A Different Approach to the Language of the Cinema

Robert Birkholc

Abstract

The article is a review of Jerzy Wójcik’s publication Sztuka filmowa [Film Art] (2017), consisting of transcripts of lectures given by this cinematographer to students of the University of Warsaw. The author draws attention to the uniqueness of the book, which is neither a guide on film production nor an academic textbook, but a kind of treatise on film art. Jerzy Wójcik describes individual elements of the film “language”, but each time he encapsulates them with philosophical and aesthetic reflection. The cinematographer focuses heavily on form and describes the mutual references of structural elements in the work, however he is far from the formalistic-structuralist orientation. As the author notes, the key for Wójcik is “optical gnosis”, an epiphany associated with the reception of a film work, expanding the internal life of the spectator. According to the author of the review, the cinematographer, by presenting a subjective vision of cinema that goes beyond academic discourse, extends filmlearning horizons, even if some of his ideas seem anachronistic. Most importantly, Wójcik shows the richness of cinema as a medium of stories about man.