Adaptacja i problem autorstwa w kinie socrealistycznym
Adaptation and the issue of authorship in cinema of socialist realism

Summary/Abstract: Zwierzchowski has dealt with the cinema of Socialist Realism for many years. He considers the 1950s to be one of the most exciting decades in the history of Poland’s cinema owing to the road it had taken from the Congress of Filmmakers in Wisła and the dominance of the doctrine of Socialist Realism until the eruption of talents and exceptional artistic individualities of the “Polish film school”. Zwierzchowski claims that the issue of authorship in Socialist Realism was resolved in a very peculiar way. Literary adaptations provide very interesting research material. The artist (novelist, screenwriter and film director) does not only express his/her vision of the world but also reflects party’s vision, the only acceptable idea. Translating a novel into the film medium, the film director should make efforts to perfect, enrich but also “explain” and update it ideologically. That required a special “re-writing” of the novel, which was in part the writer’s job if he/she was at the same time the author of a screenplay. A screenplay was the most important element of a film work, and most closely scrutinized by censorship. The value of literary material of a film work was gauged by its propaganda potential. The author of the article compares the theories of art of Socialist Realism (developed in the Soviet Union and adapted by Polish propagandists) with the contemporary conceptions of film adaptations and sociology of art.

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