Camera Buff

1979 movie movie

Rating: 16/20

Plot: A guy who works at a factory buys an 8mm camera to record his baby daughter, but filming turns into a hobby and then an obsession.

Second movie from 1979 in a row that is directly about filmmaking. This might be the funniest Kieslowski movie I've seen--though Three Colors: White was also really funny--but there's also a great sense of melancholy hovering over the story of this simple man who gets sucked into this world. This unfolds like a quiet tragedy.

It's unclear to me what Kieslowski is saying about himself personally as a filmmaker. Before this, he was only making documentaries. What's he saying about the "truths" in these documentaries about common people and places? Choices during both the filmmaking and editing process have consequences here, not just in the personal life of our protagonist but in the lives and careers of others as well. Kieslowski's focus isn't just on the sacrifices of an artist, the effects of devoting oneself to a craft, or the negative effects of somebody needing more than tranquility. There are also moments when Kieslowski uses the amateur films of Jerzy Stuhr's characters to show the positive influence film can have in people's lives. A post-funeral revisit of a film was very touching, and the reaction of a short film's subject and his wife were also great.

Tadeusz Rzepka has a shot at winning a Billy Curtis award for those of you who want to go to Vegas and put some money on it.