„Cadre de vie”. Jean-Luc Godard’s „Deux ou trois choses que je sais d’elle” (1967), French TV and Architectural Discourse

Author(s): Jacqueline Maurer / Language(s): English Issue: 109/2020

The article demonstrates how Jean-Luc Godard’s "Deux ou trois choses que je sais d’elle" (1967) contributed to the contemporary critical discourse on (social) housing estates (grands ensembles). With his work, the filmmaker aimed to show the grand ensemble, or ‘the big(ger) picture’ of what it meant to live in contemporary consumerist oriented France. The protagonist Juliette Johnson represents the French citizen and simultaneously the metaphor of the Paris Region that underwent a huge transformation. The main interest of the text lies in the use of the 360-degree pan shot and the notion of cadre (frame), as they connect film theory and the contemporary discourse about how the décor, i.e. the (built) environment, influences people’s cadre de vie (living conditions). A close reading of two film sequences and a historical contextualisation of architectural discourses and theories is completed by a comparison with documentary TV programmes. While they had fostered the critical discussion about housing estates already before, they used the panorama shot only after "Deux ou trois choses…"

„Choroba tropikalna”, czyli o ludziach, zwierzętach i duchach w filmie Apichatponga Weerasethakula

Author(s): Krzysztof Loska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 110/2020

The paper analyzes the relations between humans and non-humans and explains the process of „becoming-animal” (devenir-animal) on the basis of the film entitled Tropical Malady (Sat pralat, 2004) by Apichatpong Weerasethakul. The source of inspiration is multinatural perspectivism introduced by Philippe Descola and Eduard Viveiros de Castro to ethnographic research on animistic beliefs, and by the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. Moving away from an anthropocentric perspective, the author draws attention to several major problems: the need to challenge the opposition between nature and culture, questioning the mental discontinuity between different types of entities, pointing to the possibility of liberating humans from subjectivity by freeing them from established categories (biological, social, cultural ones) and opening them for relations with Others (animals, ghosts, plants).

„Composing for the films” Theodora W. Adorno i Hannsa Eislera jako krytyczna refleksja o muzyce filmowej

Author(s): Joanna Kwapień / Language(s): Polish Issue: 3/2020

"Composing for the Films" is a unique book in film musicology. Published in 1947, it was a nearly immediate response to the fast developing Hollywood film industry. Though it was the product of a collaboration between two authors, Theodor Adorno and Hanns Eisler, for many years it was known only under the name of that latter artist. Despite its original concepts, it has never been analysed by Polish scholars.The first part of my paper focuses on the circumstances of writing this book and the history of its editions, which was made complicated by both authors’ difficult political situation. Critical theory, as adapted by Adorno for the study of film music, is the key to the concepts contained in this book. In my article, I distinguish four thematic segments in the authors’ commentary: a) criticism of cinematography as a manifestation of mass culture; b) criticism of composition technique in film music; c) criticism of traditional composition techniques and a discussion of the possible uses of new music in films; d) presentation of the dangers related to the use of new technologies in film music. Such a division of topics makes it possible for me to cover all the aspects discussed by the authors, and related to musicology, philosophy, economy, politics, and sociology. My analyses of Adorno and Eisler’s ideas has been extended so as to include Max Weber’s sociological concepts and Adorno’s notions of the fetish character in music, rationalisation, and regression of listening. I also present a survey of selected composition techniques still applied in film music today, which the authors describe as ‘bad habits in composition’.

„Człowiek jest czemś, co przezwyciężone być powinno”. Dyskurs historiozoficzny 2001: Odysei kosmicznej

Author(s): Konrad Klejsa / Language(s): Polish Issue: 37/2020

Drawing upon classic works on Kubrick’s 2001, the author ponders various strategies of interpretation which have been adopted to decipher the film’s discourse. The title category of historiosophy indicates one of the possible interpretational paths: the one associated with the Nietzschean notion of humankind stuck in a liminal stage between an animal and the overman. The author claims that such an understanding was typical of the late 1960s, and he pursues his argument with a close analysis of several sequences from the film, focusing on the formal devices which present the human protagonists as weak and lackluster, while the animal, the technological and the extraterrestrial characters are depicted as vital and irrepressible.

