„Mój świat wypełnia ogień i krew” – „Mad Max: Na drodze gniewu” i semantyczne gry z postapokaliptycznym brudem

Author(s): Marcin Kowalczyk / Language(s): Polish Issue: 114/2021

The conventions of the post-apocalyptic cinema enforce a specific aesthetics, and its visual dominant is often dirt. This element is usually contrasted with the alleged purity of the world before a catastrophe. Mad Max: Fury Road (dir. George Miller, 2015) seems to be an example of this strategy. However, the article shows that Miller’s work reveals an interesting ambivalence: suggesting the legitimacy of the dirt-purity opposition typical of the convention, the film simultaneously undermines it. Therefore, in Mad Max: Fury Road we can see three different systems of meaning based on these categories. The first one is a consequence of the accepted convention, the next two show the original author’s vision and represent a successful artistic attempt to overcome the typical perception of some features of the post-apocalyptic world. The article uses elements of Roland Barthes’s semiotic analysis of film, as well as Mary Douglas’s findings on the category of dirt and purity in culture.

„Na wylot” Grzegorza Królikiewicza – produkcja, dystrybucja i recepcja

Author(s): Michał Dondzik / Language(s): Polish Issue: 108/2019

The article is devoted to "Through and Through" ("Na wylot", 1972) – the debut feature film of Grzegorz Królikiewicz. The author, basing his argument on the materials from the National Film Archive – Audiovisual Institute, New Files Archive and private collections, carefully reconstructs the production, distribution and promotional contexts of the film, also embedding them in a political context. Using the accounts of witnesses, excerpts from the film and daily press, he demonstrates, that although the critics, on balance, rated the film highly, it enjoyed only moderate interest from the audience, often meeting with very sharp reactions. The text resembles the film’s receptive context, heated discussions around it, violent replicas of both the critics and the director himself. Thanks to such extensive documentation, the text also refutes some myths that for years have grown around Królikiewicz’s work.

„Nie myślę, lecz jestem”: mózg, umysł i serce filmowej postaci zombie w kontekście paradygmatu posthumanistycznego

Author(s): Jacek Nowakowski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 34/2018

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.

„Nie sądzić” i „Wielki strach” – dwa małe ważne filmy

Author(s): Sławomir Sikora / Language(s): Polish Issue: 112/2020

Recently, the term “non-memory” (which should not be equated with oblivion) has gained importance in the Polish discourse on memory. It seems that scholarly discussions analysing the issues of World War II and post-war experiences have been dominated by the language of psychoanalysis; however, it is worth taking into consideration also vernacular languages. The author discusses the issues of memory and non-memory in relation to the extremely traumatic post-war experiences depicted in the two short films "Nie sądzić" ("Not to Judge", dir. Pawlina Carlucci Sforza and Magdalena Lubańska, 2017) and "Wielki strach" ("The Fear", dir. Pawlina Carlucci Sforza, 2020). They deal with this issue from different perspectives: the first in a more indirect way, the second – directly. People returning from forced labour in Germany after World War II were plundered and murdered by a local gang in a forest near Przeworsk. Traumatic knowledge about these events had been hidden for over seventy years.

„Nie zapomnij mnie”. O filmowo-ekonomicznej przestrzeni w dziejowości Wrocławia 1896-1945

Author(s): Barbara Lena Gierszewska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 36/2020

The author of the reviewed book for the first time shows how and why film preferences of the inhabitants of Breslau in the years 1896-1932 and 1933-1945 differed in relation to the choices of cinema audiences in other European cities during the same period. He uses the POPSTAT statistical method proposed for this purpose by the German researcher Joseph Potter. He also uses the scientific ideas of „attraction cinema” developed by André Gaudreault. He bases his research on analyzing film success rankings and to measure viewer preferences.

„Niech pani im to opowie…” niesłyszane głosy w Shoah Claude’a Lanzmanna

Author(s): Karolina Kwaśna,Magda Heydel / Language(s): Polish Issue: 38/2019

Claude Lanzmann’s nine-hour documentary Shoah (1985) is a rich source of knowledge on the Nazi extermination of Jews in Central Europe. Its main material consists of interviews with people who witnessed the Holocaust, conducted in the very locations of the wartime events. The present paper analyses an iconic scene from Chełmno on Ner, where between 1940–1943 and later 1944–1945 the first Nazi death camp was located. A group of locals – gathered in front of the parish church, around one of the survivors of the camp – recall the events, sometimes in stunning technical detail. Their Polish utterances are translated into French; English subtitles are based on the French of the interpreter. The Polish linguistic material is not neutral: it is marked with dialectal and sociolectal features; the speakers engage in conversation on the side, comment on the situation of the interview in various ways, verbal and non-verbal. In the translation, both into French and English, sentences are skipped, the plurality of voices is flattened, and differences in memory are smoothed out. The resulting text is rather a summary than a translation. The paper offers close-up analyses of chosen sequences from the interview to show the complexity of the communication situation and the extent of distortion caused by the way translation works in the film. It also offers an alternative translation, which aims at giving voice to the actual people of Chełmno and acknowledging as fully as possible the complication and difficulty of memory construction through language, especially in a highly traumatic area. It hopes to offer insights into the bystander position in Holocaust discourse.

