Other library resource(s)
Polish cinema from Oxford Bibliographies Online by Call Number: Electronic resourcePoland’s turbulent history in the 20th century has been the most significant factor affecting the development of vernacular cinema. Until 1918, when Poland regained its independence after 123 years of partitions, Polish cinema did not exist as a separate national entity and thus one can only talk about cinematic practices occurring in Polish territories. Between 1918 and 1939 Polish cinema primarily developed popular forms, ranging from nationalistic melodramas to Yiddish musicals. The outbreak of World War II and the following occupation of Poland meant a cessation of Polish national cinema for six years. ...
Polish cinema now!: focus on contemporary Polish cinema by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1993.5 .P65 2010 + JMC discsISBN: 9780861966912Polish cinema has exercised an independent voice for more than 20 years, challenging political censorship and breaking the old production monopoly of the previous communist government. During this time, Polish movie makers have enjoyed the same freedoms and possibilities as their French or German counterparts, producing 500 feature films and several thousand documentaries. These works are paradoxically less well known internationally than the Polish films made behind the "iron curtain"--when cultural exchange with the western world was controlled exclusively by communist authorities. Polish Cinema Now! facilitates the discovery of this relatively unknown group of works with 11 engaging essays by leading experts from both Poland and abroad. ...
Keeping up with the journal literature
Want an easy way to keep up with the journal literature for a national or regional cinema? And you use a mobile device? You can install the BrowZine app and create a custom Bookshelf of your favorite journal titles. Then you will get the Table of Contents (ToCs) of your favorite journals automatically delivered to you when they become available. Once you have the ToC's you can download and read the articles you want.
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Introduction to Polish cinema
Among the earliest Polish feature films were Antos po raz pierwszy w Warszawie/Anthony’s First Trip to Warsaw (Josef Meyer, 1908) and Dzieje grzechu/The History of Sin (Antoni Bednarczyk, 1911). At the outbreak of World War I there were over 300 cinemas in Poland, and production companies such as Sfinks, headed by Alexander Hertz, had released some fifty full-length features and 350 shorts (fiction, newsreel, and documentaries). A hiatus in the postwar period, with US imports dominating, was followed by a rise in production in the 1930s, with fourteen films per year in 1932–4 rising to between twenty-three and twenty-six annually in 1936–8. Pola Negri was Poland’s best-known film star during this period. Popular genres included literary adaptations, comedy, history films, social problem films, and a number of early synchronized sound films drawing on Poland’s rich cabaret tradition. Director Michał Waszyński (see yiddish cinema) made forty-one feature films between 1929 and 1941, while the films of Józef Lejtes garnered international critical acclaim. ...
Kuhn, A., & Westwell, G. (2020). Poland, film in. In A Dictionary of Film Studies. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 27 May. 2021
Searching the online catalog
You can use the subject heading below to find resources in the online catalog. The call number range is also included.
- motion pictures polandCall number range PN 1993.5 .P5 or .P55 on Baker Level 4. Please note: this is not the only call number range, but it has the most items.
- poland in motion picturesCall number range PN 1995.9 .P54 on Baker Level 4.
Introductory reading(s)
Historical dictionary of Polish cinema by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1993.5 .P55 H34 2015ISBN: 9781442244719In 1902, scientist and inventor Kazimierz Proszyński made the first Polish narrative film, 'The Return of a Merry Fellow.' Since then, the Polish film industry has produced a diverse body of work, ranging from patriotic melodramas and epic adaptations of the national literary canon to Yiddish cinema and films portraying the corrupt side of communism. Often performing specific political and cultural duties for their nation, Polish filmmakers were well aware of their role as educators, entertainers, social activists, and political leaders. This second edition of Historical Dictionary of Polish Cinema fills the gap in film scholarship, presenting an extensive factual survey of Polish film.
Journey to Poland: documentary landscapes of the holocaust by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.9 .H53 C56 2018ISBN: 9781474403573Journey to Poland addresses crucial issues of memory and history in relation to the Holocaust as it unfolded in the territories of the Second Polish Republic. Aiming to understand the ways past events inform present-day landscapes, and the way in which we engage with memory, witnessing and representation, the book creates a coherent cinematic map of this landscape through the study of previously neglected film and TV documentaries that focus on survivors and bystanders, as well as on members of the post-war generation. ...
