Transitions Online_The Drama of the Polish Outsider – 24 September
The inner discord between belonging and non-belonging has been the germ of many outstanding artistic achievements by authors who feel part of Polish culture.
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The inner discord between belonging and non-belonging has been the germ of many outstanding artistic achievements by authors who feel part of Polish culture.
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When the coronavirus emptied streets and city centers, people found a retro solution to social isolation: drive-in theaters.
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A distant image of a boat adrift in the Mediterranean Sea, with thirteen refugees on board. Taken from a YouTube clip, the image is dealt with and stretched in slow motion. The unsynchronized soundtrack is composed of faceless voices of migrants and refugees. The fragmented soundtrack and the“processed” still frame repetitive image underscore that Havarie [Collision] is a documentary which engages not only with the refugee question. It also reflexively questions the conventions governing the representation of suffering in the media. While the visual image is undermined, the voice assumes a significant role. Thus one’ attention is drawn to listening to voices expressing their traumatic experiences of migration. The human voice is perceived as an inner expression of trauma, a vehicle that embodies ethical significance (Caruth, “TheWound” 8-9; Dolar 86) Jacques Derrida talks of specters that haunt Europe, spirits whose evasive presence cannot be controlled nor silenced (xix). Hamid Naficy shows that exile cinema emphasizes the voice, different languages, and accents (18-38). It undermines the hegemony of the picture and modernity, and moves towards the acoustics of exile that mixes the pre-modern and post-modern. I would like to argue that the divide between image and voice has ties with Jean-François Lyotard’s concept of le différend – a term relating to languages that never meet and are untranslatable, as long as one language enforces itself on and silences the other (13). In addition, I would like to connect the film’s faceless voices with the ethical concepts of Emmanuel Levinas: he intertwines the term “face” (le visage) with “the said” (le dit) and seeks a moment of epiphany through face or language (that are not necessarily visual or verbal), a moment which impels us to listen and arouses our ethical responsibility toward the Other (Totality; “The Saying” 5-7). I suggest that the film’s faceless world, where thirteen men wait for a rescue that never arrives, forces one to reflect on one’s blindness and deafness while watching the Other.
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The theme of Czech-German co-habitation in the Sudetes, from where over two million German citizens were uprooted after the Second World War, has become one of the most politicalised themes in Czechoslovakian and then Czech cinematography. In this study, the analyses are primarily focused on motifs linked with representation of historical and present Sudetes, and development of Czech-German relations. Concretely, it focuses on nationalistic actions,the escalation of Czech-German relations after Hitler’s coming of power in Germany, conceding the Sudetes to the Reich, expelling the Germans after World War Two, the arrival of Czechs after the war, fate of ethnically mixed families, and protection of national borders. The aim of the study is to describe changes in the discourse of film and television representations of history in Czech society following the creation of Czechoslovakia in 1918 until the present day, and interpret these in the context of political changes. In particular, I will focus on the reasons which caused the deformation and silencing of historical events linked with those in the Sudetes. The analyses conducted along the diachronic axis should prove the hypothesis that changes in the representations of history and present Sudetes correspond with changes in society, and strongly present the contemporary Czech(oslovakian) position to the 20th century history.
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Review of: Deutschland und Polen. Filmische Grenzen und Nachbarschaften. Hrsg. von Konrad K l e j s a und Schamma S c h a h a d a t unter Mitarbeit von Christian N a s t a l . (Marburger Schriften zur Medienforschung, Bd. 17.) Schüren. Marburg 2011. 269 S., 32 Ill. ISBN 978-3-89472-569-3. (€ 30,–.). Reviewed by Cordula Kalmbach.
