Decalogue IX

Decalogue IX
DVD poster
Directed by	Krzysztof Kieślowski
Produced by	Ryszard Chutkovski
Written by	Krzysztof Kieślowski Krzysztof Piesiewicz
Starring	Ewa Błaszczyk Piotr Machalica
Music by	Zbigniew Preisner
Cinematography	Piotr Sobocinski
Editing by	Ewa Smal
Release date(s)	1990
Running time	58 min.
Country	Poland
Language	Polish
Budget	$10.000

The Decalogue - IX (Polish: Dekalog, dziewięć) is a ninth part of the television series The Decalogue by Polish director Krzysztof Kieślowski, connected to the ninth imperative of the Ten Commandments: Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife.

A man who has become impotent (Piotr Machalica) discovers that his wife (Ewa Błaszczyk) has a lover. (A minor character in this film, a young singer with a heart condition, inspired Kieślowski's and Piesiewicz's next film, The Double Life of Véronique.) ^[1]

Plot

Hanka (Ewa Błaszczyk) and her husband Roman (Piotr Machalica)

Dr. Roman Nycz (Piotr Machalica) has been diagnosed with impotence, his friend and colleague confirms the prognosis, suggesting that he should divorce his beautiful young wife, Hanka (Ewa Błaszczyk) a stewardess for KLM. They love each other too much and simply cannot do it. Hanka says to Roman that there are more important things in a relationship between two people than sex and that she will manage living without it, but Roman encourages Hanka to find a lover if she does not have one already, she says that she will not do it and that they should not discuss this problem to death.

Roman is teased by an attractive young singer who must undergo heart surgery, earlier that morning he notices a young man around his building who at the sight of him walks back and disappears. He becomes suspicious and bugs his own phone to eavesdrop on Hanka. He finds out that she does have younger boyfriend, Mariusz (Jan Jankowski) a physics student, with whom she has a purely physical relation. Their trysts happen at her mother's house. One day, Hanka has forgotten to get some items that her mother wanted from her house and asks Roman to retrieve them for her; while in the house he snoops around and finds a notebook that he had earlier found in his car, he also makes duplicate keys.

In the meantime, Hanka tries to end the relationship with Mariusz. He says that he loves her and wants to marry her but it is over. As she is about to leave she sees Roman hidden in the closet and is very unpleasantly surprised, as she tries to console Roman she agrees that they should discuss his problem to death and agrees to look for a child to adopt, since initially they had not wanted children but now have come to the conclusion that this problem would be a lot easier if they had a child.

Hanka goes on a skiing trip alone but she does not know that Mariusz has followed her there. Roman has also spotted Mariusz preparing his skiing gear onto his car and calls his house posing as a faculty member, but his mother tells him that Mariusz has left for a trip to the same destination as Hanka. When Hanka and Mariusz meet, she thinks suddenly of Roman and fears that he might do something stupid, which in fact he does as he tries to commit suicide, but survives.

^{[2] [3] [4]}

Cast

Hanka (Ewa Błaszczyk) with her lover Mariusz (Jan Jankowski), as being spied by Hanka's husband Roman (Piotr Machalica).

• Ewa Błaszczyk - Hanka
• Piotr Machalica - Roman
• Artur Barciś - man on the bicycle
• Jan Jankowski - Mariusz
• Jolanta Pietek-Górecka - Ola
• Katarzyna Piwowarczyk - Ania
• Jerzy Trela - Mikołaj

In other roles

• Renata Berger, Malgorzata Boratynska,

Jolanta Cichon, Janusz Cywinski, Slawomir Kwiatkowski, Dariusz Przychoda

References

1. ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094991/ Episode overview and information
2. ^ http://www.film.u-net.com/Movies/Reviews/Dekalog_9.html Episode review
3. ^ http://www.facets.org/decalogue/synopsis.html Episode synopsis
4. ^ http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/decalogue_vol_4_parts_viii_and_ix/# Episode Synopsis and critical review