It’s strange to think it’s 27 years today since Krzysztof Kiéslowski died, leaving behind a marvellous, tender, profoundly humanising but all too small body of work; had he lived he’d only be 81 now, so imagine how much he could have blessed us with.
“My message is 'Live more carefully',” he said once. “Because you don't know what the consequences of your actions may be. You don't know what they will do to people that you know or don't know. You simply don't know how your actions may influence them. Live carefully, because there are people around you, whose lives and well-being depend on your actions. This concerns all of us because the paths -- these people and their destinies -- cross each others all the time, whether we are aware of it or not. That's what responsibility means to me : to live carefully and attentively. We should observe people around us and, most of all, ourselves.”
I often think Red and Blue may be the greatest films of my lifetime, though when pondering Kiéslowski’s films I tend to turn to something he said when his Decalogue was being seen in New York back in 1989. Asked what ten words he would keep if all other words were taken from him, he said: “Love. Hate. Loneliness. Fear. Coincidence. Pain. Anxiety. God. Responsibility,” and then added: “Innocence.”
I’m not sure what words I’d pick. I think ‘hope’, ‘truth’, and ‘mercy’ would be among them, though. You?
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