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In diesem Artikel soll gezeigt werden, wie sich im sozialistischen Polen der 1980er Jahre die Videotechnologie verbreitete. In den späten 1980er Jahren gab es in polnischen Haushalten schätzungsweise mehr als eine halbe Million Videorecorder und einige Millionen Videokassetten. Die meisten dieser Kassetten wurden dafür benutzt, um Raubkopien populärer Filme, versehen mit einer behelfsmäßigen polnischen Tonspur, abzuspeichern. Zu dieser Zeit war es in Polen eine weit verbreitete Sitte, an Sonntagabenden gemeinsam mit Freunden oder Verwandten Videofilme anzuschauen. Die überaus große Beliebtheit von Video in Polen lag hautsächlich darin begründet, dass man so Zugang zu zahllosen populären Kinofilmen der 1980er Jahre erhielt, in erster Linie zu Action-, Horror- und nicht zuletzt pornografischen Filmen. Diese Filme wurden hauptsächlich aus Westdeutschland importiert. In dem vorliegenden Beitrag werden die einzelnen sozialen Akteure dargestellt, die Video überhaupt erst populär machten, wobei sich zeigt, dass kulturelle und ökonomische Praktiken voneinander abhängig waren. Ich beschreibe die Rolle der informellen Wirtschaft und von Kleinunternehmern bei der Popularisierung von Video in Polen. Zudem rekonstruiere ich die Debatte zwischen Kulturkritikern und Vertretern der Filmindustrie, die einerseits bei den zuständigen Politikern darauf drangen, Video in die staatliche Kulturpolitik, mit der die „kulturelle Erziehung der Gesellschaft“ verbessert werden sollte, einzubeziehen. Andererseits erkannten die Kritiker, wie profitabel das Geschäft mit Videofilmen war. Sie forderten deshalb, dass der Staat in die polnische Videoindustrie investieren solle, um sich einen Anteil an diesem bisher von Raubkopierern beherrschten Markt zu sichern. Meine Untersuchung zeigt jedoch, dass seitens des Staates keine einheitliche Politik gegenüber dieser Medientechnologie verfolgt wurde. Der Video-Schwarzmarkt wurde eher toleriert und blieb ohne Kontrolle. So wurde z.B. erst 1994 erstmals ein Gesetz zum Schutz des Copyrights im Bereich elektronischer Medien erlassen. Vor 1989 wurde lediglich in die Entwicklung und die Vermarktung polnischer Videorecorder investiert. Dieser Versuch scheiterte, weil die polnische Elektronikindustrie nicht mit den billigen und qualitativ hochwertigen japanischen Fabrikaten mithalten konnte. Das staatliche polnische Videovertriebssystem war ebenfalls ein Fehlschlag. Nach 1989 wurde dieser Markt rasch von privaten Medienunternehmen übernommen, die von Geschäftsleuten geführt wurden, die als Betreiber von privaten Videoläden im sozialistischen Polen Erfahrung gesammelt hatten.
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The article deals with the representation of Jewish identity in the films of Andrzej Wajda, with particular focus on his visual and stereotypical attributions of what it is to be Jewish. The central element of the inquiry is to investigate whether the ways in which Jewish identity are presented before and after 1989, i.e. under communist rule and thereafter, developed. Three films are examined: Samson (1961), Korczak (1990) and Holy Week (1995). In the process we can identify both breaks and continuities. These can be recognised both in the treatment of male and female gender images as well as in the presentation of PolishJewish solidarity and animosity. The latter topic was especially difficult for film-makers to deal with in the years of the People’s Republic. Wajda tried to do this in Samson, but without success. In the two films which were both made after the 1989 turning point, particularly Korczak sparked off considerable controversy, mostly emanating from the French critics and resulting in a delayed start to the showing of the film. In Holy Week, which was adapted from Jerzy Andrzejewski’s novel, Wajda examined the distance that separated Jews and Poles during the German occupation. The presentation in Wajda’s films gave rise to repeated debate and criticism as the images he showed did not accord with the generally-accepted narrative of the Second World War and Polish-Jewish relations. As a result, they have, particularly in hindsight, proved to be a very thought-provoking contribution to the topic.
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This paper focuses on the question of blasé attitude that has turned into an extent of modern culture and into an ordinary manifestation of everyday life. The term blasé attitude, which was used firstly by Georg Simmel as sociological case peculiar to the urban life, is dealt with in this article as human condition that cannot be reduced to spatial borders. In this study, blasé attitude, which has more destructive feature as against melancholia, is methodologically debated through the cinematic characters of the film Ahlat Ağacı (The Wild Pear Tree, 2018) directed by the Turkish filmmaker Nuri Bilge Ceylan. Thus, the cinematic projection crystallises competently the issue of blasé attitude that is grey, depressed and pessimistic affect. As seen in Ceylan’s films, modern individuals face off not only against the Other but also against their existence, conscience and given values. Moreover, there is no obvious showdown among sides. This article examines blasé attitude as individually-experienced social manner beyond urban and rural cultures zooms and essentially as modern human catastrophe.
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Nowadays streaming platforms are becoming more and more popular, enabling viewing of video materials in the format of Video on Demand. Currently, the most popular are platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Showmax, which came to Poland at the beginning of 2017, HBO GO service belonging to a traditional television broadcaster, or finally the oldest of these – the Netflix platform. This article will be devoted to Netflix due to its long history and unquestionable clearing of routes in this area. The main purpose of this article is to analyze Netflix’s actions related to VoD services and its production of high-quality programs. Analysis is aimed at specifying solutions that have provided this platform with such popularity. In addition, an attempt will be made to determine whether Netflix is only a streaming platform or can be considered as an example of modern quality television.
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The article takes a closer look at web series which not only are distributed exclusively via world wide web (usually YouTube and Vimeo) but for which the hypertextuality, modularity or transmediality stand for their essential qualities. I have divided web series into three categories: 1) very cheap, short series and series of a few episodes amateurish in form ; 2) semi-professional series of a longer length, sometimes genre-oriented; 3) professional “extensions” (spin-off’s) of traditional TV series, 4) branded series considered to represent narrative commercials of minor and major brands. The author analyses the form and content of the above regarding both fictional and documentary works; elaborates on one of the most complex examples (“H+. The Digital Series” by Warner Bros.) and finishes with opportunities and disadvantages of such a film form.
