The article entitled “The mystery of human being and the hagiographic portrait — two film bio-graphies of Father Maksymilian Kolbe” presents a comparative analysis of two films: Życie za życie — Maksymilian Kolbe [Life for life: Maksymilian Kolbe] by Krzysztof Zanussi and Dwie korony [The two crowns] by Michał Kondrat. Both films are discussed in the context of the notion of “a religious movie”. The former film, although made on commission, may be described in the categories of personal style of an eminent filmmaker who nonetheless remains baffled when confronted with a spiritual mystery of the man proclaimed saint. The latter is characterized as a hagiographic and educational text with little artistic value.
The article presents various semantic levels of the film of Lech Majewski entitled Angelus (2001). The author concentrates mainly on the history of Upper Silesia in the period between 1930–1950, the history of the occult commune and the painting society, the so-called “Janów Group”, as well as the relation sacred-profane, expressed by the references to the history of the Rosicrucian Order. Another context discussed in the article is the intersemioticism of the film (especially the relations between painting and film). The interpretation of the film takes into account the basic context that is the artistic activity of Lech Majewski.
The article presents the character of the zombie popular in the contemporary audio-visual culture by placing it in the context of post humanist paradigm. He concentrates on the brain symbolism representative for the character, which, in the classical understanding of the living dead, due to dissimilar functioning, makes it different from humans and their brain-like traits: the mind and heart. Analysing the recent films such as Warm Bodies and The Girl with All the Gifts, he demonstrates the present inadequacy of such a division. Unlike the classical Night of the Living Dead, they are in line with post anthropocentric and new materialism philosophy, by differently symbolically depicting the role and place of the human in the world. It is presently tantamount to the place of non-humans: animals, objects, artefacts and monsters including the living dead. The change of the cultural and film paradigm observed in zombie horrors indicates a deeper strategy of authors of those popular films.
The article discusses several screen adaptations of the drama Dybbuk or Between Two Worlds by Szymon An-ski. Written on the basis of an old Jewish legend, An-ski’s play has provided inspiration for many movies. The four analysed works represent different cultural traditions and film genres and come from different decades of the cinema history. Diverse as they are, these four works emphasize different issues. They are: Dybbuk by M. Waszyński – the best Polish movie in Yiddish exploring the Jewish folklore; A Serious Man by the Coen brothers, with a ‘dybbuk’ prologue that redefines their art towards the Judaic tradition, as well as two other works that are strongly characteristic of the film genres that they represent: The Possession by O. Bornedal, using the poetics of religious horror, and the Polish thriller The Demon by M. Wrona, drawing from the tradition of the national drama as defined by Wesele [The Wedding ] by S. Wyspiański and its screen adaptations and travestations.
This essay shows the motif of death in the film works of Andrzej Żuławski in the perspective of the theatre of horror. Starting with Trzecia część nocy (The Third Part of the Night) (1971) until his late work Szamanka (The Shaman Woman) (1996), this film work is shown as evolving from the patronage of the conception of art of Antonin Artaud, serving the transformation of man up to its peculiar autoparody, which is closer to Grand Guignol. The author proves that escalation of cruelty in his works gradually loses its artistic pretext (justification) ceases to be artistically justified (no longer find artistic justification).
This article presents the influence that Witold Gombrowicz’s work has had on Polish cinema. It covers several generations of directors, for example, Andrzej Munk (born in the 1920s), Roman Polański and Jerzy Skolimowski (born in the 1930) as well as Agnieszka Holland, Piotr Szulkin and Marek Koterski (born in the 1940s and 1950s), and discusses the topic of film adaptations of his books (Jerzy Skolimowski’s Ferdydurke and Jan Jakub Kolski’s Pornografia [Pornography]). The article shows that Polish cinema uses Gombrowicz’s works most of all by taking up the issue of life’s authenticity and inauthenticity as well as to demythologize Polish tradition and history. As for esthetics, it employs Gombrowicz’s favorite style, i.e. the grotesque.
This article presents Lech Majewski's works in the context of the intersemiotic translation: how the world painting functions in the literature and films of this author. Majewski attempts to make dreams of the modern synthesis of arts come true and in this he reminds of the activities of his Renaissance master, Leonardo da Vinci. This Polish artist by means of the painting tradition (both works as well as fragments of painters' biographies), set in the context of other media (literature, theatre, film) wants to create a modern, intermediate garden of arts whose central topic is the vision of paradise. It can be understood as a place of existence of heroes of his works and - metaphorically - the language of art which the art uses freely uses various materials and media.
The article presents the first important science fiction films made in Czechoslovakia in three decades, 40s, 50s and 60s of the 20th century, in order to show that they constitute the basis of this type of cinema-tography in Poland’s southern neighbour. They reflect various models of film fantasy from a pessimistic note in Krakatit (1948) by Otakar Vávra, different from the humanistic optimism of its literary prototype (novel by K. Čapek) put in the context of the post-war nuclear threats to a vivid and graceful 19th century gravure illustrating the novels of Jules Verne in the film by Karel Zeman Vynález zkázy (1958). The last to be made was an adaptation of Stanisław Lem’s novel Obłok Magellana, titled – Ikaria XB-1 (1963) (not mentioned in the opening credits) directed by J. Polák which turned out to be the most modern sci-fi film of the times because of its realism.
PL
Artykuł przedstawia pierwsze ważne filmy science fiction powstałe w Czechosłowacji w trzech dekadach – latach 40., 50. oraz 60. ubiegłego wieku, pokazując, że stanowią one podwaliny tego typu kina u naszych południowych sąsiadów. Wszystkie realizują odmienny model ekranowej fantastyki, lecz w odróżnieniu od Krakatit (1948). Otakara Vávry nadającego mu rys pesymizmu, inny od huma-nistycznego optymizmu literackiego pierwowzoru (powieść K. Čapka) i wtłaczającego go w kontekst powojennych zagrożeń atomowych, a także feerycznego, pełnego wdzięku XIX-wiecznej grawiury ilustrującej powieści Julesa Verne’a filmu Karela Zemana Diabelski wyna-lazek (1958), to właśnie najpóźniej powstała (niezaznaczona w napisach czołowych) adaptacja powieści Stanisława Lema Obłok Magellana, zatytułowana – Ikaria XB-1 (1963) w reżyserii J. Poláka okazał się najbardziej nowoczesnym, bo stawiającym na realizm, utworem czeskiego kina SF tamtego okresu.
In this paper, I intended to analyse Polish feature films devoted to three central categories: orientalism, postcolonialism and the clash of cultures (civilizations). This article presents the Polish cinema in the following three areas and types. First of all, there are works which show an exotic, oriental space. Secondly, there are films with a hero who is a stranger and an enemy. Finally, in the newest films the protagonist – a new comer from the East – becomes accepted and understood.
PL
Artykuł analizuje obecność wątków orientalnych (blisko- i dalekowschodnich) w polskim filmach fabularnych zrealizowanych po II wojnie światowej w perspektywie takich pojęć jak: orientalizm, postkolonializm i zderzenie kultur. Wynika z tych obserwacji, że obecność tych wątków w naszym kinie jest wciąż skromna, choć po przełomie politycznym z 1989 roku jest ich nieco więcej. Grupuje omawiane filmy w trzy typy: pokazujące egzotykę przestrzeni rodem ze Wschodu, przedstawiające bohatera który jest obcym i wrogiem oraz te, w których przybysz ze Wschodu zaczyna być rozumiany i akceptowany, co ma miejsce w utworach najnowszych.
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