„Documentarul observaţional a fost pentru mine o formă de a învăţa lucruri noi” - Interviu cu regizorul Alexander Nanau

Author(s): Laura Lazarescu-Thois / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2020

„Dokument”, „We Have One Heart”, „Papa”. Zagubieni ojcowie, dokument, animacja i autobiografia

Author(s): Agnieszka Powierska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 112/2020

The article discusses three short films created on the border of documentary and animation by filmmakers of the young generation, telling the stories of complicated child-father relationships: "Dokument" ("A Documentary Film", 2015) by Marcin Podolec, "We Have One Heart" by Katarzyna Warzecha (2020) and "Papa" by Maryia Yakimovich (2020). In her considerations of the animated documentary, the author refers to Anabelle Honess Roe’s work, as well as to Polish studies on this film form. Taking into account the arguments of Polish researchers, the author proposes a definition drawing, i.a., on Philippe Lejeune’s category of the referential pact. The author conducts a formalistic analysis of the films, examining the similarities between them. In the first part, in reference to the remarks of Katarzyna Mąka-Malatyńska and Michał Piepiórka on the meaning of factual materials in animated documentaries, she examines the use of family mementos in the analysed works. Then she discusses the use of autobiographical conventions. The impact of these productions results from the fruitful combination of documentary conventions, a subjective perspective, and creative formal solutions.

„Dokumenty obrazowe” w polskiej refleksji i praktyce filmowej do roku 1927

Author(s): Małgorzata Radkiewicz / Language(s): Polish Issue: 112/2020

The first decade of the Polish cinema following the country’s regaining of independence in 1918 is marked by intensive discussions about the roles and functions of the national film industry. Many academics (from Polish studies, philosophy) and film critics addressed the issue of documentary filmmaking and the relation between the film image and reality. Theoretical reflections were accompanied by practical comments and pieces of advice on how to use documentaries for the purposes of political propaganda, education, popularization of Polish history, heritage and present development. Tracing these motifs in the writings on films of that time makes it possible to reconstruct a way of thinking about the medium as providing “visual documents” performing cognitive, educational, or propaganda functions. The year 1927 seems to be significant for two reasons; as the end of the decade of independent Poland and as the time when the sound era of cinema was about to start, and the silent film poetics of representation was going to change.

„Dusza moja czuje się tutaj jak w domu”. Poszukiwania badawcze prowadzone przez Muzeum Miejskie w Wadowicach

Author(s): Joanna Pytlowska-Bajak / Language(s): Polish Issue: 22/2019

Report from the research project carried out by the Town Museum in Wadowice in 2017-2019 as part of the „Folk and traditional culture” program with the financial support of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.

„Film nowofalowy”. Rola kina w poezji pokolenia ’68

Author(s): Kamila Czaja / Language(s): Polish Issue: 23/2021

Artykuł prezentuje rolę filmu w poezji pokolenia ’68 – głównie Stanisława Barańczaka, ale także Juliana Kornhausera, Ewy Lipskiej i Adama Zagajewskiego. Nowofalowi twórcy sięgali w wierszach po postacie aktorów (m.in. Humphrey Bogart, Gary Cooper, duet Laurel i Hardy, Charlie Chaplin, Ali McGraw), bohaterów, tytuły, sceny, gatunki filmowe oraz związane z kinem czy, rzadziej, produkcjami telewizyjnymi przeżycia i wnioski. Pozwalało to werbalizować, wręcz „tłumaczyć” na zmysłowe kategorie kwestie dotyczące wyborów etycznych, kondycji człowieka zagubionego w zderzeniu ze światem i nieraz z góry skazanego w tym starciu na porażkę, przemijania oraz prób ominięcia jego bezlitosnych praw.

