From the eye to the hand
The victim's double vision
in the films of Roman Polanski
Tracing Polanski's work from the 1960s to his latest film, The Pianist (2002), Gordana P Crnkovic examines how the director's focus on body parts has mirrored an interest in the victim's double vision and urged positive action over fatal passivity and misplaced deeds.
Landscape and lost time
Ethnoscape in the work
of Andrzej Wajda
Wajda's films frequently use landscape to create a sense of Polish national identity that draws on memories of a former age. Elzbieta Ostrowska looks at the director's use of mise-en-scène and narrative framing to achieve this.
Psychological portraits
The early documentaries
of Krzysztof Kieslowski
It is often forgotten that Kieslowski, usually known for his metaphysical fiction, started his film career as a documentarist. Marek Haltof, in this extract from his new book The Cinema of Krzysztof Kieslowski, delves into the director's early works.
Inscribed bodies,
invited dialogues and cosmopolitan cinema
Some brief notes on Agnieszka Holland
Focusing on Bittere Ernte (Angry Harvest, 1984), Gordana P Crnkovic looks at how Holland uses actors associated with other directors—Fassbinder in the case of Bittere Ernte—and films to extend the meaning of a cinematic style that is both Polish and international.
The thirteenth
freak month
The influence of Bruno Schulz
on the Brothers Quay
Although US-born and now based in London, the Brothers Quay have long been inspired by the absurdist art of Mitteleuropa, including Franz Kafka, Jan Švankmajer and particularly Bruno Schulz, the "secret catalyst" to their work. James Fiumara looks at the Polish writer's influence on the Brothers' stop-motion animations.
From the archive
