man spies on a woman and falls in love with her.
12	* '''Decalogue Seven''' ''(Thou shalt not steal.)'' - A young woman abducts her own daughter, who has been raised by her parents as her sister.
13	* '''Decalogue Eight''' ''(Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.)'' - A Holocaust survivor confronts a Catholic ethics professor who once refused to help her on the basis of not bearing false witness.
14	* '''Decalogue Nine''' ''(Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife.)'' - A man who has become impotent suggests his wife that even though they love each other, she should find a new lover. And then she does.
15	* '''Decalogue Ten''' ''(Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's goods.)'' - Two brothers inherit a valuable stamp collection from their deceased father and soon become consumed and obsessed with their windfall.
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17	It’s very similar in tone to Kieślowski’s later Film/ThreeColorsTrilogy, but this one has a more religious background associated for obvious reasons.
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19	Creator/StanleyKubrick declared this film the only one worth admiring in his lifetime.
20	----
21	!!This work has examples of the following tropes:
22	* AndThatLittleGirlWasMe: In ''Decalogue Eight'', having listened to Zofia present several ethical dilemmas to her students, Elżbieta asks if she can present her own ethical dilemma, which she says is based on a true story. In 1943, a Catholic woman promised a 6-year-old Jewish girl whose parents had been sent to the Warsaw ghetto that she could hide with another Catholic foster family, but the transfer required producing a forged baptism certificate for the girl in case the Nazis became suspicious. The Catholic woman balked at this, ostensibly because it constituted bearing false witness, and sent the girl away to an uncertain fate just before curfew. Zofia gradually realises that she is the Catholic woman in the story, and Elżbieta is the Jewish girl.
23	* AssholeVictim: Played with and exploited. Waldemar, the murder victim in ''Decalogue Five'', ogles little girls, scares a man's dogs, and runs from any client he doesn't want to take in his cab (including Dorota and Andrzej, crossing over from ''Decalogue Two''). When Jacek tries to strangle him with a length of rope and then settles for bashing his brains in with a rock, it's hard to feel sorry for him... except this is a story about the fifth commandment. Nobody "has it coming" or "deserves it". In fact, Waldemar's dragged out murder is portrayed with all the awfulness of the act, as is Jacek's eventual execution.
24	* AuthorTract: Every movie deals with moral imperatives. ''Decalogue Five'' in particular has been interpreted by many as a film arguing decidedly against the death penalty, although Kieślowski himself clarified he wanted to depict the topic impartially.
25	* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor:
26	** Anka from ''Four'' opens a letter from her deceased mother, in which she explains that Michał is not her actual father. After a moment of pondering on the subject, Michał goes to a family album, takes out a single photo with two strangers and Anka's mom and explains that either of the men is likely her real father. [[spoiler: Except the letter was fake and Anka wrote it herself when her father was on a delegation - and as the situation unfolds, she has nothing but regret about doing so, eventually admitting the whole charade.]]
27	** Ewa in ''Seven'' arranged for Majka to get a passport (which was quite a feat under the commie government) and a travel visa to Canada, in the hopes that she will not only go, but also decide to stay, not wanting to go back to [[CommieLand Poland]]. She gets her wish fulfilled in the end, but not before having a massive fight with Majka, leaving her heartbroken.
28	* BitchSlap: In ''Decalogue Four'', when Anka finishes reading the letter to him, Michał, without a single word, slaps her across the face and leaves the room.
29	* BlackComedy: ''Decalogue Ten'' tells of two brothers trying to complete their deceased father's stamp collection, which is already worth hundreds of millions of zlotys (some of the individual series of stamps would fetch enough to buy a car or an apartment), purely to increase its value even further before selling it. [[spoiler: All goes miserably as one of them is persuaded to donate a kidney to a complete stranger in exchange for the missing stamp, during the surgery for which the entire collection is stolen by a trio of con artists (including the one who claimed his daughter needed a kidney), yet they end up laughing together about the absurdity of their situation in the last scene.]]
30	* {{Bookends}}: ''Decalogue One'' opens with the filming of a documentary at Paweł's school; in the final scene, Irena watches the documentary on her TV.
