While some episodes take their command at face, others take it metaphorically, or secularized. Dekalog three try a hybrid approach. The religious component is very present, although inappropriate (it is not the Sabbath but the Christmas Eve that is under attack). At the same time, the fault at its heart stems from a domestic issue - the neglect of loved ones to come to the aid of an old love, with the natural intimacy induced by a relationship already consumed. Janusz (Daniel Olbrychski) plays Santa Claus for children in Warsaw. At the evening mass, he sees Ewa (Maria Pakulnis), who will be learned to be his former companion. Back home, it bursts in. Her man is missing, she needs help and does not know who else to ask for it.
With the permission of his wife (Jonanna
Szczepkowska), he accompanies her at night in this research in various
hospitals in the city. Their quest culminates in a visit to a detoxification
center, in inhumane conditions of detention, where the jailer reveals an
anti-Semitism plaguing Polish society. Janusz and Ewa's mad love resurfaces,
disguised as a suicidal quarrel.
The sacred issue haunts this episode, signified by the reflections of many New Year's Eve lights, high-angle and low-angle shots imposing a divine point of view on the protagonists. Despite swerves with spectacular aims (to drive in a car against a tram, then a Christmas tree), certain details evoke this other Catholic filmmaker, a champion of loyalty, who is Rohmer. The midnight mass, occupied with eyeing a beautiful stranger, recalls My Night at Maud's, the homecoming the finale of Love in the Afternoon. Except that the Rohmerian temptation in principle precedes the report. That of this film, if indeed the characters plan to seal a new union, succeeds him. They seem less tempted than shaken, brought back to the (bad) memory of an impossible relationship, cursing immediately each other like an old couple. It seems clear why Ewa ultimately preferred, in pain and regret, her present husband to Janusz, the very form of their complicity betrays her: these two get along too well on how not to get along, They must have had a lot of trouble doing the one thing, leaving each other.
The logical
outcome of their addition seems to be nothing less than death. Located at
Easter, their night trip could be, in the early morning, a story of
resurrection. Resulting in a Christmas morning, she parks in a place of hope
that nothing, in this small snowy world, has yet to definitively confirm. It’s
already living. Janusz therefore preferred other complicated days to more days
at all.
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