A survey of Central and Eastern European cinema
Saturday May 18th 2024

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Retro-futurism

On his magnificently-titled blog Sit Down Man, You’re a Bloody Tragedy, Owen Hatherley has published an incisive analysis of Dom (1958), the collaboration by Walerian Borowczyk and Jan Lenica that’s now regarded not just as their own breakthrough but the film that kick-started serious Polish animated cinema in general – though, as Hatherley argues, the film is inspired as much by earlier media including Alice in Wonderland, modernist architecture and Surrealism and a general “fetishistic affection for the apparently obsolete”.

The post also includes an embedded YouTube version of the film itself, but those who want a (much) higher-quality copy should snap up PWA’s bargain-priced, 100% English-friendly Anthology of Polish Animation, which also includes other early works by Borowczyk (The School/Szkola) and Lenica (Labyrinth/Labirynt, 1963)

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2 Responses to “Retro-futurism”

  1. Pacze Moj says:

    Although not on that DVD, Lenica and Borowczyk’s animated short Byl sobie raz (English: There Once Was?) from 1957 is worth a look, too.

  2. But Once Upon a Time (its official English title) is on PWA’s followup, the Anthology of Experimental Polish Animation.

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