31	* {{Chiaroscuro}}: Used extensively in ''Five'', particularly in scenes with Jacek.
32	* ChildProdigy: Paweł in ''Decalogue One'' is about ten years old and highly intelligent for his age, starting his day by entering physics problems improvised by his father Krzysztof into their computer and participating in a simultaneous chess exhibition against grandmaster Agnieszka Brustman (in a cameo as herself) at which, thanks to his observations of Brustman's style of play against her other opponents, he and Krzysztof score an upset win. He is also developing an interest in philosophical and theological questions, such as the existence of God or the afterlife.
33	* TheCommandments: Each of the ten films is loosely inspired by the respective commandment, though usually with nods to some of the other commandments:
34	** Dorota asks the doctor treating Andrzej in ''Decalogue Two'' to effectively play God to her unborn child, who was conceived during an adulterous affair.
35	** Rather than spending Christmas Eve with his family, Janusz spends most of ''Decalogue Three'' with Ewa, with whom he once committed mutual adultery (and who accuses him of having sabotaged the affair with an "anonymous" phone call to her husband).
36	** The object of the "theft" in ''Decalogue Seven'' is Majka's daughter Ania, who was "stolen" from Majka by her mother Ewa (whom Ania thinks is her real mother) and whom Majka tries to "steal" back, suggesting that neither Majka nor Ania are honouring their mother and father.
37	** In ''Decalogue Nine'', Mariusz doesn't just covet Roman's wife, he commits adultery with her.
38	** The partners in crime in ''Decalogue Ten'' go from coveting the Janicki brothers' stamp collection to stealing it.
39	* ContinuityNod: Characters from each story occasionally appear or are mentioned in another, usually for a second or two. Just to give a few examples:
40	** In ''Decalogue Three'', Janusz, wearing a [[SantaClaus Święty Mikołaj]] costume, briefly passes Krzysztof from ''Decalogue One'' on the steps outside his apartment building.
41	** In ''Decalogue Four'', Michał and Anka briefly share a lift with the doctor from ''Decalogue Two'', and we catch a brief glimpse of Waldemar from ''Decalogue Five'' in his taxi.
42	** Dorota and Andrzej from ''Decalogue Two'' try (unsuccessfully) to hail Waldemar's taxi in ''Decalogue Five''.
43	** Roman from ''Decalogue Nine'' makes a brief appearance in ''Decalogue Six''.
44	** As an ethics problem for her students in ''Decalogue Eight'', Zofia relates the story of Dorota carrying another man's baby while her husband Andrzej is (supposedly) dying of cancer from ''Decalogue Two''. She later tells Elżbieta that Dorota and Andrzej (and the unnamed doctor) live in her building.
45	** ''Decalogue Ten'' focuses on Jerzy and Artur, the sons of Czesław "Root" Janicki, Zofia's philatelist fellow tenant in ''Decalogue Eight''. Near the end of the film, Jerzy buys an assortment of stamps from Tomek from ''Decalogue Six''.
46	* CrapsackWorld: ''Decalogue Five'' starts with the murder of a cat and continues with two of the three main characters being rude to others non-stop until one of them kills the other for his car.
47	* DaddysGirl:
48	** In ''Decalogue Four'', Anka is very close to her father Michał, her mother having died when she was a newborn; however, this has reached the point that they have become jealous of each other's romantic partners, and when Anka finds a letter from her mother revealing that [[spoiler:Michał isn't her real father, she considers acting on the romantic tension between them. Then she admits to Michał that she forged the letter, so they go back to living as father and daughter, but when they burn the real letter, just enough of it remains to suggest that Michał might ''not'' be Anka's father after all]].
49	** Majka in ''Decalogue Seven'' is much closer to her father, Stefan, than she is to her mother, Ewa. As Ewa always wanted a large family but could not have any additional children after complications arose during Majka's birth, she has always been cold toward her; by contrast, Stefan remains affectionate toward Majka, comforting her when Ewa refuses her permission to take her daughter Ania (who believes Majka is her sister, not her mother) to Canada with her.
50	* DeadManWriting: Anka's mother's letter in ''Decalogue Four'' that she left for her husband and daughter to open at a given time. [[spoiler: They fear it might reveal that she's not actually his child, and eventually burn it because of how much they fear the consequences of that.]]