„No animals were used in the making of this film?” Postzwierzęta i zew antropomorfizmu w epoce CGI

Author(s): Kamil Kalbarczyk / Language(s): Polish Issue: 110/2020

The article explores the impact of the digital revolution on animal representation in feature films. The author analyses computer-generated animals in the context of the progress of CGI and the effects of seamlessly compositing photorealistic animation with live action material. The author studies the phenomenon that has been developing since the 1990s in the context of visual effects studies and animal studies. He emphasizes the issue of progressive anthropomorphising of digital animals in the live action cinema of the last decade. The author differentiates three basic strategies for creating perceptually realistic animals, depending on the degree of their internal personification and external anthropomorphism or cartoonishness. Analysing "The Lion King" (dir. J. Favreau, 2019) the author notes a new trend, characteristic of hybrid cinema (a mélange of photorealistic animation and live action material): representations of deeply anthropomorphized fauna maintaining hyper-realistic physiognomy.

„Pasażerka”. Obraz wyrwany z błota

Author(s): Adam Cichoń / Language(s): Polish Issue: 114/2021

At the fiftieth anniversary of the premiere of Andrzej Munk’s The Passenger, Tadeusz Lubelski said that for Jean-Luc Godard, this was the best war film ever directed. Although it would be difficult to find documents confirming these words, the author of the article decided to rethink this statement and answer the question why The Passenger could be considered as the best war film. In so doing, the author attempts to perform the “work of imagination” which Didi-Huberman proposed as a method of fight against “the unimaginable”, a fight which is always undertaken “in spite of all”. In this article, the premises of Didi-Huberman’s method and Benjamin’s historical materialism are used to rethink montage in The Passenger. This work is a unique example of a film finished after the death of its author. The unusual montage used in The Passenger invites reflection about the trauma of image. At the same time, it is an exceptional testimony of image extracted from the mud of “the unimaginable”, an image saved from oblivion.

„Podivné přátelství“ režiséra Steklého - Krátká poznámka o dlouhé barrandovské kariéře (1945-1985)

Author(s): Petr Kopal / Language(s): Czech Publication Year: 0

The text comprehends the relation between the politics and culture (movies), everyday life of the filmmaker – especially after beginning of the normalization. It analyses the subject on the bases of the life of director Karel Steklý (1903–1987) and his long Barrandov career and quite a different example of Jiří Menzel (1938), the representative of the “new wave”, young but internationally famous holder of an Oscar for Closely Watched Trains (1966). At the beginning of the 1970s Barrandov’s new leadership made it impossible for him to work in the field. Menzel like other filmmakers naturally wanted to do his work and shoot movies. The conditions were clear: try to come to an agreement with normalization authorities, who on purpose dragged out the time of uncertainty, vagueness and humiliation (from the viewpoint of the cultural anthropology it could be specified as the clear linear phase of transition) with those “sinners”. Steklý became a holder of the Venice prize Golden Lion for the movie Sirens (1947) and in 1952 created movie Anna the Proletarian. After the beginning of normalization he certainly did not belong to the ostracized workers of Barrandov studios, on the contrary: Czechoslovak State Film strived after his services. In spite of that and for the sake of his career he entered into a “strange friendship” with Miroslav Müller, secretary and director of culture department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (1972–1989).

„Powieść filmowa” i materialność tekstu. O Bankructwie profesora Muellera Jana Brzękowskiego

Author(s): Aleksander Wójtowicz / Language(s): Polish Issue: 23/2021

Artykuł analizuje filmową powieść Jana Brzękowskiego Bankructwo profesora Muellera w perspektywie awangardowych eksperymentów z konwencjami powieściowymi. Przedstawia, w jaki sposób naśladowanie form zaczerpniętych z kina niemego przełożyło się na „kod bibliologiczny” (G. Bornstein), owocując nowatorskim układem typograficznym, za którego sprawą jednym z kluczowych elementów utworu stała się materialność tekstu (kompozycja typograficzna, dobór kroju, stopnia oraz odmian pisma). Ponadto zwraca uwagę na projekt graficzny, na który złożyły się elementy przygotowane przez innych artystów (Witkacy, S. Taeuber-Arp, H. Stażewski).

