bartosz-1

I watched the first episode and couldn't believe my eyes. How could anybody, Catholic or atheist take this story seriously? I was watching it and praying: Please, Kieslowski, don't trivialize the matter!

Here's the plot: A nice intelligent guy raises a gifted and sensitive son alone. They relationship if filled with love. But the hero has one flaw, he's an agnostic, even though he was brought up in a Catholic family. What's worse, instead of trusting God, he happens to trust science--in particular his computer. God has no choice but to teach him a lesson. And what could best drive God's point if not killing the person the hero loves most--his son?

Having grown up in Catholic Poland, I can attest that this is how most people there understand religion. The loving God, who--like a Mafia boss--kisses you before stabbing your heart. This is the kind of God who doesn't stay Abraham's hand.

There is no subtlety in Kieslowski's story. No questioning of faith. The commandments are rigid rules--you break them, you pay. And the competing god--the technology--is viewed in a superstitious, parochial, way.

I'm glad Kieslowski didn't present his views on the intelligent design vs. Darwinism.

What is striking about the film is how everything seems to be meaningful: a bird flying over, ripples in the watter, a face in the crowd. You just know Tarkowski put it there on purpose. Sometimes you can guess what the purpose was, and sometimes not. And it's okay, because often Tarkowski himself couldn't explain the things he did. He wanted the symbols to have different meanings to different people.

His black-and-white cinematography is gorgeous. You can tell that each shot was planned like a painting.

Warning: people with short attention spans and seekers of immediate gratification (in other words 99% of American public) should not watch this movie.

Like most Polish movies of the Communist era, "Teddy Bear" has several layers of meaning. On the surface it's a comedy of absurdities. But the absurdities make perfect sense in the political context of Poland of the 1970th. The movie shows Communism is its final stages of decay. The system becomes a game with complex and absurd rules. Only people who master these rules can be successful. The film's hero is one of them.

The key to understanding the movie is the dialog between the hero and a film producer about a straw bear--a giant prop for the movie they are making. The producer uses common sense to try to minimize the movie's production costs. The hero explains to him how rational arguments don't apply in the system they are living in. The simpleton film producer is initiated in the ways of the system.

There is a progression from George Orwell's stern an tragic "1984", through Terry Gilliam's tragicomic "Brazil", to the comically absurd "Teddy Bear"--a progression which reflects the various stages and versions of Communism. The Polish version is the most benign and tongue-in-cheek and the film describes it perfectly.