Studia Filmoznawcze

Wprowadzenie. Miejsce i znaczenie seriali streamingowych we współczesnej kulturze medialnej

Jakub Rawski — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0100

This article attempts to outline the functioning of streaming series in media culture. Its main thesis is that the series have not only become a new type of narrative, which should not be downplayed, but also a barometer of moods, needs and various social and existential experiences — a true testimony of their times.

Oswajanie starości w „Gangu zielonej rękawiczki”

Dariusz Piechota — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0100

The Green Glove Gang is an interesting series due to its numerous references to other cultural texts. Intertextuality is revealed on many levels of Tadeusz Śliwa’s production. The protagonists resemble American superheroes (but also the protagonists of Sylwia Chutnik’s novel Cwaniary [The Hustlers]) fighting to defend the defenceless and the marginalised. The interventions they undertake are a clear exemplification of the problems faced by elderly people exposed to dishonest entrepreneurs, pawnshop owners or self-proclaimed healers. Śliwa’s series is an important contribution to the discourse on the place and role of pensioners in today’s consumerist world. The showrunner breaks with common stereotypes about old age, but also familiarises viewers with the inevitable ageing process. The protagonists of the Green Glove Gang prove that old age does not have to be a passive period; it can also be a time for discovering and developing new passions — which one is often not able to pursue due to the lack of time inherent to being professionally active.

Recepcja serialu „Squid Game” i jego potencjalny wpływ na wizerunek Korei Południowej w Polsce

Marta Świerczyńska — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0100

The article presents the results of a study on the reception of the South Korean Netflix production, Squid Game, in the first months after its release. The study analyzes the discourse observable in the articles concerning the series in popular Polish internet portals and focuses on examining the ways of writing about South Korea, the sentiments towards the country, and the premises concerning its image. The study shows mostly positive attitudes towards Squid Game, which could factor into a positive image of the country. At the same time, it shows that the phenomenon of hallyu in Poland remains insignificant or unnoticed in this case despite the observed popularity of the show, and the image of the country resulting from the plot of the series is lost at the stage of media reception.

Model mitograficzny i model muzyczny jako dwa sposoby interpretacji storytellingu w serialu „Ślepnąc od świateł” Krzysztofa Skoniecznego oraz jego powieściowym pierwowzorze

Arkadiusz Sylwester Mastalski — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0100

The adventures of a Warsaw-based drug dealer described in the narratives of Żulczyk’s Blinded by the Lights novel (2014) and Skonieczny’s streaming series (2018) obviously are drawn from the British hip-hop composition Blinded by the Lights by The Streets (2014), both from it’s musical and narrative structure. This, in turn, is undoubtedly derived from the archetype of the mythical journey of the hero described in Jonathan Campbell’s seminal work The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949). Żulczyk’s prose may indeed be a kind of extended gloss to the piece by The Streets, which takes the hero’s story to a higher narrative level. At the same time, however, it becomes a pre-text for the series, which can already draw on both narratives and define itself in relation to them. The above analysis shows how this interpretative dependence can be defined by the use of different models of interpretation that are embedded in two cultural patterns: the archetypal narrative prototype of a monomyth and the narrative-musical form of a hip-hop storytelling based on the cultural framework of the mythical katabasis.

Strategie narracyjne destabilizujące porządek czasowy w neoserialach

Artur Borowiecki — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0100

The serial narrative mode, regularly used in episodic productions with a repetitive plot structure, is now rarely used. As for contemporary series, researchers agree that filmmakers adhere to a new paradigm of television storytelling which Jason Mittell termed “narrative complexity.” One of its distinguishing features are temporal disturbances in which the creators use various narrative strategies that destabilize the temporal order, ranging from flashbacks that fill in the plot gaps to “mind game” strategies. In this article I analyze narrative strategies disrupting the linear plot in quality TV dramas and the characteristics of formal procedures used by artists.

Gry intertekstualne w serialowej twórczości Shin’ichirō Watanabe

Oliwia Kalinowska — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0100

This article concerns the issue of intertextuality in streaming series. The author focus on the works of a Japanese director of anime series to illustrate the different forms of intertextual relations. The research material used in the article comprises the anime series Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo and Space Dandy, which are characterized by a particular accumulation and diversity of intertextual references to other media. The conclusions drawn by analysing the interferences present in Watanabe’s animated works were then cross-referenced with the formal and structural characteristics of streaming platforms that enable their users to detect intertextual allusions more easily.

Sycylijskie obrazy — intertekstualne nawiązania w drugim sezonie serialu „Biały Lotos”

Marta Snoch — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0100

The article focuses on certain aspects of the cinematic and cultural references in the second season of HBO’s TV series The White Lotus. The author draws parallels between the classic works of Italian and Hollywood cinema and various themes of the series, its visual aspects and cast of characters. By comparing different approaches to characters and their arcs narratives the author describes various attempts to challenge the cultural clichés about Americans in Europe, but also stereotypes about Sicily and images of Italians in American cinema and television.

