Decalogue 9: Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbor's Wife

Roman Nycz (Piotr Machalica), a surgeon, is diagnosed as chronically impotent and unable to have children. He gives the news to his wife Hanka (Ewa Blaszczyk), and, withholding his own emotions, advises her to look for someone else. She tells him that sex isn't the most important part of their marriage and that she prefers to stay with him, but Roman suspects that she already has a lover. He begins to spy on her, tapping their phone and going through her things, and finds the evidence he needs: Hanka is indeed having an affair with a handsome physicist, whom she meets at her mother's empty apartment. Although he has evidence, Piotr keeps it to himself.

Knowing the time of their next date, he hides himself in the closet, only to hear Hanka tell her lover that the affair is over. After the man leaves, Hanka spots Piotr hiding. They talk, and she is surprised at how hurt he is, after his earlier displays (for her benefit) of indifference. Piotr requests a temporary separation, so Hanka decides to go on a skiing vacation. When Piotr accidentally sees the lover heading for the same lodge, he jumps to the wrong conclusion, not knowing that the man is chasing Hanka against her will. When she sees him there, she immediately returns to Warsaw, only to find a suicide note from her husband. As she weeps, she receives a phone call. It is Piotr, calling from the hospital, where he was taken after his suicide attempt failed.

Surprisingly, DECALOGUE 9 is the only film in Kieslowski's series to focus on a marriage. (Given that all of these films center on ethical problems that people need to deal with, however, this may actually indicate Kieslowski's view of marriage as a comparatively strong modern institution.) Although it touches base with its corresponding commandment in that there is a character who covets another man's wife, that is not the central conflict here. Instead, the film focuses on trust, which is such an important issue to marriage and relationships in general that Kieslowski and his co-scripter Krzysztof Piesiewicz can be forgiven for shoehorning it in here (Moses having apparently lost the tablet bearing the commandment, "Thou shalt trust thy spouse.") Despite a certain amount of melodrama, it is the most optimistic film in a series generally marked by, if not pessimism, then certainly a deep suspicion that human life is a perpetual struggle. It is also one of the most visually striking entries thanks to Piotr Sobocinski, who also photographed DECALOGUE 3 (making him the only cinematographer to work on more than one film in the series). (Adult situations, sexual situations.) leave a comment