„Pozdrawiam Fanki i Sułtanki”. Internetowe praktyki polskiego fandomu serialu Wspaniałe stulecie

Author(s): Magdalena Kamińska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 20 (27)/2018

The article discusses fan practices of Polish viewers of the Turkish TV series Magnificent Century (Muhteşem Yüzyıl, Wspaniałe stulecie). Using this example, the author analyzes the issue of cultural incorporation, recontextualization and reinterpretation of foreign narrative conventions. The article also describes how people digitally excluded join the fandom and get `infected` by the need for `drilling` down into their favorite text. As a result, they acquire new technological skills and build online knowledge communities described by Henry Jenkins.

„Přesně tak to říkal Lenin!“

Obraz Antonína Zápotockého ve filmu

Author(s): Michal Stehlík / Language(s): Czech Issue: 02/2021

The second Czechoslovak “workers’ president” was a participant in key events in the history of the Communist Party from its establishment until it acquired power in the state. His historical role was canonised by many movies before 1989, some of which were based on his own literary works.

„Przemalujemy wszystko”. Opowiadanie kolorem we Fragmentach Agnieszki Woszczyńskiej

Author(s): Patrycja Rojek / Language(s): Polish Issue: 27/2016

In her short Fragments Agnieszka Woszczyńska applies film color as a storytelling device. Oscillating between the natural and expressionistic use of color, she builds not only a characters outer world but also an image of the characters unspoken motivations. The article contains a profound color analysis of Fragments that covers such issues as the functioning of ocularcentrism as a film leitmotiv and the appearance of the focalizer in film narration.

„Sąsiedzi” i filmowa Bydgoszcz

Author(s): Andrzej Gwóźdź / Language(s): Polish Issue: 110/2020

Although researching film history through the history of one film is not a new concept, it is rather rarely used. Piotr Zwierzchowski and Mariusz Guzek’s monograph “'Sąsiedzi'. Film o bydgoskim wrześniu 1939" [“'The Neighbours'. A Film about September 1939 in Bydgoszcz"] (2019) is devoted to the eponymous 1969 film by Aleksander Ścibor-Rylski and, simultaneously, to the city of Bydgoszcz in film. Both narratives are situated in the space of tension between national cinema and the history of cinema in the city which itself was often a place of film locations. The monograph follows the convention of an investigation conducted by the insightful and inquisitive film scholars and historians intrigued by their city’s past, who are equipped with an arsenal of tools and research measures providing an effective cognitive result. Zwierzchowski and Guzek do not intend to revise history, nor do they write the history of cinema anew. The undoubted beauty of the book is its cognitively fruitful and at the same time attractive style, in which the perspective of a witness to history (including the history of cinema) is fortuitously complemented by the perspective of a film consumer of from the past decades. In Piotr Zwierzchowski and Mariusz Guzek’s approach, the perplexities of Ścibor-Rylski’s ‘Bydgoszcz film’ turned out to be a fascinating adventure of cinema in the city which was made a film-city by historical circumstances.

„Sharonka”. Praktyka i dzieło w projektach artystycznych Sharon Lockhart z udziałem dzieci i młodzieży

Author(s): Julia Harasimowicz / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2019

The main goal of the article is to describe and analyse the artistic practice of the American artist Sharon Lockhart as well as her works created with the participation of children and young adults. The materials studied herein are the documentation of her activities, interviews, and texts accompanying exhibitions. A particular attention is paid to the projects made in Poland, especially those created with Milena, a teenage girl from a poor area of Łódź, and her friends from the Youth Sociotherapy Centre in Rudzienko. In the article, the artist’s statements are confronted with a formal analysis of her projects. With the use of such secondary sources as cultural, anthropological, art, and childhood studies literature, Lockhart’s artworks are described and interpreted in the context of creating the child’s image, of the young girls’ participation in art projects, and of the author’s method of work itself, which she calls ‘etnographic.’ The precise and interdisciplinary research shows superficiality of this pedagogical and emancipatory method, including using the girls to evoke a specific mood in the audience. From the perspective of art studies, Lockhart’s works, however, may be interpreted as an aesthetic story about a meeting with and an attempt to get to know the Other.

„Sztandar wolności” Ryszarda Ordyńskiego jako filmowy pomnik Józefa Piłsudskiego

Author(s): Grzegorz Rogowski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 112/2020

The author reconstructs the history of the production and distribution of one of the most important documentary films of the interwar period: "Sztandar wolności" ('Banner of Freedom", 1935) by Ryszard Ordyński. By examining the intricate production process, he seeks to determine who produced the picture, for what purposes, and in what political circumstances, what was its perception in Poland and abroad, and finally how the mechanisms of its export worked. The research is based on press articles and on previously unexplored materials from the Archiwum Akt Nowych (Central Archives of Modern Records in Warsaw) and the New York State Archive in Albany.