Kim jest czarna profesjonalistka? Wizerunki Afroamerykanek w serialach Shondaland jako projekt społeczny

Karolina Gierszewska — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0100

Contemporary popular culture is increasingly steeped in social commentary, and is more and more frequently used as a platform to engage with politically relevant themes. In this article, I deconstruct the Black professional, a character trope that features prominently in TV shows produced by Shonda Rhimes. My analysis is focused on the protagonists of Grey’s Anatomy and How to Get Away with Murder. While its theoretical framework is derived from certain considerations originating from the Black Arts Movement and intersectional feminist theory as introduced by bell hooks, I also view the discourse of the works discussed through the lens of African American history.

Między techniką a strategią. Postmodernistyczna dezorientacja widza w „lynchowskim” „Riverdale”

Anna Krakowiak — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0100

This article focuses on the streaming series Riverdale (Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, 2017–2023) distributed by Netflix. The creators of the series overtly refer to postmodern cinema, especially the works of David Lynch. In doing so, they use various kinds of disorientation techniques, that is, narrative devices that complicate the interpretation of what is presented. The author of the article performed a textual analysis on the 6 available seasons, focusing on demonstrating the correlation between the series and postmodern cinema. Then the various aspects of the series were assigned to the possible techniques of disorientation proposed by Andrzej Zalewski. The purpose of this text is to identify the “Lynchianism” in Riverdale and to demonstrate what techniques of disorientation are used by the creators of this series. A further intention is to resolve whether this is in fact a technique (seen by many as a deriving from ineptitude) or a strategy (resulting from deliberate action). The article attempts to view the contemporary work from a postmodern perspective.

Bez obrazu, czyli seriale audio. Problematyka kreacji świata przedstawionego i jego recepcji

Agnieszka Ogonowska — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0100

The aim of the article is to show the issues related to the world-building present in audio series in relation to various types of acoustic spaces, a bank of sounds specific to real spaces and the creation of shared fields of action and relations within a given universe in the mind of the recipient. Further attention is paid to the issue of differentiating individual characters by creating distinctive language and sound profiles that mark them out as individuals, as well as assigning them specific sound attributes related to verbal and non-verbal communication and the soundscape characteristic of a specific place of action or social environment. The analysis also takes into account the role of diegetic and non-diegetic sounds in creating the imaginary world and controlling the recipient’s expectations, as well as the processes of understanding and interpreting (or analyzing) the audio series. The article also draws attention to the role of silence, (un)silence and various types of pauses as meaningful aspects of communication and interactions between the characters of the audio series. A separate section is devoted to the characteristics of the elements of the imaginary audio space in the context of individual cognitive universals. The conceptual framework for the analysis of these issues will be intermediality treated as (a) a process of adaptation, but also, in “adjectival” form, as (b) a specific attribute of an audio-series, i.e. an intermedia message and as (c) a user competency attribute. The article is not normative, but descriptive, i.e. it describes creative and reception practices related to the eponymous phenomenon. Due to the breadth of the research field, two perspectives are used in the article: the medium-oriented approach and the user-oriented approach.

Implozja „kawaii”. Serial „Paranoia Agent” Satoshiego Kona

Agnieszka Kamrowska — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0100

The article presents the anime TV series Paranoia Agent by Satoshi Kon and its major themes: escapism, lack of communication and the guise of victimhood, which is as a method of denial meant to mute a conscience burdened by the horrors of World War II prevalent in contemporary Japanese society. Certain phenomena of Japanese consumer culture, such as fine goods, kawaii and character goods are also presented. These phenomena form an important cultural background for an analysis of Kon’s oeuvre, as the author uses them as lens through which he portrays the problems facing contemporary Japanese society — not least of all the ways in which it is influenced by the ubiquity of media. His insights are quite well grounded in reality, and his conclusions are rather bleak. Even the apocalyptic destruction of Tokyo cannot change ways of the Japanese people, who are thoroughly engulfed by non-communication and hyper-consumerism.

Strategie upamiętniania antropocenu w kinie postapokaliptycznym na przykładzie filmowej serii „Mad Max” George’a Millera

Marcin Kowalczyk — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0100

The article discusses various ways of commemorating the heritage of the Anthropocene in post-apocalyptic cinema. The main subject of consideration is the Mad Max series of films by George Miller. The author of the text shows the evolution of thinking about the human era, as well as changes in the paradigms of organizing memory. Furthermore, the article separates the phases of evaluating the past in the discussed tetralogy: from longing for civilization and technological power, through dreams of its reconstruction, to the rejection of the Anthropocene and a turn towards pure nature.

