Talking Heads (1980) User Reviews

Very Captivating.

[paulgeaf · 9/10 · 3 April 2009]

This one I think either the very first, or one of the first films by Krzysztof Kieslowski I had ever seen and I remember thinking how incredible this was. So simple. No flashy camera work, three questions and some fascinating answers. Asking ordinary working people some simple questions and yet, you get more of an understanding of real life and the plight or happiness or torture or emotion of the human condition than you will find in any other film.

The end is even clever in that it leaves you not knowing whether to feel sad or happy.

I loved this film.

Only gave it a 9 because well...is there really ever a ten?!

fascinating short documentary

[framptonhollis · 8/10 · 28 December 2016]

Since I'm enjoying the "Dekalog" films so much, I wanted to check out some of acclaimed Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Kieślowski's other work before continuing the series. Because it has been in my watchlist for a while now, I decided to watch his 18 minute long documentary film "Talking Heads". In the film, many different people are interviewed and speak about their personalities, life, problems, and desires. It's a fascinating and intriguing idea that is executed very well.

This film really seems to represent life itself. Sometimes it is funny, sometimes it is sad-you meet many different personalities and you have many different characteristics. In this film, all sorts of people are interviewed from ages 1 to 100. Some of them are happy, others are sad, and all of their moods and emotions clash together beautifully to create a wonderful portrait of the world surrounding us all.

Who Are You? What Do You Want?

[boblipton · 8/10 · 19 June 2020]

Seemingly dozens of people tackle this question, from an infant who sits there silently, to a woman a hundred years old.

Actually, they don't seem to address the first question, or perhaps in Polish the distinction is not clear. They answer not who they are, but what they are: a potential fireman, or a taxi driver, or a sociologist, or a recent widow or one hundred years old. The answer to the second question also shows an interesting arc: the very young speak of what they want personally, the adults of what they want society to be, and the old and very old.... want nothing. A few more years perhaps.

A great Polish documentary film. Master cameraman Jacek Petrycki and Master director Krzysztof Kieslowski film answers to some ordinary,moral questions ! ! !

[FilmCriticLalitRao · 10/10 · 5 August 2008]

Gadajace Glowy is a serious documentary film of 15 minutes which features people from different age groups,backgrounds and professions. A common element of all answers involves respect for an individual. Kieslowski starts his film by asking three simple questions to a boy aged 1 year.These questions are: a) Who are you ? b) When were you born ? c) What is important for you ? These three questions are asked to many young children,boys,girls,men and women.We get to hear very calculated replies which evoke all kinds of human feelings.It is through these replies that we come to know that Polish people are exhorted to be brave,honest and decent in their daily lives.Master cameraman Jacek Petrycki carefully films these replies which have been formulated in order to state that individual freedom is not enough as people must live in a democratic setup.At the end of the film,one of the most poignant reply comes from a lady who is 100 years old.She states that she would like to live more.Talking Heads is a documentary film of highest quality about heads which talk.It is not an ordinary,trite talk which one gets to hear. Kieslowski has conceived "Talking Heads" in such a manner that we get to hear frank views about life from simple,ordinary human beings.

A sixteen minutes long tour in the realm of Profound: tender and human...

[mariuszw · 10/10 · 27 October 2009]

The idea behind this short film is breathtakingly simple yet its execution by Krzysztof Kieślowski is truly masterful. Each time I watch this documentary I am experiencing a profound sense of being close, touchingly close to another human's heart.

Tender, human dimension of many of these strangers, young, elderly, and some very old, highly educated, and some plain simple -- yet all of them so genuine, so real, and dignified, as never any actor could possibly be, makes me want to embrace many of them and say: "You are my dear brother, you are my beloved sister."

This work of Kieślowski demonstrates perhaps better than ever that the Polish film director first of all was interested in what was Genuine, what was Profound, what was True and Essential. A master of human heart, of human soul, and of camera.

Who are we? When we were born? What do we want from life?

[Rodrigo_Amaro · 10/10 · 9 March 2011]

In "Gadajace glowy" ("Talking Heads") Krzysztof Kieslowski filmed people of all ages and asked them when they were born, what they are, and what they would like the most in life. The film assembles their responses with straight cuts from youngest to oldest (starting with a baby and ending with a lady of 100 years-old), and with their birth years appearing on screen, going from 1979 until 1880.

