Stefania Zahorska
Stefania Zahorska

Film essays

Contributor(s): Małgorzata Hendrykowska (Editor)
Subject(s): Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Film / Cinema / Cinematography
Published by: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Adama Mickiewicza
Keywords: Stefania Zahorska; film criticism; review; essay; emigration; academic focus; comparative studies; confluence of arts
Summary/Abstract: In the vast and varied output of Stefania Zahorska (1889-1961), including literary activity, reportage, publications on art history, philosophy, literature, sociology..., theoretical and critical reflection on film occupies a prominent place. She continued to write about film from 1927 almost until the end of her life; her last film review, published in London, was dated 1953. Stefania Zahorska was the most outstanding film critic of the interwar period in Poland. This was due not only to her literary and critical talent, independence and uncompromising judgements, but above all, to her erudition, extensive and in-depth education. When analysing a film, she saw much more than just the image on the screen. For over ten years, she was a regular reviewer for "Wiadomości Literackie" [Literary Matters], reviewing over 500 films. She also introduced film issues to many other socio-cultural and literary magazines. She was also interested in analysing film at an academic level, as evidenced by her speech at the 1927 Congress of Philosophy in Warsaw. As a lecturer (from 1921) at the Free Polish University (Wolna Wszechnica Polska), she introduced film into the programme of lectures on art. Her commitment to teaching is clearly visible in those of her texts in which she introduces the reader to issues such as the film avant-garde. Later on in her life, she wrote film reviews for the Polish émigré press in Paris and London. This critical edition of all of Stefania Zahorska's extremely valuable works on film, reveals her extremely modern way of looking at film as a work of art, which, as the author of reviews, analyses and essays, and even intervention materials, she sees in the broad social, cultural and political contexts of a quarter of a century of Polish culture both at home and abroad.

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