(Spoilers) Magda's apartment is across a courtyard from Tomek's. Outside of working as a clerk in the local post office Tomek's main passion is spying on Magda through his telescope. As shy as he is, he is driven by his obsession to establish contact with Magda.

I view this movie as more of a parable than as a believable drama. Would Magda leave all of her windows curtain-less? Would she not flee her stalker?

At first I fluctuated between being made very uncomfortable by Tomel's voyeurism, but came to understand that his obsession arose from an immature concept of love as platonic--he answers "no" to Magda's questioning if he wants to kiss her or have sex with her. Magda is coming from the opposite position of feeling that love does not exist, only sex.

In the intense crucial scene where Magda gently seduces Tomek by merely placing his hands on her thighs, Tomek is stimulated to the point of having an orgasm while still fully clothed. This so shatters his concept of love, and of himself, that he runs away and later attempts suicide.

On Magda's side, when she comes to understand just how powerfully Tomek felt about her, she realizes that her feelings for him have been more than sexual.

Had both Tomek and Magda come at their encounter with the idea that love has both platonic and sexual aspects, then maybe they could have had something meaningful between them. The movie ends with Magda envisioning what could have been.

Zbigniew Preisner's rather sentimental and repetitive score is a bit of a departure from his more commonly operatic formalism, but effective nonetheless, with the themes reflecting the storyline.

A gripping and intriguing story about loving someone from afar. This is one of those films that I randomly pick up from whatever thread I come across, and now, having seen it, I am really surprised that it's mostly unknown. From the late Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski---I know, good luck on pronouncing his name, this is the extended version of the sixth episode of The Decalogue. Tomek is nineteen years old, a single guy who works in a post office. Every night, he spies on Magda, a middle-aged woman who lives in the building across. He falls in love with her and decides to profess his love one day after seeing her cry the previous night. At first, Magda doesn't take him seriously and she eventually hurts him. What follows after is both tragic and moving. This film is really spell-binding, from the powerful human emotions it displays to its sincere silent moments. It is a true gem of cinema, a special story waiting to be told. The characters are very real and the emotions they convey very honest. The obsession and the desperation felt by the protagonists are simply too painful to watch. This film is not readily available to some but it is worth every second of searching.

http://iwascalledclementine.multiply.com/reviews

I suppose Gaspar Noe never seen this film, otherwise he would've known how to make a movie about love.

I have no words...