Polish cinema: a history by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1993.5 .P55 H35 2019ISBN: 9781785339721Publication Date: Second, updated ed.This thoroughly revised and updated edition takes stock of these dramatic shifts to provide an essential account of Polish cinema from the nineteenth century to today, covering such renowned figures as Kieślowski, Skolimowski, and Wajda along with vastly expanded coverage of documentaries, animation, and television, all set against the backdrop of an ever-more transnational film culture.
Polish film: a twentieth century history by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1993.5 .P5 F67 2005ISBN: 9780786413096Here is a history and filmography of the Polish cinema through the end of the twentieth century, with special attention to political and economic contexts. Each chapter includes discussions of important directors and films in a given period. (Yiddish-language films, which were made primarily in Poland, are included.) Unique reference material includes a filmography providing cast and crew information for more than 500 Polish films; information about the translation of titles; and a list of all Polish films approved, rejected, or conditionally approved by the New York State Department of Education from 1922 through 1965, during which time the Department exercised virtual censorship for the whole country.
Selected book title(s)
Hollywood's war with Poland, 1939-1945 by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780813125596During World War II, Hollywood studios supported the war effort by making patriotic movies designed to raise the nation's morale. They often portrayed the combatants in very simple terms: Americans and their allies were heroes, and everyone else was a villain. Norway, France, Czechoslovakia, and England were all good because they had been invaded or victimized by Nazi Germany. Poland, however, was represented in a negative light in numerous movies. In Hollywood's War with Poland, 1939-1945, M. B. B. Biskupski draws on a close study of prewar and wartime films such as To Be or Not to Be (1942), In Our Time (1944), and None Shall Escape (1944). He researched memoirs, letters, diaries, and memoranda written by screenwriters, directors, studio heads, and actors to explore the negative portrayal of Poland during World War II. Biskupski also examines the political climate that influenced Hollywood films.
The law of the looking glass: cinema in Poland, 1896-1939 by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780821417843The Law of the Looking Glass: Cinema in Poland, 1896-1939 reveals the complex relationship between nationhood, national language, and national cinema in Europe before World War II. Author Sheila Skaff describes how the major issues facing the region before World War I, from the relatively slow pace of modernization to the desire for national sovereignty, shaped local practices in film production, exhibition, and criticism. She goes on to analyze local film production, practices of spectatorship in large cities and small towns, clashes over language choice in intertitles, and controversy surrounding the first synchronized sound experiments before World War I. ...
No end in sight: Polish cinema in the late Socialist period by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780822964612No End in Sight offers a critical analysis of Polish cinema and literature during the transformative late Socialist period of the 1970s and 1980s. Anna Krakus details how conceptions of time, permanence, and endings shaped major Polish artistic works. She further demonstrates how film and literature played a major role in shaping political consciousness during this highly-charged era. Despite being controlled by an authoritarian state and the doctrine of socialism, artists were able to portray the unsettled nature of the political and psychological climate of the period, and an undetermined future. ...
The red and the white: the cinema of people's Poland by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1993.5 .P55 C63 2005ISBN: 9781904764267The Red and the White: The Cinema of People's Poland takes a fascinating look at the history of post-war Polish cinema, and how it was affected by the political, social and cultural upheavals throughout the period 1947-89. This timely study re-evaluates the legacy of Socialist Realism, the representation of the war, cinematic portrayals of national myth and cultural history, literary adaptation and surrealism, and discourses of exile and national identity.
Women in Polish cinema by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9781571819482Polish film has long enjoyed an outstanding reputation but its best known protagonists tend to be male. This book points to the important role of women as key characters in Polish films, such as the enduring female figure in Polish culture, the "Polish Mother," female characters in socialist realistic cinema, women depicted in the films of the Polish School, Solidarity heroines, and women in the films from the post-communist period. Not less important for the success of Polish cinema are Polish women filmmakers, four of whom are presented in this volume ...
