Talking Heads
1980 · 16m · Poland
Directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski
Genres: biography, documentary
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, tender
Kieślowski poses three simple questions — 'When were you born?', 'Who are you?', and 'What do you most wish for?' — to 44 Poles arranged chronologically from a one-year-old infant to a 100-year-old woman, creating a poignant snapshot of Polish society on the eve of the Solidarity movement.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Kieślowski asks 44 Poles three questions, ages 1 to 100, and the cumulative effect is more devastating than any plot — formal constraint as humanism. The page is dead because Canal+ Polska is hoarding it.
Kieślowski's chronological accordion of Polish life — infant to centenarian, each asked the same three questions — is the kind of constraint-driven documentary one can only sustain through absolute conviction. The YouTube link is gone, regrettably.
Kieslowski's age-ascending constraint - 44 subjects from age 1 to 100 answering the same three questions - is the entire formal argument. YouTube has killed this URL via CANAL+ copyright claim, so the vault link is dead.
Reviews
What's so fascinating about this short documentary is how the things said by all the people interviewed are the same things most people, all around the globe, want in their lives, proving that we have a common goal in different stages of life.
This work demonstrates that the Polish film director was interested in what was Genuine, Profound, True and Essential, positioning him as a master of human heart, of human soul, and of camera.
Festivals
- Polish Film Festival in Los Angeles