„To jest twój człowiek – idź z nim”. O zakłóconej identyfikacji w filmach Alana Clarke’a

Author(s): Karolina Kosińska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 114/2021

Alan Clarke’s later films – like Made in Britain (1983), Christine (1987), Elephant (1989) – reveal a fully crystalized, mature creative strategy of the director. This strategy is defined by extreme reduction and repetitiveness of the narrative, emphasis on the compulsiveness of the characters’ actions, concentration on behavioural aspects combined with a radical rejection of psychology. It is realized primarily through long “walking” shots, and it results in a corporeal, trans-like experience of the film, in a specific relationship of the viewer with the characters and also, consequently, with the body of the film itself. Clarke forces on the viewer the constant contact with the human figure on the screen, while methodically depriving him or her of the possibility of identification. The author problematizes this disturbed identification by analyzing Alan Clarke’s films and by situating them in the context of Robert Bresson’s Notes on Cinematography, which in a way anticipate Clarke’s style, and also in relation to the theoretical concepts of bodily perception of the cinema developed by Jennifer M. Barker.

„Uksiążkowienie” jako problem estetyczno- -medialny. Obcy – ósmy pasażer Nostromo – studium przypadku

Author(s): Werner Faulstich,Ricarda Strobel / Language(s): Polish Issue: 22/2014

There is no literature (e.g. a novel, feature film) without a medium (e.g. a book, film), but one should be clearly differentiated from the other. Particular works can only be compared based on a comparison made between particular means of expression, i.e. media. A production-related and aesthetic approach, which has been regarded as unscientific for a long time, should be replaced by the much more appropriate media-related and aesthetic approach. Werner Faulstich and Ricarda Strobel’s reflections on the novelization of film refer to Ridley Scott’s picture titled Alien (1979), Richard J. Anobile’s movie novel (photonovel) which is based on Archie Goodwin and Walter Simonson’s comics as well as to Alan Dean Foster’s novelized screenplays. Moreover, references are also made to two popular-science books: Paul Scanlon and Michael Gross’s The Book of Alien (New York 1979) and H.R. Giger’s Giger’s Alien (Basel 1979), which are treated as “books written on the basis of a film”. The film Alien deals, in a disguised form, with the topic of a man’s fear of a woman as the one who gives birth. It describes the sequence of processes that occur in a woman’s body, from conception and pregnancy to birth, as seen by a man who is “on the outside”. A man perceives a woman’s reproductive capacity, which is unattainable to him, as something alien and disturbing.

„W reakcji na obraz…”. Wokół muzyki filmowej Józefa Rychlika

Author(s): Agnieszka Draus / Language(s): Polish Issue: 15/2019

Józef Rychlik, the Cracovian composer born in 1946, music theorist, teacher, student of Bogusław Schaeffer and former trainee at the famous IRCAM in Paris, also became the protagonist of Jerzy Ridan’s film about him. Ridan, a screenwriter and director from Kraków, an outstanding documentarist (with over 60 documentaries to his credit, which have won prizes at festivals around the world) decided in 1992 to create a film about his friend the composer. He wanted to show both his multidimensional nature and – perhaps most importantly – Rychlik’s work, both his independent compositions as well as his film music. Although the composer’s oeuvre up to 2019 includes over 50 compositions (vocal, vocal-instrumental, instrumental; solo, chamber and symphonic; for traditional instruments and electroacoustic ones, works following the discipline of notation and traditional form, as well as graphic compositions and open forms), an equally substantial portion of his music constitutes work dear to Rychlik’s heart in the service of a particular performance: a vernissage, choreographic arrangement, theatre and film. The composer’s specific personality traits, such as sensitivity to his surrounding reality, his capacity for observation and immediate reflection, in a way predestined him to be the writer of music for 34 movies (including two feature films, 21 documentaries, 9 animations, one choreographic musical, one autobiographical) and 19 theatre plays. The text is an attempt to confront the composer’s self-retlection, often of a retrospective, nostalgie nature, with the interpretation of a detached researcher proposing his own „seeing and hearing” of Rychlik’s music.

„We are making cyber-history.” Az online színház nem ma született

Author(s): Ágnes Karolina Bakk / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 2/2020

Ágnes Karolina Bakk’s article offers a short overview of theatrical performances and experiments that took place in the online space since the start of the internet-era. In this paper she analyses and contextualizes shortly the listed production based on their characteristics such as co-presence and liveness.