„Frank, ciągle tam jesteś?”. O listach i książkach w filmie 84 Charing Cross Road (1987)

Author(s): Piotr Pławuszewski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 32/2019

84 Charing Cross Road (1987, dir. by David Jones) is the story of 20-year-long (1949–1969) correspondence between the American writer Helene Hanff and London antiquarian Frank Doel. The letters (edited and prepared for printing by Hanff) were published under the same title in 1970. This article is a precise analysis of the film work, particularly in the context of the two most important elements of its narrative and semantic plane (excluding the strictly historical introductory part). The first is a letter, understood mainly in its artistic function, the second, a book, both as a material object and a medium of literary content. Treating the epistolary material with ingenuity worthy of respect, the filmmakers managed to create one of the most convincing images of literary culture in the history of cinema, albeit one rather forgotten nowadays.

„Happy Together” - chińskie kino drogi

Author(s): Agnieszka Kamrowska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 107/2019

The author attempts to analyse the film "Happy Together" (1997) by Wong Kar-wai in terms of auteur cinema, road movie, motifs of Chinese and Argentinian culture, and the political situation. The focus is on the journey of a pair of homosexual protagonists to Buenos Aires, where they try to save their relationship, but they break up and try to live separately, although their paths still cross. Argentina, that from the perspective of Hong Kong is highly exotic, overwhelms one with emptiness and gives rise to alienation, which each of the characters tries to overcome in their own way: by working and saving for the return ticket home, or by immersing and losing oneself in the night life. Although the film is set in Buenos Aires, there are many motifs derived from Chinese tradition, such as strong family ties or filial piety. Happy Together also has an atmosphere of imminent defeat that accompanied Hong Kong residents before July 1, 1997, when the British colony became once again a part of China.

„Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite”. 2001: Odyseja kosmiczna Stanleya Kubricka

Author(s): Krzysztof Kozłowski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 36/2020

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.

„Kłopotliwe” ciała. Strategie przedstawiania fizycznej „anormalności” we współczesnym filmie fikcji

Author(s): Adam Cybulski / Language(s): Polish

Within disability studies, discipline developing for the last thirty years, subject of particular interest were audio-visual representations of physical ‘abnormality’. However, in scientific literature it is storyline and generally understood occurrences that are analysed: personal traits of disabled protagonist, his or her social status, actions, introspections or his or her relationship with the society. The question of stylistic and narration devices, and the aesthetics of display-oriented construction of defectiveness are usually not taken into consideration. In order to add to and broaden this perspective author of this dissertation used selected methods of Neoformalism and Cognitive film theory. Strategy of narration, diegetic dominant and viewer engagement helped in exhibiting how defective bodies were used as visual attractions, distinguishing four modes of contemporary storytelling discussed in context of a long tradition of portraying visible dissimilarities and explaining methods of managing ‘troublesome’ bodies with instances of narrating.

„Korfulamu” – podróże przez czas w kinie Theodorosa Angelopoulosa

Author(s): Adam Cichoń / Language(s): Polish Issue: 107/2019

An important figure in the work of Theodoros Angelopoulos is the refugee, and many of his characters have just such a status. Importantly however they consider themselves refugees regardless of the place in which they find themselves. They are condemned to travel, to an everlasting journey from place to place in search of home they covet so much. Angelopoulos emphasized that his films are also a search or a quest and that is why each of them is a journey. In his work this subject is largely related to the category of time. We should understand travel in the broadest sense possible, also as human life. The director devotes great attention to the passage of time, as evidenced by such films as "Eternity and a Day or Voyage to Cythera". The interrelation of time and the theme of travel seems to be one of the deepest intentions of the Greek artist. In the article, Cichoń attempts to interpret Angelopoulos’ films as specific journeys through time.