51	* DeathByChildbirth: Anka's mom in ''Decalogue Four'' passed away a week after giving birth due to unspecified complications. Since she was aware of her impending death, she left behind a letter to her daughter, to be given to her later.
52	* DeathOfAChild: ''Decalogue One'' climaxes with Krzysztof being betrayed by his faith in computer simulations as [[spoiler:his young son Paweł falls through the ice on a frozen pond that the computer simulation claimed was more than thick enough to support him]].
53	* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Exploited in ''Decalogue Five''. During his bar exam, Piotr quotes [[Creator/KarlMarx Marx]] for a good measure. This being [[CommieLand the People's Republic of Poland]], the bar now ''can't'' fail him, even if they wanted to.
54	* DeusEstMachina: In ''Decalogue One''... [[MindScrew probably]]. Krzysztof runs the calculations of whether or not the ice in a nearby pond will be thick enough for Paweł to skate on, and the computer claims that it can support three times Paweł's weight. [[spoiler:The ice breaks anyway, and Paweł and several of his classmates are killed.]]
55	* DiabolusExMachina: Despite taking all the safety precautions and measurements, the ice still breaks under Paweł in ''One''.
56	* DrivenToSuicide: Two examples, both of which are fortunately unsuccessful.
57	** In ''Decalogue Six'', [[spoiler:Tomek tries slitting his wrists after being humiliated by Magda. The friend's mother with whom he is boarding finds him before he can bleed to death and rushes him to hospital]].
58	** In ''Decalogue Nine'', [[spoiler:Roman rides his bike off a bridge when he thinks Hanka has resumed her affair with Mariusz. Although he ends up in a full body cast, he survives]].
59	* DrivesLikeCrazy:
60	** In ''Decalogue Three'', Janusz' excuse to leave his wife and children on Christmas Eve is a false claim that his taxi has been stolen; he asks his wife to phone the police. When he and Ewa drive past two police cars and realise the police will assume ''they'' have stolen the taxi, he drives like a madman through the streets of Warsaw in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to outrun them. After being let off with a warning, Janusz decides to pick up where he left off, driving full speed toward an oncoming tram in a tunnel (driven by the recurring character played by Artur Barciś) and swerving at the last second.
61	** Roman on his bike in ''Decalogue Nine''. [[spoiler: Especially when he tries to kill himself by driving into the lake]].
62	* DrJerk: In ''Decalogue Nine'', Roman's doctor friend who informs him of his impotence in the most unsympathetic way possible. Then when Roman asks what he should do about his wife, the doctor replies with one word: "Divorce."
63	* EverybodySmokes: It's the late 80s and it's Poland. This even includes doctors and patients smoking in the hospital.
64	* ExpansionPack: ''Decalogue Five'' and ''Decalogue Six'' were expanded into ''A Short Film About Killing'' and ''A Short Film About Love'', respectively; about 25 minutes were added to each. This was part of the deal that got the miniseries made, as the feature films would be easier for international distribution, and the condition that they would be produced provided additional funds.
65	* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: Piotr, the murderer's lawyer in ''Decalogue Five'', asks a superior if he could have done better. The answer is basically no. Jacek was destined to be executed as soon as he was brought to court.
66	* FamilyOfChoice: Discussed in ''Decalogue Four'', since it's dubious whether or not Anka is actually her father's biological daughter. [[spoiler: In the end, they burn her mother's letter that could have revealed the truth, and instead agree to live on as father and daughter.]]
67	* FamilyRelationshipSwitcheroo: Ania from ''Decalogue Seven'' has been raised believing that Stefan and Ewa are her biological parents and Majka is her older sister. However, Majka is her real mother, having got pregnant at 16 after an affair with her Polish[[note]] As in, language and literature.[[/note]] teacher, Wojtek. Even when Majka confesses the truth to Ania, the latter is too used to calling her "Majka" to start calling her "Mommy". In the final scene, [[spoiler:hearing Ania call Ewa "Mommy" when she and Stefan finally catch up with them in the train station persuades Majka that Ania will never see her as her mother, and she boards the next train on her own]].
