Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Stephan Hammond It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Myron Clemons A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Brennan Camacho Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

chaos-rampant My most cherished type of film shows our idea of reality to be just that, an idea born from our own urges and various storytellings, which cloud the soul and need to be challenged, dismantled, removed from the eyes so that we can see life as it is. Failing that, which is a rare type, I'm more than content to encounter a film that feels its way truly in a world where those urges and storytellings lie in wait.It's why I'm seeking out Kieslowski these days and already he seems like one who has the talent to feel his way into the world of emotion.But this is broken in a key way. He doesn't feel his way in here, he forces it. For a film that is lauded as a vital depiction of love, what I saw simply isn't love. It might be fantasy, desire, or obsession (Rear Window is quoted), but it's not love and for it to be reciprocated as love, it moves into a world that I don't recognize as true. If you have the chance to watch it with a woman, please do so.However evocative his sense of place is, with two apartment blocks on opposite sides and the night in the middle a space where two viewers wonder about yearning, however lyrical he is about the yearning for contact over this divide, from that point on I simply have no ground to walk between them. Which is a shame because all of this should be something I like. It is when Kar Wai does it.And in the end he pulls off something so magical, his emotional color so deep it spills out from the container of the film. He portrays a love so deep that I'm almost embarrassed that I have this container to receive it in, it's worth so much more to my mind. This is where she visits him after he has come out of the hospital, he's lying unconscious in bed, and she watches through his binoculars into how he saw her (at her most vulnerable), seeing herself through his eyes in a way that lets her know how deep his love was, seeing herself all at once through this love for her. Sublime.It's mystifying to me that someone can know women so poorly and so deeply in the course of an hour, that would be my question if I ever had the chance to meet Kieslowski. Something tells me that this is the color he would go on to use in his celebrated trilogy and makes me anticipate them even more. But first, I have to mount the Dekalog.

PassPopcorn Krzysztof Kieslowski is a Polish director most known for directing the three colors trilogy. His 1988 movie 'A Short Film About Love' aka 'Krótki film o milosci' is, as its name implicates, a short (with a duration of c. 80 minutes) film about love. With a catchy title like that, one may expect A Short Film About Love to be a predictable romantic comedy. Well, A Short Film About Love is as far from comedy as possible - in fact it is somewhat depressing. I'm also not sure if I would label this movie as 'romantic'. I'll let you decide that.The movie is about Tomek (Olaf Lubaszenko), a 19 year old who works at the post office. He is obsessed with his older neighbor Magda (Grazyna Szapolowska) who lives in the tower block opposite. He regularly spies on her through a telescope he stole, he even calls her on the telephone and tries to contact her in any way possible. One day he decides to confess his actions to her. As you can see, the plot itself is very simple and thin. However, it is really effective and works amazingly good. This unusual combination of Hitchcockian vibes and 'romance' really appealed to me.As you may have guessed from the movie's plot, A Short Film About Love is a rather slow movie, there isn't much drama to it. The movie benefits mostly from the haunting and gloomy surroundings in which the characters interact. Furthermore, the performances in the movie are absolutely great and very powerful. Olaf Lubaszenko is excellent in his minimalist portrayal of the love-stricken, creepy Tomek, and Grazyna Szapolowska's portrayal of the promiscuous artist Magda is also note worthy. Besides these two, there aren't many other prominent characters in the movie. Of course, there's the old lady in whose house Tomek lives (played by Stefania Iwinska) but she isn't that important for the overall story. Olaf Lubaszenko and Grazyna Szapolowska are the ones that keep the movie going.A Short Film About Love really keeps pushing the boundaries of fictional love. It asks questions such as - What is truly love? Does it even exist? What does it take to be in love? How do we know we're in love? It analyzes how one person's actions affect another one's life and how to deal with the consequences of your actions. A Short Film About Love is a dark and bold journey into the human psyche and into the complicated emotion that is love. A definitive recommendation!Rating: 8/10 Read more at http://passpopcorn.wordpress.com/

clemtine A gripping and intriguing story about loving someone from afar. This is one of those films that I randomly pick up from whatever thread I come across, and now, having seen it, I am really surprised that it's mostly unknown. From the late Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski---I know, good luck on pronouncing his name, this is the extended version of the sixth episode of The Decalogue. Tomek is nineteen years old, a single guy who works in a post office. Every night, he spies on Magda, a middle-aged woman who lives in the building across. He falls in love with her and decides to profess his love one day after seeing her cry the previous night. At first, Magda doesn't take him seriously and she eventually hurts him. What follows after is both tragic and moving. This film is really spell-binding, from the powerful human emotions it displays to its sincere silent moments. It is a true gem of cinema, a special story waiting to be told. The characters are very real and the emotions they convey very honest. The obsession and the desperation felt by the protagonists are simply too painful to watch. This film is not readily available to some but it is worth every second of searching.http://iwascalledclementine.multiply.com/reviews

siderite For someone used by Hollywood to romantic films being comedies, this could be a hard one to swallow. In a way, yes, it is a drama, but no more than any other strong love is. The movie attacks directly the strongest feelings anyone has ever had: the first love. Since the main character is an introverted 19 year old, the power of his inner love can only be hinted at. But one gets the picture.The story is irrelevant, in itself, the lead idea is that someone can identify one's life and reason to live with a feeling that isn't even shared. The interaction between the love sick and his target is only a small ploy to make us understand the things that go on inside the man.All in all I've seen better movies than this, having stronger messages. Wicker Park, for example, is a fairly recent US movie that captures in a more alert, yet implausible way the same feelings of obsession. Is that the truest love, or is it just a Chimera, making people chase their own tail in the illusion that they have a real feeling? I think there are few movies that explore this issue, this being one of them. Be prepared for a rather depressing view on the matter.