Finding scholarly articles & journal title(s)
Articles and other writings about Polish films can be found in different publications. Our collection does not include any journals which look exclusively at Polish films. You can use Film & Television Literature Index to find articles or use the search box at the top of the page.
Film & television literature index by Call Number: Electronic resourceUse this index to find articles about this national cinema.
Screen studies collection by Call Number: Electronic resourceA comprehensive survey of current publications related to film scholarship alongside detailed filmographies. This collection includes the FIAF International Index to Film Periodicals Database and the detailed and complementary filmographies created by the American Film Institute (AFI) and the British Film Institute.
The web of science citation databases by Call Number: Electronic resourceThe online version of 3 separate ISI indexes: Arts & Humanities Citation Index, Science Citation Index and, Social Sciences Citation Index.
Selected movie titles
For more Polish films in the library's online catalog.
Dekalog by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #20050Originally made for Polish television, Dekalog focuses on the residents of a housing complex in post-Communist Poland, whose lives become subtly intertwined as they face emotional dilemmas that are at once deeply personal and universally human. Using the Ten Commandments for thematic inspiration and an overarching structure, the ten hour-long films deftly grapple with complex moral and existential questions concerning life, death, love, hate, truth, and the passage of time.
Ida by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #17937A moving and intimate drama about a young novitiate nun in 1960s Poland who, on the verge of taking her vows, discovers a dark family secret dating from the terrible years of the Nazi occupation.
Interrogation = Przesłuchanie by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #4255Banned for eight years, Interrogation is a scathing condemnation of political systems that resort to any sort of torture to crush dissent. A cabaret singer in 1950's Warsaw is victimized by a Stalinist government.
Kanał by Call Number: Streaming video"Watch them closely, for these are the last hours of their lives," announces a narrator, foretelling the tragedy that unfolds as a war-ravaged company of Home Army resistance fighters tries to escape the Nazi onslaught through the sewers of Warsaw. Determined to survive, the men and women slog through the hellish labyrinth, piercing the darkness with the strength of their individual spirits.- Krzyżacy = Knights of the Teutonic Order byCall Number: Jones Media DVD #23220Considered one of the greatest Polish films of all time, this epic is a historical romance and war film set in the Middle Ages. The epic scope of Knights compares with the best in Hollywood epics and is a film for viewers of all ages.
Prawdziwy koniec wielkiej wojny = Real end of the great war by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #13753ISBN: 9781565808805A young architect and his new bride find their lives torn apart when he is deported to a concentration camp soon after their wedding, and his bride falls for another man after fearing her new husband is dead.
Psy = Pigs by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #8414ISBN: 9781565806184In gritty, post-Communist Poland an honest, no-nonsense cop (and former KGB agent) is assigned to clean up the burgeoning Polish mob before it grows too powerful, but his job is threatened by superiors wary of his former Communist ties.
Urodziny młodego warszawiaka = Birthday by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #7823ISBN: 9781565808119A young man grows to manhood during World War II. The film covers four days in his life, his birthday in September in the years 1938, 1939, 1943, and 1944. By The end of the war, Jerzy has joined the resistance and is taking part in the Warsaw Uprising.
Internet resource(s)
- A Foreigner's Guide Polish CinemaOf all the areas of Polish culture in which a foreigner requires guidance, cinema comes to mind first. Many are acquainted with its international stars, but few know the background story and the gems that haven't yet made it globally. To brush up on your knowledge – or to tackle your complete ignorance – simply select your profile, click and enjoy!
- Polish cinema on the rise from The New York TimesFebruary was an extraordinary month for Polish cinema. The country’s filmmakers won two Silver Bears at the Berlin International Film Festival and three of its films were nominated for Academy Awards, including “Ida” — Pawel Pawlikowski’s black-and-white drama set in 1962 that deals with Stalinism and the Holocaust — which became the first Polish movie to win the Oscar for best foreign language film. ...
- A short history of Polish cinema from The GuardianPolish film was an early frontrunner, before occupation forced wave after wave of talent abroad. Its fortitude is embodied by Andrzej Wajda – still going strong 50 years after his first feature ...