„Looks Like It’s Suicide Again For Moe!” Etyka przedstawienia prób samobójczych w animated sitcoms na przykładzie Moego Szyslaka w serialu Simpsonowie

Author(s): Maciej Grzenkowicz / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

The considerable influence of The Simpsons on contemporary culture induced the author to analyze the three suicide attempts of Moe Szyslak shown in the sitcom, paying special attention to the ethics of their portrayal. These deliberations demand a recognition of the fact that animated sitcoms are by their nature supposed to be mocking, while suicide is an issue which should be dealt with very carefully. The analysis has led the author to the conclusion that although some aspects of portraying Moe’s tragedy can raise doubts, the sitcom describes the situation of a person in crisis in a valuable way because it popularizes knowledge on the subject of loneliness in presuicidal crisis.

„Lost in translation”, czyli co się kryje między słowami pokrytymi patyną historii

Author(s): Anna Miller-Klejsa / Language(s): Polish Issue: 108/2019

Review of the book by Agata Hołobut and Monika Woźniak, "Historia na ekranie. Gatunek filmowy a przekład audiowizualny" ["History on the screen. Film genre and audiovisual translation"] (2018). The authors study the impact of historical film on the specificity of audiovisual translation, analysing English-language (British and American) dialogue lists of selected feature films and historical series as well as their available Polish and Italian translations (dubbing, recorded audio commentaries, subtitles). The book successfully combines linguistic, film and stylometric analysis tools.

„Między dawnymi i młodszymi laty” – neo(animistyczne) i neo(pogańskie) tropy w kinie polskim

Author(s): Magdalena Podsiadło / Language(s): Polish Issue: 114/2021

The perspective of new animism offers an approach to the subjectivity and the relation between nature and culture, the human and non-human, as well as the animate and the inanimate, that differs from the one founded on the Judeo-Christian tradition. Marginal in Polish culture, this current can be found in film representations of paganism that nevertheless lend it the status of a repressed phenomenon or one tamed by the context of Christianity. The authors of contemporary Polish films that refer to this tradition look for an alternative to a world that is hierarchical, dualistic and based on an anthropocentric model. They connect with paganism though their egalitarian attitude towards animals (Agnieszka Holland’s Spoor), respect for the agency of plants (Agnieszka Holland’s Charlatan), belief in spirits beyond the Christian context (Małgorzata Szumowska’s Never Gonna Snow Again and Body), awareness of the natural environment (Katarzyna Klimkiewicz and Dominga Sotomayor Castillos’s La Isla) or reference to tribal cultures (Zbigniew Libera’s Walser). At the same time, these works re-evaluate said tradition, treating it as a “rescue perspective” in the face of the current civilizational crisis.

„Minden kaland volt”. Beszélgetés az idén 90 éves Novák Ferenc Tatával

Author(s): Iringó Tóth Gödri / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 830/2021

„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.

„Muški pogled” u seriji Damin gambit

Author(s): Jelena Veselinović / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 25/2021

The patriarchal system is based on the idea of phallocentrism, in which phallus, or male sexual organ, represents the central element in the organization of society. In such a system, a woman is perceived through her lack of phallus by which she symbolizes the threat of castration, or in other words, castra- tion anxiety. The gender difference, defined by this deficiency, is used to establish a system in which a woman is subordinate to men. As such, a woman is the subject of a controlling “male gaze.” Using the theoretical framework set by Laura Mulvey in her essay “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Film,” this paper shows how the “male gaze” influences the construction of female characters in contemporary cinematography. The example used for this analysis is the series Queen’s Gambit, which was well received by the feminist audience, despite the fact that the main character was adjusted on various levels to serve the requirements of the “male gaze.” Additionally, part of the paper will analyze harmful stereotypes through which racial and sexual minorities are presented in the series and point out how the film industry shapes social norms and lifestyles through the normalization of such models.