Studia Filmoznawcze

Obchody dwudziestopięciolecia kinematografii Dolnego Śląska w 1970 roku

Andrzej Dębski — 2024-12-31

The purpose of this article was to look at film culture in Lower Silesia in 1970 and the starting point was the brochure ‘XXV years of cinematography of Lower Silesia’. The plans indicated in the brochure were confronted with their realization, for which aim the Lower Silesian press and archival records were analyzed. Since the brochure presents actions that fit into the ideological and cultural agenda, the article also takes a closer look at the activities of cinemas at that time, which indicate that the viewers preferred Western films and disliked Soviet films the most.

Giganty, remonty i stracone nadzieje. Szkic o kinach wrocławskich w latach 1960–1975

Piotr Lis — 2024-12-31

The article describes the most important cinemas in Wroclaw and their activities in the 1960s and 1970s, outlining technical, renovation, and repertoire problems. The most important cinema in Wroclaw was Śląsk, which in the mid 1960s began to share its premises with the Lower Silesian Operetta. The Warszawa cinema building, closed in 1968 and built from scratch, took over as the city’s main cinema when it opened in 1976. The largest Cinema was the Gigant in the People’s Hall, where acoustic and technical conditions were improved with subsequent renovations.

The cinema base was enriched with neighborhood cinemas — both state and union-owned, but these were closed due to delayed repertoire and deteriorating technical conditions. The plans of the Presidium of the National Council of the City of Wroclaw called for the construction of new cinemas: both in Śródmieście and in other districts, but the projects were not realised due to financial restraints.

Kina powiatu jaworskiego lat 1963–1973 w liczbach — przykład wykorzystania dokumentacji statystycznej

Ivo Łaborewicz — 2024-12-31

The aim of the article is to show the possibility of using statistical forms in the study of the history of cinemas. The files of the Jawor District Statistical Inspectorate (1962–1975) were used. Statistical reports were analysed, tabulating data at the level of the entire district and individual cinemas. This made it possible to characterise the changes occurring in the number of cinemas, audience size, number of screenings, attendance, and income. Particularly valuable were the forms for individual venues, containing additional information for local cinemas such as their names, addresses, names of managers, and others. These types of individual sources have not yet been subject to research analysis.

Pierwsze piętnaście lat działalności wrocławskiego DKF „Politechnika”

Krzysztof Dubowik — 2024-12-31

Film societies in communist Poland began to function at the end of Wladyslaw Gomulka’s era and gained popularity in the 1960s. One of them was DKF „Politechnika”, an organization created by scholars and students from Wrocław University of Science and Technology. Today, it is the oldest still-functioning film society in Wrocław and one of the oldest in Poland. The author, a contemporary member of this institution, presents its history from establishment in 1965 to the temporary suspension during the Martial Law in Poland. During that period, the most active member was Andrzej Solecki, who founded the club and served in its management until 1981. Solecki also collected a significant amount of historical documentation that serves as a source for this article. Following Solecki’s activities, the author presents the history of DKF „Politechnika” during its glory days. The text reveals a lot of obstacles that organizers had to overcome to present their audience original, thought-provoking, and often inconvenient for the communist authorities works of Polish and international cinema.

Piętnaście lat Dolnośląskiego Funduszu Filmowego (2008–2023)

Rafał Bubnicki — 2024-12-31

This is a history of the Lower Silesian Film Fund, one of the largest and oldest regional film funds in Poland. Presenting the circumstances of its establishment, formation, and development, the author exemplifies the history of the ten regional film funds currently operating in Poland using this example. He shows not only the successes, but also the failures and threats to the further development of the funds in Poland. Referring to the events that were important for the formation of the funds during the last 15 years, he indicates what place they occupy in the film production system in Poland.

Młodszy brat Nowych Horyzontów czy odrębny fenomen? Kilka uwag o tożsamości American Film Festival

Łukasz Homziuk — 2024-12-31

The aim of this article is to compare the profiles of two festivals in the city of Wrocław: the New Horizons IFF and the American Film Festival, particularly focusing on the latter. Based on an analysis of the programs of the various editions, media articles, statements by participants in the Facebook group Nowe Horyzonty po godzinach, and the author’s own observations, the history of the evolution of the two festivals and their specific goals are briefly presented. As a result, the American Film Festival turns out to have a quite different characteristics than the New Horizons.

