Film as Midrash - Decalogue 1 and 5

Midrash is a type of interpretation or the perspective with which someone views the world. In the Decalogue films Midrash is displayed through two main characters. In the first film it is displayed through the father, the father is a scientific man, a man who is interested in figuring out how the world works. The father is caught up in technology and sees the world from the view of a man who needs proof before he believes. This view from the father comes back to haunt him when he does the calculations on the strength of the ice on the lake. He does this and even tests the ice himself, to know that his son could skate on the lake. The father trusts in science and calculations, not in God or the faith he has now lost or at least fallen away from. We know he has fallen away because his sister explains it to his son, we know he grew up Catholic and is not a non-believer, but is big on measurements and needs a certain bit of proof to believe or understand something. In the other Decalogue movie we watched, number five, the idea of perspective comes in a few subtle ways. The character we follow is the killer, Jacek. Jacek is seen differently by different people, by the little girls at the coffee shop he is viewed as funny, kind man. The man who he kills, he is viewed as crazy person and killer. The lawyer who represents him he is viewed as a young man who is sorry for his actions and deserves to live(in prison, but still live). Jacek also views other things in his own way, when passing that man in the middle of the road while he is in the taxi, he feels guilt knowing what he is about to do and proceeds to hide his head in the shadow. This is done as if the man will then not see him. Also Jacek moves behind the taxi driver and is seen at different angle, this is to get an angle to strangle the man but Jacek is also at a different view point of the driver then. Jacek goes through a couple vantage points when killing the taxi driver as well, the driver door, down by the lake, then covering the man's head. The idea of Midrash is displayed by these characters in that they themselves view the world in a certain way and the world views them in a certain way as well.