“Europa” Rediscovered
Marcin Giżycki
mgizycki@hotmail.comPolish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology (Poland)
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7525-0205
Abstract
Stefan and Franciszka Themersons’ Europa is a 1932 Polish avant-garde film inspired by an Anatol Stern poem. The film was considered lost during WWII but was miraculously found in Bundesarchiv in 2019 by the employees of the Pilecki Institute’s Berlin branch. A restored copy of the film premiered at the London Film Festival in October 2021. Now we have a chance to compare our imaginary notion of the work to the actual piece, and the latter does not disappoint. Europa is a poetic vision of our world going mad, over-consuming goods, and preparing for a new war. It has a freeflowing chain of images, resembling city symphonies by Cavalcanti and Vertov. The Themersons used a number of frame-by-frame techniques, among them the so-called “animated photogram” of their own invention. The question remains as to whether the newly rediscovered version, originally prepared for screenings in France, is identical to the one screened in 1932 in Warsaw. (Non-reviewed material).
Keywords:
Stefan and Franciszka Themerson, Europa, avant-garde filmReferences
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Authors
Marcin Giżyckimgizycki@hotmail.com
Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7525-0205
Film and art historian, critic, filmmaker. Professor at the Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology in Warsaw (Poland). Senior Lecturer at Rhode Island School of Design in Providence (USA). Artistic Director of “Animator” – International Animated Film Festival in Poznań (Poland). Former editor-in-chief of Animafilm – the ASIFA quarterly. He has published eight books and around 400 articles on film and art in Polish and international publications. He has also made a number of documentary, live action, experimental, and animated films in Poland and the USA. In 2016 he received the Award for Outstanding Contribution to Animation Studies at “Animafest”, the World Festival of Animated Film in Zagreb (Croatia).
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