Matt and Travis welcome Cole Roulain, cohost of The Magic Lantern podcast and cohoncho of The 25th Frame, to discuss the fifth episode of Dekalog and the first to be adapted into a feature-length film. The episode is a significant departure from the family dramas and moral dilemmas of the first four episodes in the…

Matt and Travis move on to parts 3 and 4 of Kieślowski’s epic television series Dekalog and bring on Keith Enright of the now defunct Criterion Completion website and pod-on-permanent-hiatus. This is part 2 of our 6-part series on the anthology film that catapulted Kieślowski into international fame. Unlike the gut-punch of the first film…

Matt and Travis are excited to kick off our first multi-part series on one work: Kieślowski’s legendary Dekalog television miniseries. For the first episode, we welcome Josh Hornbeck, host of the forthcoming Criterion Channel Surfing podcast, to discuss the first two episodes in the series. Initially intended to be directed by separate up-and-coming directors through…

Matt and Travis welcome Caitlin, the host of Her Head in Films, to discuss Kieślowski’s final film before creating the internationally acclaimed Dekalog series for Television, 1985’s No End. Released in the wake of a two-year period of martial law in Poland that marked the end of the Solidarity breakthroughs of 1980-81, the film was…

Matt and Travis are joined by Martin Kessler of Flixwise and Flixwise Canada to discuss Kieślowski’s shelved 1981 theatrical feature Blind Chance. Like Short Working Day, Blind Chance was never shown publicly before being withheld from circulation, a victim of the crackdown that culminated in martial law at the end of 1981. Only after Kieślowski…

Matt and Travis welcome Matt Schlee from Cineccentric to discuss the fifth feature in Kieślowski’s filmography, Short Working Day. In 1981, Kieślowski made two films that would be immediately shelved and go unreleased for years: the theatrical feature Blind Chance (which was also censored even its eventually released version) and the made-for-Television feature Short Working…

Matt and Travis welcome Will Remmers to the show to discuss Kieślowski’s second theatrical feature and four feature overall, 1979’s Camera Buff. After The Calm was shelved, Kieślowski carried on with his documentary work, producing I Don’t Know (which he voluntarily shelved to protect the subject), From a Night Porter’s Point of View, and Seven…

Matt and Travis welcome the all-powerful voice and cinematic insight of Mr. Mark Hurne, co-host of Close-Up and regular on Criterion Now, to discuss Kieslowski’s second full-length made-for-TV feature and third overall feature, The Calm. The Calm was made almost immediately on the heels of Kieślowski’s debut theatrical feature in 1976 for Polish Television. However,…

Travis and Matt welcome Jon Laubinger, host of fellow 25th Frame show Film, Baby, Film, to discuss The Scar, Kieślowski’s second feature-length film. The Scar was Kieślowski’s first feature film for theaters, as Personnel had been made for television. Although it was fairly well-received, including two awards at the Polish Film Festival, Kieślowski was extremely…

Season three of The Complete begins with the first full-length film made by Krzysztof Kieślowski, the made-for-TV 72-minute feature Personnel. We begin by discussing the director’s reputation and give a brief overview of his early life, time at the Łodz film school, and early documentary work. We also discuss the short narratives he made prior…