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SUMMARY:Krzysztof Kieślowski: An American Cinematheque Retrospective
UID:https://instytutpolski.pl/newyork/2026/04/16/krzysztof-kieslowski-an-american-cinematheque-retrospective/
LOCATION:
DTSTAMP:20260503
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Warsaw:20260503
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Warsaw:20260712
DESCRIPTION:Sunday, May 3 — Sunday, July 12, 2026
Aero Theatre1328 Montana Ave, Santa Monica , CA90403
Egyptian Theatre6712 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA90028
Los Feliz Theatre1822 N Vermont Ave, Los Angeles, CA90027
Krzysztof Kieślowski: An American Cinematheque Retrospective offers a look
back at the sublimely transcendent cinema of the Polish master. Thirty
years after passing at the zenith of his fame, Kieślowski’s films still
linger in the cultural consciousness, proving the medium's unique ability
to navigate complex metaphysical queries. From the early documentaries
capturing Poland’s working class and the social realist examinations of
life under communism, to abstract reflections on universal complexities
ranging from fate to virtue and everything in between, our retrospective
honors the luminous work of the visionary behind a kaleidoscopic world of
vivid humanity.
Replete with glowing refractions of light, dreamlike coincidences and an
entrancingly melancholic performance by Irène Jacob, earning her the Best
Actress Award at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival, our curated series begins
with Kieślowski’s international sensation The Double Life of Véronique.
An unforgettable reverie on the fragmentation of identity and the
mysterious nature of love, The Double Life of Véronique is an essential
entry in the Polish master’s repertoire.
We continue our retrospective with the last three films of Kieślowski’s
career as a marathon screening of his lyrical Three Colors trilogy. Named
after the colors of the French flag and themed around the national motto of
“liberty, equality and fraternity,” the trilogy is led by four
spellbinding performances conjured by Juliette Binoche, Irène Jacob, Julie
Delpy and Zbigniew Zamachowski. The first of the series, the symphonic
Blue, ruminates on the concept of liberation within a story about a woman
who loses her husband and young daughter in a car accident, headed by a
mesmerizing Juliette Binoche as the grieving widowed mother. Dark comedy
White revolves around a French woman played by an ethereal Julie Delpy who
divorces her Polish husband and the tale of revenge that ensues,
simultaneously dissecting the theme of equality through economic and
cultural quandaries in the context of post-communist Poland.
Kieślowski’s last film and final installment of the trilogy, Red,
follows an effervescent Irène Jacob as Valentine, a young student and
model who forms an unlikely connection with a retired judge. Garnering
three Academy Award nominations, including Best Director for Kieślowski,
and nominated for the Palme d’Or, this vision of destiny and circumstance
examines the tenet of fraternity while closing out the career of an almost
mythic cinematic figure.
A retrospective of Kieślowski’s career would be incomplete without
spotlighting the documentaries from the nascence of his filmmaking. Our
documentary shorts program includes six nonfiction short films from 1971 to
1980, each observing different segments of Polish society. From the workers
of a funeral home, to a group of veterans blinded in a minefield, and a
security guard proclaiming his support for capital punishment, each short
acts as a portrait of Poland’s working class, detailing the aspirations,
fears and beliefs of a generation under communism.
Blind Chance, one of Kieślowski’s first feature films, was initially
censored by the Polish government for its politically contentious elements
as the political collides with the metaphysical in this layered narrative
of kismet that centers around a medical student ambivalent about his
future. Rounding out the series is the entirety of the filmmaker’s
masterful Dekalog miniseries and the resulting two feature length films
born out of it. Every hour-long installment is themed around one of The Ten
Commandments and explores the lives of residents in a housing project, with
Parts Five and Six being expanded into the feature films A Short Film About
Killing and A Short Film About Love respectively. The miniseries has
received a myriad of praise internationally since its debut, as well as
winning the BAFTA TV Award for Best International Programme, and has
transcended the preconceived notions of television as an artistic medium.
Shot by nine different cinematographers, with stirring music by Zbigniew
Preisner and compelling performances from established and unknown actors
alike, Dekalog arrestingly explores the unknowable forces that shape our
lives.
The Double Life of Veronique
Krzysztof Kieślowski / 1991 / 98min / 4K DCP
Sunday, May 3 at 3:00 PMAero Theatre1328 Montana Ave, Santa Monica, CA90403
The film that introduced Kieślowski to an international audience,
metaphysical mystery The Double Life of Véronique features Irène Jacob in
a double role, playing Weronika, a soprano in a Polish choir, and
Véronique, a French music teacher. The two doppelgangers meet only once
yet share a deep synchronicity.
A Short Film About Love & A Short Film About Killing
Wednesday, May 13 at 7:30 PMAero Theatre1328 Montana Ave, Santa Monica,
CA90403
Krzysztof Kieślowski / 1988 / 87min / DCPAn expanded version of episode VI
in Dekalog, this film examines love, longing and sex through the story of a
young postal worker who spies on a promiscuous woman.
Krzysztof Kieślowski / 1988 / 85min / DCPA powerful expiation of episode V
of Dekalog, A Short Film About Killing considers societal violence in its
many forms through the story of an idealistic young lawyer and the brutal
murderer he is called to defend.
Three Colors: Blue
Krzysztof Kieślowski / 1993 / 94min / DCP
Sunday, May 17 at 5:00 PMEgyptian Theatre6712 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles,
CA90028
In the devastating first film of the Three Colors trilogy, Juliette Binoche
gives a tour de force performance as Julie, a woman reeling from the tragic
death of her husband and young daughter. But Blue is more than just a
blistering study of grief; it’s also a tale of liberation, as Julie
attempts to free herself from the past while confronting truths about the
life of her late husband, a composer. 
