The Ten: Update, Interviews and Website.

According to various reports The Ten is currently filming in New York. The original soundbites gave the impression that the film was going to be a spoof of The Ten Commandments, whereas now it sound like it will be a bawdy version of Dekalog, only compressed down to a couple of hours…and in English.

There’s been a couple of recent interviews, one with Winona Ryder, one of the film’s stars, and one with director David Wain. Wain was interviewed by the Winona Ryder News Channel, where his comments include this excerpt:

Basically, it’s ten stories, each inspired by one of the Ten Commandments. Characters overlap and interweave... As it happens, our film has a very pro-Ten Commandments message - the characters that break God’s law pay the price. And none of the stories are about religion.

Then Winona herself was interviewed in “Entertainment Weekly”, and Wain’s personal website features it in JPEG form

The movie is obviously satirical and dirty, but it’s not mean. It actually does teach the Ten Commandments… just in a very ridiculous, funny way. I’m in a few segments. In one, I fall in love with a reporter, we go on our honeymoon, and go to a ventriloquist show. I fall in love with the dummy and we run away together…That vignette is for “Thou Shalt Not Steal,” which is great. [Laughs] I was keeping my fingers crossed for that one!

Firstly, it seems that although this is the type of movie that will probably draw criticism from certain quarters, it will ultimately uphold the importance of the Ten Commandments. By contrast, Kieslowski is distinctly ambivalent on the worthiness of some of the commandments in the Dekalog. Perhaps the only other passing similarity with Kieslowski’s films is that certain episodes will cover more than one commandment. For example, Ryder’s dummy vignette sounds like it fits both “Thou shalt not Steal”, but also “Thou Shalt not Commit Adultery”. It’s also interesting that she openly refers to her shoplifting incident, and, although it’s apparently coincidental, I wonder what attitude it reflects on her part.

There’s also now an official website for the film which is fairly basic at the moment, just containing a list of stars and little else (no photos or publicity pictures), but it’ll be worth keeping an eye on for updates.