But what's so fascinating about this short documentary is how the things said by all the people interviewed are the same things most people, all around the globe, want in their lives, so the film proves that we have a common goal in different stages of life. A kid answers that all he wants in life is to have a car, later a grow man still doesn't know what he wants for his life except to know what it is to be a human being, some people share great aspects of their lives and others a more reserved, quite sad opinions, but in the end all of their statements is to tell that they expect of life better and good things.

It's a very positive film in its simple achievement, way better than "49 Up" a documentary that followed the lives of a bunch of individuals and most of them succeeding in what they were destined to be, others don't. In these last one, I haven't found much use of the information provided, it was depressive and almost pointless. It's good but very forgettable. Now, "Gadajace glowy" is very good and Kieslowski makes a universal work (even though the people interviewed are Polish) that resonates life as it is. Complex and simple at the same time, all people want the same things out of it (and you'll be identified with most of the answers given) but something makes us closer of our destiny, other times very distant, almost impossible. For everything that stands it's a great and unforgettable documentary. Thumbs UP! 10/10

4.21.2024

[EasonVonn · 8/10 · 21 April 2024]

Cinéma vérité, Director forced himself to be included in the film. And I think this film can be one of the earliest images that close to today's internet rumbles about the interview from a child to an old man, and this one had its own purity. Not absolutely at all but it's belong to the time of 1980s. It's now here became the shortcut of those realness films, how can we trust directors didn't cut some censored parts out? And now we can revise the quote but Jean-Luc Godard to "24 lies per second". Cinéma vérité, Director forced himself to be included in the film. And I think this film can be one of the earliest images that close to today's internet rumbles about the interview from a child to an old man, and this one had its own purity. Not absolutely at all but it's belong to the time of 1980s. It's now here became the shortcut of those realness films, how can we trust directors didn't cut some censored parts out? And now we can revise the quote but Jean-Luc Godard to "24 lies per second".

Life and morals

[paul2001sw-1 · 6/10 · 14 November 2004]

In 1980, the late Krzysztof Kieslowski interviewed a number of ordinary Poles (born at various times over the preceding 100 years), asking them who they were and what they wanted from life. The results were assembled into this short film. What strikes one today, whether it is a sign of communist Poland at this time, or merely of Kieslowksi's own fascination with moral questions, is how sombre and serious most of the answers are: no-one says they want to sleep with a film star or make a quick million. It's also noticeable how similar the answers are, despite the great age difference of the participants. The best answer is fittingly the last one.

Simple, yet effective

[Horst_In_Translation · 6/10 · 19 July 2015]

This is a 15-minute black-and-white short film by Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski. He made it in 1980 when he already had a prolific body of work and yet was over a decade ago from his most famous works. In this short documentary, he interviews people about very general, but equally personal questions. The most interesting thing is that he starts with a newborn and then moves back in time in terms of the year in which the interviewees were born. The last one was born in 1880 already. Before her, we hear a woman who just became a widow very briefly before this was made. This was possibly the most emotional moment when she tells that there is nothing she wants from life anymore. She was probably married 50 years or longer and now she is alone. Truly sad. A good little movie and I recommend watching it because I found it interesting what people had to say about life back then. All in all, not too different maybe from what people would answer today and I am actually curious how lives went on for the people in this film. That's certainly a success. Raising interest in the audience is always a strong achievement. Watch it.

"I'm not really sure who I am."

[classicsoncall · 6/10 · 15 December 2017]

What year were you born? Who are you? What do you most wish for?

These are three questions director Krzysztof Kieslowski asks of approximately forty different people ranging in age from an infant up to an elderly woman who has hit the century mark. Filmed in Poland in 1980, the piece seems to be a reflection of the times. It's a somber film in tone, though the responses one hears carry an uplifting message, in as much as many of the interviewees express their personal desires for freedom, democracy, tolerance, justice, security and peace. These goals transcend an individual's desire for personal fame or riches, an outcome that one might have expected if the film were made today. Or perhaps not. Most of the people answering the questions had a thoughtful approach and appeared to take the questions seriously. Dispensing with a verbal response to the first question, the film short acknowledged the birth year of each respondent, as each successive person was older than the one before. I thought the film ended with an odd yet optimistic response from a hundred year old woman.

What did she most wish for? "I'd like to live longer!"