Three Colors: White 
Krzysztof Kieślowski / 1994 / 92min / DCP
Sunday, May 17 at 6:43 PMEgyptian Theatre6712 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles,
CA90028
Q&A with actor Julie Delpy
The most playful and also the grittiest of Kieślowski’s Three Colors
films follows the adventures of Karol Karol (Zbigniew Zamachowski), a
Polish immigrant living in France. The hapless hairdresser opts to leave
Paris for his native Warsaw when his wife (Julie Delpy) sues him for
divorce and then frames him for arson after setting her own salon ablaze.
White, which goes on to chronicle Karol Karol’s elaborate revenge plot,
manages to be both a ticklish dark comedy about the economic inequalities
of Eastern and Western Europe and a sublime reverie about twisted love.
Three Colors: Red
Krzysztof Kieślowski / 1994 / 99min / DCP
Sunday, May 17 at 8:44 PMEgyptian Theatre6712 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles,
CA90028
Kieślowski closes his Three Colors trilogy in grand fashion, with an
incandescent meditation on fate and chance, starring Irène Jacob as a
sweet-souled yet somber runway model in Geneva whose life dramatically
intersects with that of a bitter retired judge, played by Jean‑Louis
Trintignant. Meanwhile, just down the street, a seemingly unrelated story
of jealousy and betrayal unfolds. Red is an intimate look at forged
connections and a splendid final statement from a remarkable filmmaker at
the height of his powers.
Blind Chance
Wednesday, May 20 at 7:00 PMLos Feliz Theatre1822 N Vermont Ave, Los
Angeles, CA90027
Uncertain as to where his future lies after his father’s death robs him
of his sense of vocation, medical student Witek (Bogusław Linda)
impulsively decides to catch a train to Warsaw. Kieślowski’s triptych
film shows three possible outcomes branching off from this pivotal moment,
with our protagonist alternately joining the Communist Party, joining the
anti-Communist resistance, or resuming his studies with renewed vigor, and
facing further adversities in every case. Suppressed by Polish authorities
on its completion in 1981, Blind Chance would only surface six years later,
in a compromised form, in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film
Festival.
Krzysztof Kieślowski Documentary Shorts Program
Friday, May 29 at 4:00 PMLos Feliz Theatre1822 N Vermont Ave, Los Angeles,
CA90027
A program of Kieślowski’s short nonfiction films, where the same
dedication as found in his fiction work. Includes The Office, an early
study in bureaucratic torment produced while the director was still at
Łódź Film School; I Was a Soldier, a platform for blind veterans to
recall their experiences and recount their dreams; From a Night Porter’s
Point of View, a 17-minute interview with a highly opinionated minor
security functionary who revels in the small portion of authority he
enjoys; Hospital, an immersion into 24 hours in the life in an overcrowded
and underfunded Warsaw emergency room; Talking Heads, in which 79
interviewees from various walks of life and of all ages answer same
questions; and Railway Station, trying to photograph ‘lost’ people”
at the Warsaw Central Railway Station.
Dekalog: One & Two
Sunday, Jun 14 at 7:00 PMLos Feliz Theatre1822 N Vermont Ave, Los Angeles,
CA90027
Dekalog focuses on the residents of a housing complex in late-Communist
Poland, whose lives become subtly intertwined as they face emotional
dilemmas that are at once deeply personal and universally human. Its ten
hour-long films, drawing from the Ten Commandments for thematic inspiration
and an overarching structure, grapple deftly with complex moral and
existential questions concerning life, death, love, hate, truth, and the
passage of time. 
Dekalog: Three & Four 
Sunday, Jun 21 at 7:00 PMLos Feliz Theatre1822 N Vermont Ave, Los Angeles,
CA90027
The first four episodes of Kieślowski and co-writer Krzysztof
Piesiewicz’s serial masterwork. Each episode inspired by one of the Ten
Commandments, focused on a resident or residents of a single late-Communist
era housing complex, and exploring the difficulties that arise in following
ancient proscriptions in a complex contemporary world.
Dekalog: Five & Six
Sunday, June 28 at 10:00 PMLos Feliz Theatre1822 N Vermont Ave, Los
Angeles, CA90027
The fifth and sixth episodes—titled, respectively, Thou Shall Not Kill,
later expanded on in Kieślowski’s A Short Film About Killing, and Thou
Shall Not Commit Adultery, expanded as A Short Film About Love—are
perhaps the most celebrated entries in the Dekalog.
Dekalog: Seven & Eight
Sunday, July 5 at 7:00 PMLos Feliz Theatre1822 N Vermont Ave, Los Angeles,
CA90027
No less compelling, and ethically knotty, however, is the seventh chapter,
Thou Shalt Not Steal, in which the disputed “property” in question is a
six-year-old girl caught in a tug-of-war custody battle between her
grandmother and mother, which soon crosses over the line of legality. In
the eight episode, Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness, an ethics professor
reflects on the unexpected consequences of failing to help a Jewish girl
during the war. 
Dekalog: Nine & Ten
Sunday, July 12 at 7:00 PMLos Feliz Theatre1822 N Vermont Ave, Los Angeles,
CA90027
Monumental serial counts down the remaining Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy
Neighbor’s Wife and Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbor's Goods. In the
tragicomic Covet Thy Neighbor’s Wife, an impotent middle-aged man urges
his wife to take a lover and bitterly regrets it. In the final chapter, two
sons inherit their late father’s valuable stamp collection and become
dangerously obsessed with it. Together they form the capstone to one of
cinema’s most majestic works, despite its television origins.
The Polish Cultural Institute New York presents a retrospective in
partnership with the American Cinematheque.
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