No longer a trivial entertainment: Popular cinema in Poland after 2000

Abstract

No longer a trivial entertainment: Popular cinemain Poland after 2000

This article discusses two types of popular films produced in Poland after 2000, a subgenre of romantic comedy, which I label “sexual comedy”, represented by the films of Andrzej Saramonowicz and Tomasz Konecki, and “popular arthouse film”, represented by Dzień świra Day of the Wacko, 2002 by Marek Koterski. To understand the specificity of Polish popular cinema in this period, the author locates it in the postwar history of filmmaking in this country, arguing that making popular films was met in this country with great resistance. The situation has changed after the fall of state socialism, when cinema had to be more receptive to the audience’s demands. The films discussed in this article reflect both this pressure and the difficulties involved in making such films.