Integracja nowych wrocławian przez film. Polish Cinema for Beginners — studium przypadku

Adam Kruk — 2024-12-31

The article presents the history of the project “Polish Cinema for Beginners”, which since 2012 has been introducing Polish films to foreigners living in Wrocław using the formula known from film societies. The aim of the text is to gather facts about the project, its idea, programme, creators, and its evolution, including the impact of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine on it. The article shows how the project, by popularising the history of Polish Cinema among newcomers in Wrocław and fostering integration in the international community and the urban life of the Lower Silesia’s capital, gained a high reputation among participants and influenced a more inclusive cultural landscape — not only of the city, but also of the country, pointing to the problem of linguistic exclusion in increasingly multicultural society in Poland.

Niechciany krajobraz. Motywy Dolnego Śląska oraz utraconego Wschodu w kinematografii NRD

Ilona Copik — 2024-12-31

The purpose of this article is to analyze the representation of the motifs of Lower Silesia and the lost East in East German cinematography. In the Soviet occupation zone and later in the GDR, there was a ban on public mention of the lost Heimat practically until 1989. This was due to the new state’s need to accept the Yalta–Potsdam agreements, as well as its obligations to the USSR. The socialist government sought to make the displaced people “new citizens” and use their potential to build a new regime. In doing so, it focused public attention on the circumstances surrounding the socialist reconstruction of the homeland to divert attention from the uncomfortable past. The landscape of the East as an object of nostalgic references arousing emotional associations, carrying the potential to raise the level of social frustrations, from the point of view of the authorities seemed not only disturbing, but also politically dangerous. Therefore, on the silver screen it was entirely replaced by a vision that could be described as a landscape of socialist modernization, encompassed by the key processes of land reform and collectivization of the countryside in the socialist economy. The intention of this study is to take a critical approach leading to the recognition of how film landscapes function as vehicles of collective memory, how they reveal remembering/forgetting mechanisms, and what settlement topos and migration myths they contain. The main hypothesis is that feature films about forced displacement, in addition to historical politics, reveal anthropological experiences: the trauma of losing one’s home, the conflicts accompanying the familiar and the foreign, the difficulties of cultural adaptation, the problem of lost identity etc. The subjects of the analysis are the feature films: Free Country (Freies Land, Soviet occupation zone, 1946, dir. M. Harbich); The Bridge (Die Brücke, Soviet occupation zone, 1949, dir. A. Pohl); Palaces and Huts (Schlösser und Katen, 1956/1957) and The Girl from the House of Correction (Vergeßt mir meine Traudel nicht, GDR, 1957, dir. K. Maetzig); Childhood (Kindheit, GDR, 1986, dir. S. Kühn).

Wybrane przestrzenie Wrocławia jako reprezentacje emocji i nośniki nowych znaczeń — studium trzech przypadków

Anna Maciejewska — 2024-12-31

The aim of the article is to present how Wrocław is represented in movies and television series, especially in terms of showing specific elements of architecture. It is also important how cultural and metaphorical meanings of these spaces and elements can influence interpretation and (which is equally significant) what impact it can have on the viewer. The article also analyzes specific examples and scenes in terms of both plot and form in which the architectural spaces of the city can be a background for action, a manifestation of the fight for freedom or representation of fantastic element from the dystopian future.

Kulturowy portret Ślązaków w tryptyku śląskim Kazimierza Kutza

Maksymilian Gałuszka — 2024-12-31

The article focuses on Kazimierz Kutz’s vision of Silesians shown in tryptyk śląski (Silesian triptych). The author aims to grasp and analyze how the director perceives and depicts people of Silesia in his three most known films concerning this region. Furthermore, he takes a comparative approach, confronting the director’s vision with historical data and the views of other people interested in the identity of Silesians. Two aspects are crucial in this article: how Kutz shows Silesians in his films and why he shows them in that manner. Often however, the director’s vision is inconsistent with historical facts.

Alicji Helman „opus magnum”. Rec. Alicja Helman, „Miłosierdzie szatana. Adaptacje audiowizualne powieści i nowel Tomasza Manna”, Wydawnictwo Centrum Studiów Niemieckich i Europejskich im. Willy’ego Brandta Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego, Wrocław 2022, s. 823

Krzysztof Kozłowski — 2024-12-31

Alicja Helman’s book on audiovisual adaptations of Thomas Mann’s prose holds a special place in her scholarly output. According to the reviewer, it is her magnum opus. This is supported primarily by the rank and scope of the issues taken up by the author, as well as the store of erudition that serves the indefatigable scholar to illume and in turn, delve into some of the greatest works of European and world literature. The uniqueness of Helman’s book is reflected as much in the precise construction of arguments that all twenty chapters present as in the title, borrowed from Mann himself. Thanks to the author’s writing finesse and attention to detail, the reader can come as it were face to face with such promethean figures of world culture as Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Wagner, Goethe, and Visconti.