It seems Kieslowski’s most autobiographical film as the main character’s plight mirrors the shift in his own career from making documentaries to making narrative films. As such, even when he was displaying real questionable judgment, the motivations were so multi-layered that I consistently felt sympathy toward the main character as well.
The documentary I’d watched prior made it seem as though the film was about some talentless hack who becomes morbidly obsessed with his “new toy”, as I just said in my first post, but that’s not what the film’s about at all, obviously.
Mars in Aries
I’ll say I sympathized with him. At the start of the film he certainly seems a bit loser-ish, but as the film progressed I found myself sympathizing with his plight, trying to find his purpose in life in the face of opposition from all sides. I know that sounds broad, but hopefully I’ll get my thoughts together as the thread develops. So in the end I didn’t think he was a loser at all. One thing I will say is after having watched the Kieslowski documentary on the Veronique Criterion release, my impression was that the film was about a loser who ignores his responsibilities in life after becoming morbidly obsessed with his “new toy”. But I discovered when finally watching it that that’s not really what the film is about at all. I trusted him so to speak the way one trusts Antoine Doinel in The 400 Blows, if you know what I mean, even though both characters have issues. Thoughts?