68	* {{Foreshadowing}}: In ''Decalogue One'', Krzysztof and Paweł conduct an experiment in which they put a bottle of water outside their window; the water freezes and expands, cracking the glass. Paweł suggests leaving it outside the following day, but Krzysztof notes that it will be warmed by the sun. [[spoiler:The ice that is supposedly thick enough to skate on, according to both a computer simulation and Krzysztof himself walking onto the ice in the evening, melts the following day, causing Paweł to fall through and freeze to death.]]
69	* GenreShift: ''Decalogue Five'' is notoriously different than the rest of the episodes, being DarkerAndEdgier and more political in its message. ''Decalogue Ten'' is outright BlackComedy.
70	* TheGhost: Marcin, the friend of Tomek and the son of the landlady, is only ever mentioned, but never seen through both cuts of ''Six''.
71	* GilliganCut: Tomek from ''Six'' hires himself as a milkman. The store clerk reminds him that it's a job requiring him to get up early, to which he replies that he's an early bird anyway. SmashCut to him barely waking up to the sound of the alarm and struggling to stay awake.
72	* GirlsLoveStuffedAnimals: Ania from ''Decalogue Seven'' is a little girl and likes her biological father's teddy bears a lot.
73	* GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion:
74	** Played with in ''Decalogue Two''. Dorota tells the doctor treating her husband, Andrzej, that she is three months pregnant with another man's child, so she is nearing the end of the time frame for a legal abortion under Polish law. If Andrzej is expected to survive, she will go through with it, but if he is expected to die, she will keep the baby. The doctor says Andrzej's cancer is metastasising at an accelerated rate, so she keeps the baby. [[spoiler:And then Andrzej's cancer starts responding to treatment...]]
75	** Averted in ''Decalogue Four''. Anka tells Michał that one of her previous boyfriends got her pregnant, but she had the pregnancy terminated.
76	* IdiotBall: Jerzy and Artur in ''Decalogue Ten'' are too blinded by greed to think rationally. Why not just sell all the stamps right away and split the money? Why give a kidney to a total stranger? Why not put the stamps in a safety deposit box somewhere?
77	* IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim: The message of ''Decalogue Five''. Piotr grapples with the ethics of the death penalty and passionately argues against sentencing Jacek to death for murder, but despite the (offscreen) eloquence of his plea, the judge tells him that Jacek was condemned to death before the trial even began.[[note]] Coincidentally, the Polish government evidently agreed with Piotr, putting all executions on hold in 1989 and abolishing capital punishment entirely eight years later.[[/note]]
78	* IHaveYourWife: Granddaughter rather than wife, but in ''Decalogue Seven'', Majka abducts her daughter Ania, who has been raised believing that Majka is her older sister and that Majka's parents, Stefan and Ewa, are her parents. Majka takes Ania to the home of her biological father, Wojtek, and calls Ewa from a pay phone to tell her that she has Ania, and one of the conditions for her return is that her birth certificate be amended to acknowledge Majka as her real mother. Ewa, who regards Ania as the second daughter she always wanted but could not have due to complications from Majka's birth, wavers and does not agree until after Majka has already hung up.
79	* {{Irony}}: The ophthalmologist checking on Anka's eyesight in ''Decalogue Four'' is wearing a pair of huge glasses. It's little surprise that Anka ends up with NerdGlasses.
80	* {{Jerkass}}: Both the murderer and the murder victim in ''Decalogue Five'' are deeply unpleasant people.
81	** Jacek spends the first half of the episode engaging in all manner of petty acts of sociopathy, such as shooing away a flock of pigeons that an old woman wants to feed simply because she told him to leave and stop scaring them, shoving a man into the troughs at the bottom of a row of urinals, dropping a stone from an overpass onto a passing car, flicking the dregs from a cup of coffee at the café window and then spitting in his dirty cup before leaving... all of which is merely a setup for his biggest crime: murdering Waldemar to steal his car.
82	** Waldemar, the taxi driver, is rude toward his customers, leaves a pregnant woman hurrying to the hospital to her own devices, abuses a dog that did nothing to him... Ironically, the only person he doesn't treat like shit is Jacek.