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The article discusses fan practices of Polish viewers of the Turkish TV series Magnificent Century (Muhteşem Yüzyıl, Wspaniałe stulecie). Using this example, the author analyzes the issue of cultural incorporation, recontextualization and reinterpretation of foreign narrative conventions. The article also describes how people digitally excluded join the fandom and get `infected` by the need for `drilling` down into their favorite text. As a result, they acquire new technological skills and build online knowledge communities described by Henry Jenkins.
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In my paper I focus on presenting the American crisis on the example of the series Fargo. The Coen brothers show different heroes in the role of contemporary Sisyphus. Drawing on the philosophy of Sartre and Kierkegaard, they analyze the existential condition of their characters and expose the American dream. They entangle the characters into economic, emotional and living crises in order to expose the illusion of emancipation in capitalism.
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Modern television series are a product of quality television and thus significantly differ from the models that have been deeply rooted in serial culture since the very beginning of the media’s existence. At that time, the dominating category constituted series with an episodic structure closed within one episode. Nowadays, the dominant format is the narrative continuity The text aims to show the series in which the creators used innovative solutions as a result of which a new narrative paradigm was formed, described as a „narrative complexity”. The article briefly analyzes various series genres: soap operas, sitcoms and postmodernist series. All the examples cited represent a different types of multi-threaded balance, that affects the evolution of narrative patterns.
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The aim of this paper is to show the functioning and the role of paranoid obsessions in television series Mr. Robot (2015-) and Thomas Pynchon’s novels. Although it seems that the novels of the American writer and the screenplay have little in common, both use a paranoid way of thinking as a creative response to societal experience.
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The TV crime drama is one of the most popular genres for European audiences and arguably also the most culturally sensitive and nuanced. The author in his article analyzes one of the Swedish examples of crime drama called Jordskott. Author interprets it through the prism of the Nordic noir aesthetics while characterizing this concept. In the course of analyzes, however, he notices that the Jordskott series escapes the genre framework and is located somewhere at the intersection of such film aesthetics as: Nordic noir, ecological thriller, horror or fairy tale.
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In the second half of the first decade of the 21st century, affirmative images of homosexual men began to appear in both Polish cinema and drama series. Several factors contributed to this, including the “influence of the West” after Poland had joined the European Union. Driven by socio-political changes, the improvement of gay men’s media image can be observed on the example of the male character of the Polish soap opera M jak miłość (L for Love) – Grzegorz. In episodes produced in 2003, Grzegorz is an secondary, definitely negative character and represents a serious threat to the heteronormative social structure. Two years later, in 2005, Grzegorz appears in M jak miłość again, this time equipped with positive features: generosity, unselfishness, patience, sensitivity. He implements the “gay best friend” stereotype – is a friend of one of the female protagonists, also becomes a victim of a homophobic attack. However, same like the negative image of homosexual men, the positive image constructed in opposition to it is a sign of a social problem.
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The article discusses factors determining the production process of the TV series Artists by Monika Strzępka and Paweł Demirski. Using production culture methodology, the author of the article demonstrates how the production background can be used to understand the message of the series. The article shows that numerous factors influence this outcome message, including decisions within the production team, structural and organizational changes in Telewizja Polska, financial limitations, artistic compromises or even political changes in the country.
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Above all, Krzysztof Zanussi is known to Polish viewers as the author of popular cinema films such as The Structure of Crystal (1969), The Illumination (1972) and Camouflage (1976). However, it should be remembered that the director has repeatedly cooperated with television – both domestic and foreign. Nowadays, television films that foreshadowed the movement called cinema of moral concern, produced in Poland at the time of the Polish People’s Republic, are poorly present within film discourse. The aim of this article is to recreate (and compare with each other) the former and contemporary reception of these films, discussed at different intervals in popular or professional periodicals and, what is an increasingly frequent phenomenon, referenced in the Krzysztof Zanussi’s monographs.
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The review of: Anna Estera Mrozewicz, Beyond Eastern Noir: Reimaging Russia and Eastern Europe in Nordic Cinemas; Edinburgh University Press, 2019; 240p.
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A large part of David Lynch’s oeuvre centres around corporeal anxieties and grotesque, divergent bodies drawing attention to their own biological nature. One such example is the 1980 feature The Elephant Man, focusing on John Merrick, a freak show performer severely afflicted with a disfiguring disease. The film juxtaposes key characters in the film and moves between their different perspectives: that of Merrick, a freak show performer; Doctor Treves, a man of science; Bytes, an entertainer; and finally, a number of peripheral observers from both the high and low classes of Victorian society. The titular Elephant Man’s disfigured body becomes the object of spectacle both in a freak show and in a medical lecture theatre. This paper compares scenes presenting Merrick’s body as an exhibit and argues that Lynch draws parallels between the domain of sensational entertainment (Merrick as a carnival monster) and scientific analysis (Merrick as a medical specimen). In this way, the film highlights the similarities between the perception of the body in those two seemingly incongruous discourses. I suggest that the exhibition of a monstrous body in The Elephant Man, both in the context of a sideshow and Victorian medical lecture, are consciously theatrical.
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