Kino i pamięć
Cinema and Memory

Summary/Abstract: In this article I would like to show the involvement of cinema – as an element of mass culture – in discussions concerning key historical (but not only) experiences or, in other words, in the process of constructing and reconstructing social memory and collective identity. I interpret two movies which were recognized as important: Falling down by Olivier Hirschbigel and Rose by Wojciech Smarzowski in reference to the reasons behind their controversiality. I am interested in the way in which they participate in the process of constructing and reconstructing collective memory and identity as well as in the way in which discussions about them reveal the mechanisms of organizing reality, exclusion and distribution of guilt. Both movies tell stories connected with European and Polish historical experience but it is possible to consider these movies in relation to the concepts of nation, guilt and responsibility, which are used to handle reality and to integrate the community. Cinema turns out to be an important medium and an active participant in the process of constructing social reality.

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