83	* JizzedInMyPants: Tomek from ''Six'' barely even ''touches'' Magda, not to mention getting undressed, and is done, all while she teases him. Humiliated, he runs away and tries to kill himself.
84	* LeftTheBackgroundMusicOn: The ending of ''Two'' is scored to Dorota's performance in the orchestra.
85	* TheLoinsSleepTonight: At the beginning of ''Decalogue Nine'', Roman is diagnosed with impotence. The film as a whole is a rare case of this trope being PlayedForDrama instead of comedy, as his self-esteem is shattered by the diagnosis, while his marriage suffers as he suggests that Hanka should seek sexual pleasure elsewhere and then realises that when she does, he feels worse.
86	* LostInTranslation: Throughout ''Six'', Tomek is always addressing Magda in a very formal way, which is part of what amuses her during their date.
87	* MamasBabyPapasMaybe:
88	** In ''Decalogue Two'', Dorota ultimately decides to keep her pregnancy, [[spoiler:despite it being the result of an affair. Then her dying husband gets better]].
89	** In ''Decalogue Four'', when Anka confronts Michał with the supposed contents of her deceased mother's letter claiming that Michał is not her real father, he shows her a picture of her mother with two men and another woman, explaining that her father is one of the two men in the picture, but he has no idea which.
90	* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane:
91	** [[spoiler: The ice breaking]] in ''Decalogue One'' in spite of reliable calculations that proved that it wouldn't.
92	** The mysterious man in white. He features in almost all of the films, usually in scenes in which the characters are going against one of the commandments (such as Krzysztof testing the thickness of the ice in ''Decalogue One'', or Anka contemplating opening her mother's letter in ''Decalogue Four''), and, as reported by his actor Artur Barciś, has been described as an angel by Kieślowski.
93	* MsFanservice: Magda from ''Six''. Not only is she a beautiful woman, but she spends a third of her screen time naked or in lingerie, befitting a story about ThePeepingTom.
94	* MissingMom:
95	** Paweł's mom in ''One'' is alive and well, just abroad. And, because it's still the commie era, that means almost no contact.
96	** Anka from ''Four'' lost her when she was five days old.
97	* MyBelovedSmother: Ewa from ''Seven'' is not only a very controlling and caustic person, but considers Majka to be the worst thing that ever happened to her in a very open, direct and verbal way.
98	* MyGreatestFailure: In ''Decalogue Eight'', although Elżbieta credits Zofia with saving the lives of multiple Polish Jews during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, the latter has always been deeply ashamed of having to back out of her promise to transfer Elżbieta herself to a Catholic foster family and leaving her to an uncertain fate, ostensibly because producing a forged baptism certificate would have constituted bearing false witness, but really because the foster family supposedly had links to the Gestapo (links that were later disproved, but not before the family were ostracised), which would have had disastrous consequences for the Polish Resistance cell operated by Zofia's husband.
99	* MythologyGag: The composer Van den Budenmayer (fictitious, but treated as a real person) mentioned in ''Decalogue Nine'' is mentioned again in ''Film/TheDoubleLifeOfVeronique'' and the ''Blue'' and ''Red'' movies of the ''Film/ThreeColorsTrilogy''.
100	* NerdGlasses: In ''Decalogue Four'', drama student Anka visits the optometrist over concerns about a sudden decline in her eyesight, and when Michal returns from his trip, she greets him at the airport while wearing an unflattering pair of glasses with bright pink frames.[[note]]However, those were just the regular glasses of that era, at least in Poland, and people would be hard-pressed to get any other frames for prescribed glasses, even if they wanted to.[[/note]]
101	* NoDeadBodyPoops: Averted in ''Decalogue Five''. The hangman, being a professional, even has a litter box prepared precisely because a hanged man ''will'' poop.
102	* NoNameGiven: The doctor treating Andrzej in ''Decalogue Two'' is unnamed despite being one of the focal characters.
103	* NotSoStoic:
104	** Krzysztof from ''One'' is always calm and collected, but eventually cracks under pressure when Paweł doesn't come home on time and is apparently missing. It goes only downhill from there.
105	** In ''Four'', once Anka finishes reading the letter from her mother to him, the otherwise mild-mannered Michał suddenly gives her a powerful slap across the face and storms off.
