Published: 2019-02-061

New Source of History? A Redefinition of the Historical Film Genre in Contemporary Polish Cinema

Piotr Skrzypczak
Media - Culture - Social Communication
Section: Articles
https://doi.org/10.31648/mkks.2972

Abstract

The history of Polish historical film has not only been tightly connected to historical research involving historical narration along with scholarly strategies of its transformation, but has also concerned the interpretation of the Polish tradition in the realms of historical literary expression and painting. It seems to be an appropriate strategy to explore the range of various notions pertaining to history in both its remote and recent ranges, such as: film pop-history, literary historicism, and, in particular, the notion of cinema of historical awareness. Film-driven interpretation of history seems to be essential today due to the need to drive the search in the domain of repertoire policies – namely, a repertoire aiming at the interpretation of our recent history. A competition announced in Poland by The Ministry of Culture and National Heritage – to award the best historical script – is flexibly open to promote various forms, i.e. ranging from short “chamber pieces” to a huge panoramic spectacle. In a similar vein, no diachronic perspective has been imposed in terms of temporal depth. Temporal depth seems to shrink in Polish historical film. Today, films that, proverbially, touch the temporal range of “the-day-before-yesterday” happen to be classified as historical. In this situation we face the question and we need to re-examine the definition of the notion of “historical film.” It seems likely that a reconnaissance into the history of Polish cinema will yield some answers to this vital question.

Keywords:

film adaptation of literature, historical film genre, film pop-history, literary historicism, cinema of historical awareness

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Skrzypczak, P. (2019). New Source of History? A Redefinition of the Historical Film Genre in Contemporary Polish Cinema. Media - Culture - Social Communication, 3(13), 29–53. https://doi.org/10.31648/mkks.2972

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