Images of time, thought and emotions : narration and the spectator's experience in Krzysztof Kieślowski's late fiction films

Abstract

Hiltunen tutki väitöskirjassaan puolalaisen elokuvaohjaajan Krzysztof Kie?lowskin (1941-1996) myöhäistuotannon kerrontaa erityisesti katsojan kokemuksen kannalta. Hän tarkasteli katsomistapahtumaa toisaalta tietopohjaisena älyllisenä prosessina, toisaalta kokemuksellisena ilmiönä.– Elokuvakerronta on katsojan ja elokuvan välinen vuorovaikutusprosessi, jossa katsojan omat kokemukset sekä tiedot maailmasta ja elokuvista kohtaavat elokuvantekijän luoman todellisuuden, Hiltunen määrittelee. Kie?lowskin tavoitteena oli synnyttää dialogi katsojan ja elokuvan välille. Hän etsi elokuvallisia keinoja toisinaan abstraktienkin teemojen ilmaisemiseksi sen sijaan, että olisi pukenut asiat sanoiksi. Tämä epäsuoraan puhuminen, tapa ilmaista asioita rakenteen ja tyylin keinoin, periytyy osittain kommunismin ajalta ja työskentelystä sensuurin alaisuudessa 1970–1980 -luvuilla.

The thesis deals with narration and style in and the spectator’s experience of the late fiction films of the Polish director Krzysztof Kie?lowski. It analyses A Short Film About Killing (1988), A Short Film About Love (1988), the television series The Decalogue (1988/89), The Double Life of Véronique (1991), and The Three Colours trilogy (1993/94). The earlier documentary and fiction films are discussed briefly to establish a stylistic and thematic continuity between the socially conscious early films directed when Kie?lowski worked in the national Polish film industry and the late art films made as European co-productions.The narratives of these films are examined on the one hand as structures and on the other as processes, paying special attention to the spectator’s experience and understanding of them. Narration is analysed as a process taking place between the spectator and a film. Phenomenological approaches and cognitive film theory provide the theoretical framework for the study. A central question is how time is organised in Kie?lowski’s narratives and how it is connected with their meanings and the representation of their protagonists’ inner lives.His narratives are elliptic and ambiguous and focused on individual moments rather than on the final outcome. They demand the spectator’s active participation. They are thematically constructed and stylised, which makes them self-conscious. But instead of detachment the spectator experiences a sense of being in between: of being simultaneously aware both of the story and of the means of telling it.Kie?lowski’s main interest was to portray the inner lives of his contemporary main characters, resulting in very subjective stories. Kie?lowski represents the world as it is perceived from an individual subject’s point of view, creating films that appear as mindscreens of their characters. Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy is used to characterise the interconnectedness of the subjective and the objective, the internal and the external in Kie?lowski’s narratives. The relation between subjectivity, temporality and space in his stories is one of the key questions addressed.