106	* ObstructiveBureaucrat: The postal office manager from ''Six''. Tomek plants fake postal advice in Magda's mailbox, so she will show up at the post office where he works. Instead of engaging him, she call the manager. The lady manning the post office turns out to be a rude, crude and downright hostile clerk, who chews up Magda for creating problems for her, ''even if it's the postal service that apparently lost Magda's mail'' and ultimately throws the poor woman out of the post office. While it might look like a comedic exaggeration, this sort of behaviour was the "norm" in Poland back then.
107	* OneSteveLimit: Averted, if narrowly. There is Anka in ''Four'' and Ania in ''Seven'', both being diminutives of Anna.
108	* OpenSecret: The landlady in ''Six'' is fully aware of what Tomek is doing at night, but is cordial about it, seeing it as an adolescent thing. At one point she tries to even distract Tomek with the ''Miss Polonia'' competition, but he has his eyes only on one woman.
109	* OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions: [[AvertedTrope Averted]] in ''Decalogue One''. Krzysztof doesn't believe in God, but he has no problem with the fact that his sister does.
110	* ThePeepingTom: And he even has the right name, even if the idiom doesn't work in Polish. Tomek in ''Decalogue Six'' spends his evenings spying on Magda, who lives in the building opposite his, through a telescope, watching her undress and occasionally entertain boyfriends. When she catches him, she turns the tables on him by telling her boyfriend, who knocks Tomek to the ground with a single punch.
111	* PunchAWall: In ''Decalogue Six'', after pulling the prank with the gas company and laughing about it, Tomek suddenly smashes a nearby wardrobe.
112	* RetiredBadass: According to Elżbieta in ''Decalogue Eight'', Zofia made a name for herself in the Polish resistance against the Nazis and is responsible for multiple Polish Jews getting through the war alive.
113	* TheReveal:
114	** Michał in ''Four'' always had his suspicions and can even pin-point the potential father of Anka among family photos.
115	** Majka in ''Decalogue Seven'' [[spoiler:went through a TeenPregnancy and Ania, her "sister", is actually her child]].
116	* RiddleForTheAges: What was in the letter from ''Four''? And more importantly, is Anka reading the remaining piece of it for real, or is she toying with Michał once again?
117	* TheRockStar: Artur in ''Decalogue Ten'' is the singer of a punk band called "City Death".
118	* SantaClaus: Janusz disguises himself as such at the beginning of ''Decalogue Three''.
119	* SecretTestOfCharacter: A medical variant. The ophthalmologist in ''Decalogue Four'' admits she isn't picking the letters at random, but rather to see what people know and how much they use their intellect to answer, rather than their eyes.
120	* ScienceIsWrong: Krzysztof in ''Decalogue One'' uses his computer to calculate if the frozen lake will be able to hold Paweł. [[spoiler:The ice breaks anyway.]]
121	* SeriousBusiness: A stamp collection is the center of the story of ''Decalogue Ten''. The brothers want to complete it to make money, but shady people want them as well. The brothers joke about it themselves at the end.
122	* SexyStewardess: Hanka, the wife in ''Decalogue Nine'', is a stewardess for KLM, and she is sufficiently alluring to have captured the attention of physics undergraduate Mariusz even before her husband Roman is diagnosed as sexually impotent.
123	* SiblingTeam: Artur and Jerzy in ''Decalogue Ten'' try to complete and sell their deceased father's stamp collection and go through a lot for it.
124	* SmartPeoplePlayChess: In ''Decalogue One'', Krzysztof (a linguistics professor) and Paweł (his scientifically-inclined son) participate as a team in a simultaneous chess exhibition against real life Polish grandmaster Agnieszka Brustman. They are the first players to defeat her.
125	* SpottingTheThread: In ''Decalogue Three'', Janusz starts to have doubts that Ewa's husband Edward is really missing when he goes into her bathroom; although he sees two toothbrushes, a shaving brush, and a safety razor, he dismantles the last of these and notices that the blade is rusty and too dull even to cut the skin on his hand. Ewa finally confesses that she and Edward divorced three years ago, and he has moved to Krakow, re-married, and had two children.
