Artykuły
“LOVE IS AT THE BOTTOM OF EVERYTHING IN THIS WORLD.” JERZY KAWALEROWICZ’S MOTHER JOAN OF THE ANGELS AS AN EXAMPLE OF FILM ADAPTATION
Jerzy Kawalerowicz’s Mother Joan of the Angels is one of the inwardly deepest and one of the most visually beautiful films in Polish cinematography. The story of nuns possessed by demons was the excuse for showing the inside of man, his aim to be happy and his tragic defeat.
The subject of this article is the reading of this movie as an adaptation of the Iwaszkiewicz’s short story and finding new ways of its interpretation. In the first part the author characterizes creative attitude of the director and the analyses of differences between the movie and its literary prototype caused by different means of expression used in both of them. In the movie the sound and picture aspects have a special meaning – they are not only background but they are a reflection of the philosophical and psychological sphere of the movie. In the second part of this article the author reviews what was written about the movie for almost half a century and suggests an interpretation of the movie in the context of the thoughts of psychoanalysis and depth psychology authors, with the special accent on circumscription analogy of modern neurosis to medieval possession, the aspect of treatment by love, and the emotional disorders of the protagonist.