The article is devoted to the Polish Film School. The origins of the phenomenon are pre-sented against the background of Polish cinema in post-communist times. The author emphasizes the impact of Italian neo¬ realism upon the Polish Film School, which is strongly reflected in cinematography. Also similarities with and inspirations from German expres-sionism are traced. Critics’ opinions on the most significant films from the Polish Film School and the movement itself are cited.
Uchwała Sekretariatu Komitetu Centralnego PZPR z czerwca 1960 r. prezentuje stanowisko władz partyjnych zaniepokojonych „negatywnymi” skutkami decentralizacji kinematografii dokonanej w roku 1956. Uwaga autora skupia się zwłaszcza na pierwszej części tego dokumentu poświęconej ocenie twórczości. Utworzenie zespołów filmowych i seria niezmiernie doniosłych dzieł, jakie za ich sprawą powstały, zmieniły status społeczny i rangę kina w PRL. Choć dążenia twórcze środowiska zostały przejściowo ograniczone, pomimo restrykcji w ciągu następnych kilkunastu lat powstało wiele wybitnych filmów, będących w istocie kontynuacją polskiej szkoły filmowej.
EN
The resolution of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the PZPR (Polish United Worker’s Party) from June 1960 presents the position of party authorities concerned about the “negative” effects of the decentralization of cinematography in 1956. The author’s attention is focused in particular on the first part of this document devoted to the assessment of creativity. The creation of film groups and a series of immensely important works created by them have changed the social status and rank of cinema in the People’s Republic of Poland. Although the creative aspirations of the community have been temporarily limited, despite the restrictions over the next dozen or so years, many outstanding films were made, which are in fact a continuation of the Polish Film School.
The article deals with the relationship between film and painting, as well as the sciences (physics, cosmology) of the 20th century. It introduces the historical context important for the time when Kubrick’s film was made, and addresses the issue of abstraction in cinema, contemporary painting and cosmology, confronting artistic and scientific ideas (the models of the Universe). The starting point for the detailed analysis was “autonomous abstract film” (Alicja Helman), which as a film inside a film combines various cinematic types and genres. The analysis of takes and sequences of this film inside a film made it possible to decipher the director’s idea, which is expressed in intra-film references. The particular results of the research were compared with the possible iconographic context (Gerhard Richter). The inclusion of a diagnosis obtained on the basis of materials examined in the Kubrick Archives in London (Kamil Kościelski), and references to cultural tradition (Plato), supplement the aforementioned considerations in an important way.
The text is devoted to discussing the formation methods and the functions of screen space in shots by Mieczysław Jahoda in the films Zimowy zmierzch (directed by S. Lenartowicz) and Pętla (directed by W.J. Has). Mieczysław Jahoda is presented as one of the main initiators of stylistic changes in the films of Polish School in the mid 1950s. The analysis concerns the camera means applied by Jahoda in order to obtain screen effects: light, frame composition, photographic optics and perspective transformation. The film shots by Mieczysław Jahoda are characterized by an exceptional ability to evoke mental space, emotions, memory and imagination via the shapes of screen space. Their feature is a special esthetization aimed at creating the atmosphere of films, as well as symbolic and cultural references.
Films of Polish Film School, the most significant formation in post-war history of Polish cinema, appeared in Czechoslovakia with several years of delay. Power feared that their message will be dangerous for spectators. Meanwhile – for viewers, they remain unknown or difficult to understand and only a few critics and film historians could read them in accordance with the intentions of the directors Andrzej Munk and Andrzej Wajda, being the main representatives of the stream.
PL
How in Czechoslovakia films by Munk and Wajda were conceived – or films in the context of tangled history Films of Polish Film School, the most signifi cant formation in post-war history of Polish cinema, appeared in Czechoslovakia with several years of delay. Power feared that their message will be dangerous for spectators. Meanwhile – for viewers they remain unknown or diffi cult to understand and only a few critics and fi lm historians could read them in accordance with the intentions of the directors Andrzej Munk and Andrzej Wajda, being the main representatives of the stream.
The subject of the study is an attempt to reconsider the artistic achievements of the Polish film school, taken in terms of hermeneutics. The author questions the hitherto shots of this phenomenon aiming at reorienting the circular way of its recognition and proposing his own view.
PL
Przedmiotem studium jest próba ponownego rozpoznania artystycznego dorobku polskiej szkoły filmowej, podjęta w kategoriach hermeneutyki. Autor kwestionuje dotychczasowe ujęcia tego zjawiska, zmierzając do przeorientowania obiegowego sposobu jego ujmowania i proponując własne spojrzenie.
This article is devoted to Polish comedies made in 1960s and dealing with the Second World War. The films analysed are: Stanislaw Lenartowicz’s Giuseppe in Warsaw, Tadeusz Chmielewski’s Where is the General? and How I caused the Second World War, and Bronislaw Brok’s Cafe “Under a lamprey”. The presented films posed questions and presented situations that were not that different from those described by the Polish Film School, however they provided completely different answers, thus becoming a part of the cinema of new memory. Visions of the world, the war and the Polish role in it presented in those films fitted in well with the political and ideological context of the time, and the societal expectations. The comedies avoided controversies, and referred to the stereotypes and auto-stereotypes accepted within the society, and applied conventions of the genre, in particular – farce. Their present day popularity proves that they represent values that go beyond the cultural politics of the decade.
The author analyses the ways Holocaust was presented in Polish films that were made during the existence of the Polish Film School. Using the examples of films, the majority of which remains in the shadow of the great „canon” of the Polish school, Haltof attempts to place the image of Holocaust presented in them within the artistic, historical and political context. The author analyses films such as Andrzej Wajda’s Samson, and Generation, Ewa and Czeslaw Petelski’s Barker, Stanislaw Rozewicz’s Birth Certificate, Jerzy Zarzycki’s White Bear, and Andrzej Munk’s The Passenger, as well as two short films: Andrzej Brzozowski’s By the Railway Track, and Janusz Morgenstern’s Ambulance. By analyzing them, the author writes about how ways of connecting and disconnecting the Polish and Jewish fate, the tragedy of children that were victims of the Holocaust, about the attitudes of Poles towards Jews seeking help, and of the film attempts to find the psychological dimension of the relationship between the oppressed and the oppressors.
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