Bohemian Cinema By Jonathan Pacheco

What Could Have Been

Tags: Kieslowski, Blog-a-thon, Anthologies

NOTE: This post is a contribution to the Krzysztof Kieslowski Blog-a-thon at Quiet Bubble. I don’t know too much about Kieslowski, but what I do, I love.

Krzysztof Kieslowski excelled in making films that were thematically rich. We all know that The Decalogue is based on the Ten Commandments while Three Colors based three films on what each color of the French flag represents. And we know that at the time of his death, he was busy writing another trilogy, Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory, which has been two-thirds finished. I’m fascinated by Kieslowski’s fascination with these human and godly ideals and concepts (and what some would call myths), and with his method of anthologizing them.

In honor of the Polish filmmaker (and his writing partner, Krzysztof Piesiewicz), I began thinking of concepts for anthologies that I would have loved to see his take on. This is in no way “trying to be Kieslowski” in the sense of predicting what he would do or how he would do it, but rather being so impressed with his past work, this is a wish-list of subjects that would have been fascinating to see him tackle.

After a quick brainstorm, I thought of:

• A trilogy on the evolution of human from Ape, to Man, to Superman (the central theme of 2001: A Space Odyssey).
• A trilogy on the enlightenment of a human, whether it be from Christian Mysticism (three stages: purgative, illuminative, unitive) or the modes of enlightenment taken from Bodhi (three modes: Arhat, Pratyeka, supreme Buddha).
• A series of shorter films chronicling the Eight Stages of Life (perhaps the Erikson stages, or something more thematic: exploring, focusing, working, excelling, mastering, transcending, life’s calling, re-genesis).
• A series on Dante’s Circles of Hell (though I know what he was working on for Hell is based on Dante’s ideas).

This list is in no way exhaustive, and I realize the ideas are relatively uninspired (or uninspiring, though with Kieslowski’s hand, they very well could be), which is why I’d like to hear input. Add some comments below, and hopefully we can get an interesting mix of ideas (and I can also be reassured that someone reads this blog or this entry).

Is there a thematic (or non-thematic) anthology you would have loved to have seen visualized by Kieslowski?

(Also, please let me know if I’m incorrect on some of these beliefs and concepts. I’m just Googling here).