Siła klątwy, magia wody i (nie)możność zmiany czasu w noweli „Jańcio Wodnik” Jana Jakuba Kolskiego

Iwona E. Rusek — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0100

The text raises the issue of the presence of the magical sphere in the human experience. Johnnie Waterman, the protagonist of a short story and a film by Jan Jakub Kolski, experiences a mysterious force that begins to govern his life. This secret power is related to water, through which the hero begins to heal, and in short order becomes a holy man of sorts. Using this character as and example, the author poses a question about the meaning of human fate and the moral aspects of human existence. He also shows human life as dependent on mythical and symbolic meanings that in fact create reality. Johnnie Waterman, who is finally undone by his own pride, wants to turn back time, because he believes that this magical “band-aid” will repair the harm he had caused. However, it is only his understanding of who he is and what he was doing that brings the desired change and makes the hero start living together with his family. The curse that befell Jańcio on the one hand unleashed evil, on the other — it became a chance for the hero to find the truth about himself and the surrounding world.

„Życie na podsłuchu”. Ocena treści filmu w świetle praktyki działania Ministerstwa Bezpieczeństwa Państwowego NRD. Głos w dyskusji

Tytus Jaskułowski — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0100

The article presents an analysis of the film The Lives of Others which assesses it accuracy in depicting the methods utilized by the Ministry of State Security of the GDR. It was undertaken in the context of the persistent post-2022 criticism of the production. My considerations are not limited to the historical plausibility of the main story arc, but also the depictions of the security officers’ professional ethics, their conduct, the jargon they use, and the equipment they were shown using. The analysis was supplemented with the results archival research on the functioning of the GDR as a state and more specifically — its security apparatus. The primary conclusion is that the depictions of the professional ethos and conduct of the officers was mostly accurate, at least as long as depicting these elements did not distort the coherence of the narrative. What is more, the main story arc is found to be reasonably plausible, as is the case with the vivid portrayal of the climate of fear and surveillance by the secret service, which was prevalent in the GDR.

Albumy Feliksa Matuszelańskiego. Pamiątka osobista — dokumentacja filmów — upamiętnienie Marii Hirszbein

Przemysław Kaniecki — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0100

In the collection of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews POLIN is an album that contains various paper documents, such as programmes, leaflets on several pre-war films, as well as photographs of the films and their sets. There are also cards with commemorative writings (stammbuch) sewn into the initial section. These are mainly materials from the production of the Warsaw-based Leo-Film studio, headed since 1926 by Maria Hirszbein, one of the most important institutions of its kind in pre-war Poland. The author of this article describes this unusual artefact, trying to show its multi-layered nature. Matuszelański’s album, originally intended as a reflection of his own professional way and an album of memorabilia, and evolving over the years into an archive showing the activities of the Leo-Film studio — in its present form it is an album in memory of Maria Hirszbein, who was perished in the Holocaust.

Chiny w Hollywood. Wpływ wzrostu chińskiego rynku kinowego na treść współczesnych filmów hollywoodzkich

Aleksander Młyński — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0100

In this article I analyse the ways in which contemporary American movies are altered due to the growing influence of the emerging entertainment media market in China. For the first time in history, 2020 saw Chinese box office overtake its American counterpart in terms of yearly income. This milestone illustrates how significant the Chinese market has become. The At the same time, being an authoritarian regime, the PRC has a robust, refined and strict system of censorship at its disposal. In order for a foreign film to be admitted into the Chinese cinemas, it has to pass domestic censorship. In some decades, particularly in the 1970s, American movies were able to promote values which were not adhering to the mainstream, or were even a platform for criticism of the domestic establishment. Currently, the US film industry is predominantly driven by capitalist logic — box office appears to be the main factor dictating the content (and outlook) of fiction films. This model is exploited by China through imposition of numerous restrictions and regulations. In my analysis I show how “forbidden” topics, plots or even small details become altered in order to satisfy the regulations introduced by the Chinese government.

„Usieciowienie” versus psychologia. Kilka uwag na temat książki Agnieszki Ogonowskiej „Cyberpsychologia. Media — użytkownicy — zastosowania”, Kraków 2021

Iwona Grodź — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0100

The reviewed publication is the result of many years of research by the author of Cyberpsychologia, Agnieszka Ogonowska, on the psychological aspects of “networking” of a person and his environment, understood not so much in the quantitative sense (time spent using the Internet) but in the qualitative sense (type and level of advancement of participation in virtual life). The texts collected in this book are the result of conferences, training and scientific meetings, so it is easy to see the multitude of perspectives on the phenomenon of cyberpsychology, and even more broadly, cyberculture. This is an undoubted advantage of this publication, because it reveals the need to have interdisciplinary competences, also in the context of the prospect of further research on the interpenetration of technology and psychology.

The findings of the author of Cyberpsychologia, which are an important reason why this book is worth recommending, must be precisely said that only the mind of a conscious, attentive sender and recipient encodes all information "here and now", does not try to hastily evaluate it or even name it, only focuses on them and analyzes them from a distance.