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Anthology of Polish Experimental Animation

I’m acutely conscious that amongst the many failings of this blog is the lack of coverage of animation (something that’s even more unforgivable when you consider that I have strong personal and professional interests in the subject), but if anything’s going to galvanise me into paying it more attention, it’s the imminent release of what looks like a truly phenomenal box set from Polskie Wydawnictwo Audiowizualne.

Given the self-explanatory title Antologia Polskiej Animacji Eksperymentalnej, or Anthology of Polish Experimental Animation, it’s a triple-disc set with forty films adding up to nearly four-and-a-half hours of material. Much of this will be unfamiliar to non-specialists, but the films I’ve seen – by Stefan and Franciszka Themerson, Walerian Borowczyk, Jan Lenica and Zbigniew Rybczynski – are worth the price on their own.

Here’s the list of titles in Polish – I’ve added some English titles where I’m already familiar with them, and will update the rest when PWA offers an English translation.

Disc One
1. The Eye and the Ear (Oko i ucho, d. Franciszka and Stefan Themerson, 1944/45)
2. Once Upon a Time… (Był sobie raz…, d. Walerian Borowczyk and Jan Lenica, 1957)
3. Kineformy (d. Andrzej Pawłowski, 1957)
4. Tam i tu (d. Andrzej Pawłowski, 1957)
5. Standard of Youth (Sztandar młodych, d. Walerian Borowczyk and Jan Lenica, 1957)
6. Somnambulists (Somnambulicy, d. Mieczysław Waśkowski, 1958)
7. Prostokąt dynamiczny (d. Józef Robakowski, 1971)
8. Test I (d. Józef Robakowski, 1971)
9. Demons (Demony, d. Kazimierz Urbański, 1980)
10. Stomp (d. Maciej Ćwiek, 1984)
11. Muka (d. Natalia Wilkoszewska, 2003)
12. III (d. Jakub Lech, 2003)
13. 1-39-C (d. Olga Wroniewicz, 2004)

Disc Two
1. Słodkie rytmy (d. Kazimierz Urbański, 1965)
2. Steering My Own Destiny (Sam sobie sterem, d. Katarzyna Latałło, 1971)
3. Replika (d. Kazimierz Bendkowski, 1975)
4. New Book (Nowa książka, d. Zbigniew Rybczyński, 1975)
5. Oh! I Can’t Stop! (Oj! Nie mogę się zatrzymać!, d. Zbigniew Rybczyński, 1975)
6. Portret (d. Stanisław Lenartowicz, 1977)
7. Dead Shadow (Martwy cień, d. Andrzej Klimowski, 1980)
8. Linia (d. Grzegorz Rogala, 1981)
9. First Film (Pierwszy film, d. Józef Piwkowski, 1981)
10. Blok (d. Hieronim Neumann, 1982)
11. Odpryski (d. Jerzy Kucia, 1984)
12. Video Disc (d. Maciej Ćwiek, 1986)
13. Zoopraxiscope (d. Hieronim Neumann, 2005)

Disc Three
1. Plaża (d. Edward Sturlis, 1964)
2. Copyright by Film Polski MCWLXXVI (d. Piotr Szulkin, 1976)
3. Słońce-film bez kamery (d. Julian Antonisz, 1977)
4. Co widzimy po zamknięciu oczu (d. Julian Antonisz, 1978)
5. Koło bermudzkie (d. Jerzy Kalina, 1979)
6. Cinema verite (d. Andrzej Warchał, 1979)
7. Niezapomniana noc (d. Janek Koza, 1996)
8. Rodzinny interes (d. Janek Koza, 1996)
9. Śmierć na 5 (d. Mariusz Wilczyński, 2002)
10. Niestety (d. Mariusz Wilczyński, 2004)
11. Kundelku ujadaj, perełko rób piekło (d. Wojciech Bąkowski, 2006)
12. Film mówiony 1 (d. Wojciech Bąkowski, 2007)
13. Czapka (d. Tomek Sikora, 2007)
14. Ciastka (d. Tomek Sikora, 2007)

Here’s more information in Polish – I’ll post an English link when they get round to translating it.

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4 Responses to “Anthology of Polish Experimental Animation”

  1. Kevin Wilson says:

    I’m only familiar with Zbigniew Rybczyński for his music video work; mostly Close To The Edit (Art of Noise), P-Machinery (Propaganda) and All The Things She Said (Simple Minds). All incredibly ground breaking. It’ll be interesting to see what his animation is like.

  2. FilmWalrus says:

    I think anyone who would even bother to confess to covering less experimental Polish animated shorts than they would like, has probably seen more experimental Polish animated shorts than most. This sounds like an assuredly intriguing DVD.

    Anyway, great site! I stumbled upon your Kinoblog while trying to find some discussion of Marketa Lazarova and I’ll be roving through your archives for some time to come. I particularly love Czech films, and you’re a great resource on the topic. Keep up the excellent work.

  3. Cecilia Traslaviña says:

    I wonder where can I buy this dvd collection, I sounds really amazing. I’m a serius fan ofpolish animation and I’m animation teacher so It would be marvelous get the dvds. Please write me. Thanks

  4. You should be able to get it from any of the Polish online retailers – here are direct links for Merlin and Empik.

    I tend to prefer Merlin because their packaging is phenomenally elaborate – it takes ten minutes to open, and seems pretty indestructible. That said, I’ve never used Empik, so that may be an unfair comparison.

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