“The Young Magician”: A Study of a Polish-Canadian Co-production in the Decline of the Polish People's Republic
Michał Piepiórka
piepior@tlen.plAdam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (Poland)
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2523-7656
Abstract
The article is a study of the Polish-Canadian co-production The Young Magician (Cudowne dziecko, 1987), directed by Waldemar Dziki. The author focuses on reconstructing the Polish filmmakers’ reasons for undertaking a collaboration with the Western contractor and reflects on the production process, tracing how it influenced the shape of the film work. In this way, he describes the specificity of Polish cinematography of the declining period of the Polish People’s Republic – both in economic terms and in terms of changes in the mentality of artists and decision-makers. The background circumstances in which the agreement was signed reveal the values that proved to be crucial for Polish cinematography to enter the international film market. The case of production cooperation between countries from both sides of the Iron Curtain is examined in the perspective of a critical reflection on transnational cinema, using the concept of power relations – both soft and hard – proposed by Joseph Nye. However, the example of The Young Magician above all points to the role of negotiation in international co-productions, which leads to hybrid film forms.
Keywords:
co-production, Waldemar Dziki, transnational cinema, People’s Republic of PolandReferences
Alioff, M. (1987). Seigneur Rock. Cinema Canada, (9), ss. 17-21.
Google Scholar
Bergfelder, T., Harris, S., Street, S. (2007). Film Architecture and the Transnational Imagination: Set Design in 1930s European Cinema. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5117/9789053569801
Google Scholar
Bochniarz, M. S. (2016, 8 grudnia). Rock Demers: antydisneizm w Kanadzie, magia w Polsce i miłość w Rumunii. Czas Kultury. https://czaskultury.pl/czytanki/rock-demers/
Google Scholar
Gaetz, J. (1987). Waldemar Dziki’s „Le jeune magicien”. Cinema Canada, (5), s. 31.
Google Scholar
Grzechowiak, J. (2022). Zespoły filmowe w latach 80. – polityka personalna, produkcje, oceny. W: P. Kurpiewski, P. Zwierzchowski (red.), Kino w cieniu kryzysu. Studia i szkice o polskiej kinematografii pierwszej połowy lat 80.. Bydgoszcz: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Kazimierza Wielkiego.
Google Scholar
Higbee, W., Lim, S. H. (2010). Concepts of Transnational Cinema: Towards a Critical Transnationalism in Film Studies. Transnational Cinemas, (1), ss. 7-21.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1386/trac.1.1.7/1
Google Scholar
Hollender, B., Turowska, Z. (2000). Zespół Tor. Warszawa: Prószyński i S-ka.
Google Scholar
Janicka, B. (1988). Jutro (rozmowa z Waldemarem Dzikim). Film, (6), ss. 3-5.
Google Scholar
Janicka, B. (1995). Dzisiaj. Z Waldemarem Dzikim, szefem Pleografu, rozmawia Bożena Janicka. Kino, (11), ss. 6-9.
Google Scholar
Mazierska, E. (2012). International Co-productions as Productions of Heterotopias. W: A. Imre (red.), A Companion to Eastern European Cinema (ss. 483-503). Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Inc.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118294376.ch25
Google Scholar
Mazierska, E. (2021). Mr. Kleks in Space: Science Fiction for the End of State Socialism. Studies in Eastern European Cinema, 12 (1), ss. 83-94.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/2040350X.2020.1807091
Google Scholar
Miodek, M. (1986). Latająca głowa. Film, (8), s. 6-7.
Google Scholar
Mruklik, B. (1987). Dlaczego by nie uwierzyć?. Kino, (12), ss. 11-14.
Google Scholar
Nye jr., J. S. (2007). Soft Power. Jak osiągnąć sukces w polityce światowej (tłum. J. Zaborowski). Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Akademickie i Profesjonalne.
Google Scholar
Siefert, M. (2012). Co-producing Cold War Culture: East-West Film-Making and Cultural Diplomacy. W: P. Romijn, G. Scott-Smith, J. Segal (red.), Divided Dreamworlds?: The Cultural Cold War in East and West (ss. 73-94). Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9789048516704.006
Google Scholar
Wróblewski, J. (1990). Kino globalne. Rozmowa z Waldemarem Dzikim. Kino, (1), ss. 38-41.
Google Scholar
Yurchak, A. (2005). Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More: The Last Soviet Generation. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Google Scholar
Zwierzchowski, P. (2018). Polityczne konteksty kina popularnego w Polsce w latach 80. Kwartalnik Filmowy, (103), ss. 154-163.
Google Scholar
Authors
Michał Piepiórkapiepior@tlen.pl
Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2523-7656
PhD in Cultural Studies, Assistant Professor at the Institute of Cultural Studies, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan. Author of the book Rockefellerowie i Marks nad Warszawą. Polskie filmy fabularne wobec transformacji gospodarczej [Rockefellers and Marx over Warsaw: Polish Feature Films in the Face of Economic Transformation] (2019). He has published journal articles in Kwartalnik Filmowy, Images, Ekrany, and Panoptikum, among others. His research interests include film representations of economic transformation in Poland, changes of contemporary cinema, and Polish films of the 1980s. Currently, he is carrying out a Polish National Science Centre-funded research project (Miniatura grant), examining popular cinema of the declining Polish People’s Republic.
Statistics
Abstract views: 163PDF downloads: 211
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Michał Piepiórka
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
The author grants the publisher a royalty-free non-exclusive licence (CC BY 4.0) to use the article in Kwartalnik Filmowy, retains full copyright, and agrees to identify the work as first having been published in Kwartalnik Filmowy should it be published or used again (download licence agreement). The journal is published under the CC BY 4.0 licence. By submitting an article, the author agrees to make it available under this licence.
In issues from 105-106 (2019) to 119 (2022) all articles were published under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence. During this period the authors granted a royalty-free non-exclusive licence (CC BY-ND 4.0) to use their article in „Kwartalnik Filmowy”, retained full copyright, and agreed to identify the work as first having been published in our journal should it be published or used again.
Most read articles by the same author(s)
- Michał Piepiórka, Not Only “Teleranek”. The Presence and Absence of Foreign Films on Polish TV During the Martial Law Period , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 108 (2019): Film Production and Distribution
- Michał Piepiórka, Only a „Kiler”. The Cinema of the End of Post-Communism , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 105-106 (2019): Cinema and Political Transformation
- Michał Piepiórka, Knowledge – Technology – New Age: UFOs in Films of the Declining Polish People’s Republic , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 126 (2024): Fantasy and Phantasm
