Dekalogue VIII

Saw Dekalogue VIII, thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. It was about an old woman, an ethics professor, who is visited from her past. In WW2-era Poland, she had once tried to help hide a Jewish girl, only to refuse to help at the last second. The girl survived anyway and now, all grown up, contacts her to try to figure out her reasoning. It is assumed at first that the woman did not want to bear false witness (it was necessary to claim that the girl was a Christian) with cowardice being offered as the only other possible explanation. It turns out though, that the old woman had indeed behaved morally, and not for any reason so chilly as a refusal to lie. I won't spoil the justification though.

There is a lot going on in this episode (aside from the plot) which I found confusing. For example, there is a painting in the old woman's house which is always getting crooked. Both she and the girl repeatedly try to right this painting, only for it to fall back askew in the next scene. Perhaps this is a subtle indication that the old woman's house is not quite in order? Or is this a metaphor for some other vain task? Similarly, her lights and car are both shown to be slightly broken, though functional. Near the end of the film she meets a contortionist as she's jogging. He explains that anyone can do what he does with a bit of practice, but that she is too old by now. Is this contrasting her moral uprightness with his physical flexibility? There's a scene where some student arrives late and possibly drunk to her class and is shouted at by the other students. Meanwhile, another student moves their seat and we get these two pans across a row of students. One pan across an empty chair and one pan across the new occupant whom we never see again. I have no explanation for this scene whatsoever. This interrupts the Jewish girl telling her story, so perhaps we are meant to feel uneasy and confused? I have no idea.

As for bearing false witness, it seems only that the girl does this. She claims that the woman had refused to help due to a philosophical quibble and had thus placed the machinery of ethics before a human life. I kept looking for indications that the old woman was lying in her explanation, but I was frustrated in my search. Perhaps it could be argued that the painting and car and so on is meant to be a clue in this direction, but I prefer (now in retrospect) to interpret this episode as a plea for charity and flexibility, even for crooked paintings and flickering lights.