Polish Avant-Garde Films, 1930-1945

Program

The following 8 movies will be shown at a single screening.

1.      Pharmacy, a re-make by American artist Bruce Checefsky (USA, 2001) of the film Apteka, by Stefan and Franciszka Themerson, 1930. BETACAM. Running time: 4:40 min. (The original was lost during World War II.)

 APTEKA was the first finished Polish avant-garde film. The film – a purely visual play of images in motion – was executed in a technique of animated photograms (objects are placed on a glass table covered with a sheet of carbon paper, lit from above, and filmed frame by frame from below). The re-make was produced in Budapest in 2001 by Checefsky and award-winning Hungarian animator and film writer Laszlo L. Revesz.

2.      Europa 2, a film inspired by a 1932 film of the same title by Stefan and Franciszka Themerson, directed by Piotr Zarębski, 1988. Running time: 14:30 min. 35 mm. (The original was lost during World War II).

 EUROPA, by the Themersons, is a series of images inspired by a poem of the same name by Anatol Stern. In the original, silent film, Stern’s poetic text was not present in any form. In the Zarębski version, the poem is read in voice-over. Some of the images refer directly to preserved frames from the Themersons’ original; others – to contemporary Poland.

 3.      OR Rhythmical Calculation /OR (Obliczenia Rytmiczne)/, re-make of a 1934 film by Jalu Kurek, directed by Ignacy Szczepański, screenplay by Marcin Giżycki (professor, Rhode Island School of Design), 1985. BETACAM (fragment of a documentary JALU KUREK). Running time: 4:00 min.

 All that remains today from this film by Kurek, a poet and writer associated with the poetry group, the Cracow Avant-garde, are single frames and short strips of negative. The film was conceived as a demonstration of the author’s theories on film, which proclaimed, among other things, that in the cinema the human face is an alien element that should be avoided. The trivial story of a meeting of a man and a woman in the park was told in an unconventional, non-linear way. In their remake, Szczepański and Giżycki have used exclusively Kurek’s preserved, original material.

 4.      There is a Ball Tonight /Dzis mamy bal/, by Jerzy Zarzycki and Tadeusz Kowalski, 1934, 35 mm. Running time: 7:00 min.

 An impressionistic documentary presented in an unconventional way through the use of several interesting tricks: an account of an annual Architects’ Ball. The film was realized by two architecture students who were also active members of “Start”, the Society in Support of the Film as Art, dedicated to promoting the artistic avant-garde.

 5.      Boots /Buty/, by Jerzy Gabryelski, 1934, 35 mm. Running time: 12:00 min.

 A narrative anti-war film, broadly exploiting the possibilities of the film medium, that was acclaimed in the press of the inter-war period as an example of Polish avant-garde cinema.

 6.      The Adventure of a Good Citizen /Przygoda czlowieka poczciwego/, by Stefan and Franciszka Themerson, Warsaw 1937. b/w, sound, 35 mm. Running time: 8 min.

 A surrealistic grotesque by these pioneers of the Polish avant-garde cinema, that became an inspiration for Roman Polanski’s 1958 student film, “Two Men and a Wardrobe”. The music, composed by Stefan Kisielewski, is also worthy of notice.

7.      Calling Mr. Smith, by Stefan and Franciszka Themerson, London 1943. Dufay-color, sound, 35 mm. Running time: 9:30 min

A visually stunning, experimental, anti-war film done in 1943 in England, revealing crimes committed by German soldiers on occupied territories during WW2. A rare excursion for these avantgardistes into a more utilitarian, inspirational contribution to the British war effort

8.      The Eye and the Ear, by Stefan and Franciszka Themerson, London 1945. b/w, sound, 35 mm. Running time: 11:00 min.

 Film realized in exile, in England, to the music of four songs by Karol Szymanowski with lyrics by the famous Polish poet Julian Tuwim. The film, a continuation of the artistic creativity of the Themersons before 1939, is an especially interesting example of the search for a visual equivalent to music. One of the most important experiments in abstract film in the history of cinema.

Where & when: the HUB Auditorium (room #112), at the UW campus, Oct 18, 2003, 8 p,