‘Reviews’ Archives
People from an Empty Zone
Ludzie z pustego obszaru Poland, 1957, black and white, 15 minsOne of the most immediately striking aspects of Kazimierz Karabasz and Władysław Ślesicki's second collaboration is that they've clearly devoted a lot of thought to the nature and purpose of what they were attempting. Whereas many of the films made in the first year of the 'black [...]
Lublin Old Town
Lubelska starówka Poland, 1956, black and white, 5 minsOne characteristic of the 'black series' that became increasingly apparent in 1956 was the use of sarcasm, though it was rarely deployed quite as overtly as this. In many ways a sequel to-cum-parody of the likes of Return to the Old Town (Powrót na Stare Miasto, 1954), the film begins with [...]
Warsaw ‘56
Warszawa 1956 Poland, 1956, black and white, 10 minsEssentially a cross between Edgar Anstey and Arthur Elton's classic British documentary Housing Problems (1935) and a particularly sadistic child-in-peril suspense thriller, Warsaw '56 is the most sheerly terrifying film in the 'black series' of documentaries that shook up Polish cinema in the [...]
Little Town
Miasteczko Poland, 1956, black and white, 10 minsThe gauntlet is thrown down from the opening title, a quotation from the then recently deceased poet Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński (1905-53) that says "How to speak the truth about Poland..." ("Jak tu prawdę o Polsce powiedzieć...") - the largely correct implication being that Polish [...]
Rocky Soil
Skalna ziemia Poland, 1956, black and white, 16 minsMany of the films in the 'black series' of Polish documentaries from 1955-58 sought to expose the reality behind the official rhetoric, and Rocky Soil offers a particularly good example. Set in and around the rural hamlet of Gorce, the film's unnamed protagonist (and first-person narrator, [...]
Where the Devil Says Goodnight
Gdzie diabeł mówi dobranoc Poland, 1956, black and white, 11 minsThe first professional film by then recent film-school graduates Kazimierz Karabasz and Władysław Ślesicki, Where the Devil Says Goodnight is considered one of the key films of the 'black series' of documentaries that opened a debate about Poland's social problems in the [...]
A Generation
PokoleniePoland, 1955, black and white, 83 minsIt's easy to overrate A Generation. Always one of the most straightforward of Andrzej Wajda's films to get hold of, thanks largely to its regular bundling with the far more accomplished Kanal (Kanał, 1957) and Ashes and Diamonds (Popiól i diament, 1958) as an artificial "war trilogy" (which could [...]
The Children Accuse
Dzieci oskarżają Poland, 1956, black and white, 10 minsThe second 'black series' ('czarna seria') film by Jerzy Hoffman and Edward Skórzewski seems to start in a more sedate fashion compared with the throat-grabbing immediacy of Look Out, Hooligans! (Uwaga chuligani!, 1955), in that it begins with a mother and daughter doing (Christmas?) [...]
Look Out, Hooligans!
Uwaga chuligani! Poland, 1955, black and white, 12 minsAlthough signs of a thaw could be discerned the previous year (Jerzy Hoffman and Edward Skórzewski's sternly moralistic lecture Are You Among Them?/Czy jesteś wśród nich? did at least acknowledge the existence of petty crime and other forms of antisocial behaviour), their second film Look [...]
Return to the Old Town
Powrót na Stare Miasto Poland, 1954, black and white/colour, 20 minsIn essence a documentary about the recreation of Warsaw's Old Town, all but destroyed during World War II, Jerzy Bossak's film has enough genuinely powerful images of the large-scale restoration and reconstruction process to compensate for the commentary's attempts at rewriting [...]