126	* StalkerWithACrush: The entire plot of ''Decalogue Six'' revolves around this. Tomek watches Magda from his window everyday over the course of a year and falls in love with her in the process. The film depicts his attempts to make contact with her and confess his feelings.
127	* StalkingIsLove: The premise of ''Decalogue Six''. Magda initially is annoyed at Tomek and humiliates him. [[spoiler: After he attempts suicide, she starts to feel for him.]]
128	* TeacherStudentRomance: Before the events of ''Decalogue Seven'', 16-year-old Majka had an affair with her teacher, Wojtek, that resulted in her getting pregnant. To avoid statutory rape charges, Wojtek was dismissed and moved to the countryside outside Warsaw.
129	* ThemeTune: The ten episodes begin and end with a nice little piano melody. In ''Decalogue Ten,'' however, the tune immediately transforms into a punk rock song (with lyrics encouraging breaking all ten commandments), which appears again in the end.
130	* ThrowingTheDistraction: In ''Decalogue Seven,'' Majka, while hiding behind a wall, throws a small wooden ball down the stairs, thus distracting an old woman watching over the entrance to the back of the stage.
131	* TooDumbToLive: You would think the duo of technicians from a gas company in ''Six'' would know better than to search for gas leaks with a burning newspaper. Keep in mind that the phone operator Tomek called to summon them explicitly warned him not to do that and wait for professionals to arrive.
132	* {{Troll}}: In ''Six'', Magda eventually decides to turn the tables on Tomek and please his voyeurism, eventually going on a date with him and thoroughly humiliating the boy in the process. Her reaction switches to MyGodWhatHaveIDone after Tomek ends up DrivenToSuicide.
133	* {{Typecasting}}: Invoked and openly exploited by Kieślowski. Grażyna Szapołowska had a rather... special reputation: ''every single movie she starred in'' had a nude scene with her. So naturally, she plays Magda, the woman Tomek is ogling in ''Six'', just like the vast majority of male movie-goers of that era.
134	* TheUnFavourite: Majka from ''Seven''. Ewa apparently loomed over her for her entire life and once Ania was born, she doted on her to no end, ''further'' neglecting Majka. By the start of the story, there is a rift the size of the Grand Canyon between Majka and Ewa - and it only gets worse from there.
135	* UnrequitedLoveSwitcheroo: Occurs in ''Decalogue Six''. Tomek spies on Magda and falls in love with her, and she not only rejects his advances, but also attempts to show him that love doesn't exist. This leads to [[spoiler:his suicide attempt]]. After that, Magda feels guilty and gradually comes to care for Tomek, but by the time he's healed, [[spoiler:he tells her that he "no longer watches her."]]
136	* VillainProtagonist: Jacek is the most prominent character in ''Decalogue Five''. He murders a taxi driver just to get a car.
137	* VisualPun: In both cuts of ''Decalogue Six'', Magda ends up crying over spilled milk. Just not due to spilling it.
138	* TheVoice: Dorota's lover from ''Two'', who is only ever heard over the phone. He's still played by Piotr Fronczewski, another star actor of that era, with ''very'' characteristic voice.
139	* TheWatcher: There's a man played by Artur Barciś that appears in almost all the episodes, under different appearances, watching the events. The only episode he doesn't appear in is ''Decalogue Ten'' (his appearance in ''Decalogue Seven'' is in the background, so you might as well not notice him).[[note]]And even that isn't Artur Barciś, who was unavailable for filming; he was supposed to appear in one or both of the train station scenes.[[/note]]
140	* WaterWakeup: Anka and Michał in ''Decalogue Four'' seem to wake each other up this way frequently.
141	* WifeHusbandry: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] in ''Decalogue Four.'' [[spoiler:Anka not only has some feelings for Michał, the man who raised her, but the feelings might be mutual. However, when she starts undressing in front of him, he refuses to go through with it.]]
142	* YoureNotMyFather: Anka confronts Michał in ''Decalogue Four'' after finding a letter from her deceased mother claiming that he isn't really her father. [[spoiler:Then at the end, it turns out she forged the letter and it was all a lie. Or was it?]]

Context Film / TheDecalogue