Polish Film

When the Lumière brothers introduced the motion picture in 1895, Poland was a divided and suffering nation—yet Polish artists found their way into the new world of cinema. Boleslaw Matuszewski created his first documentary films in 1896, and Poland’s first movie house was established in 1908. Despite war and repression, Polish cinema continued to grow and to reach for artistic heights. The twentieth century closed with new challenges, but a new generation of Polish filmmakers stood ready to meet them.
Here is a complete history of the Polish cinema through the end of the twentieth century, with special attention to political and economic contexts.

Author and film historian Charles Ford lived in Poland and France and taught film history in France, Canada, and Spain. He died in Paris in 1989.
The late Robert Hammond, was an author and film historian who taught cinema history in many institutions including Cornell and Harvard. He lived in Paris.

Charles Ford and Robert Hammond
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 368
Bibliographic Info: 32 photos, filmography, appendices, notes, index
Copyright Date: 2009 [2005]
pISBN: 978-0-7864-4677-3
eISBN: 978-1-4766-0803-7
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments      vi
Preface      ix
Introduction      1

I. The Silent Era
1. Filmmakers Without a Country      9
2. Theories and Experiments      21
3. Poland on the World Scene, 1920–1930      42

II. Poland Speaks: Sound Films, 1930–1940
4. Adjustment to Sound      65
5. Films and Their Makers      78

III. World War II and the Postwar Years
6. The War      95
7. New Times, New Ideas      103
8. Postwar Directors      114

IV. Renaissance
9. The Backdrop, 1968–1980      135
10. Unfulfilled Promises      144
11. Three Directors of Note      152
12. The Comet and the Sun      177
13. Totalitarian Nightmare, 1981–1985      194
14. Cut! Dissolve to Fade-Out      201

Filmography by Grazyna Kudy      211
Appendix 1:Notes on Title Translations      297
Appendix 2: The Albany Catalogue: Polish Films Passed Through the New York State Department of Education, 1921–1965      311
Chapter Notes      325
Bibliography      330
Index      331

“hugely informative”—Senses of Cinema.