Historie Milosne

A moral tale about love and the vicissitudes of life in a post-socialist society, in which people are constantly forced to make choices.
Jerzy Stuhr is without doubt the foremost student of Kieslowski and has decided to make films in the spirit of the maestro - understandable considering he has acted in several Kieslowski films. The role for which he received most attention was that of the unhappy, impotent man in ”White” - the second in Kieslowski's colour trilogy and a very personal interpretation of equality - the slogan of the French Revolution.
Stuhr has not only directed the film, but he has also written the screenplay. He also plays all four of the lead roles: a teacher who has a persistent admirer in one of his students, a general whose Russian mistress creates problems in Nato circles, a drug dealer who is cheated by his wife while in jail, and a priest who discovers one day that he is the father of a ten year-old girl. Each of the four is the main character in a story of their own, that Stuhr has joined together into a feature film in a very smooth and simple fashion. At the end of the film, two of them take an elevator down to a grey shadow world - Stuhr cinematographic equivalent to Dante's Limbo. Only the one who acceptslove has a future to look forward to.
”Histoire Milosne” is a film with obvious catholic undertones, which, however, does not weigh it down. There is a subtle humour that has it's source in the realization that life is a bumpy existence. It's nice to see that there is such rich growth in Kieslowski's wake. The film is of course, dedicated to the maestro.
Peter Loewe