Andrzej Włast’s Film Impressions

Małgorzata Radkiewicz

Abstract

Andrzej Włast’s column appeared in the years 1923-1924 in the magazine “Ekran i Scena” [“Screen and Stage”], from where Wojciech Świdziński collected them for the volume he edited. In the Library of Kwartalnik Filmowy Book Series, Włast’s texts are included in the discussed volume Dziesiąta Muza (impresje). Felietony filmowe z lat 1923-1924 [The Tenth Muse (Impressions). Essays on Film 1923-1924] (2017) where they gained careful scientific and graphic elaboration (photographs, commercials), embedding them in the context of Polish literary and cabaret life as well as Polish film criticism. The reading of Włast’s impressions provides materials on the subject of Warsaw film culture, cinema theatres as institutions, their audience and repertoire. It is also a way to recreate film experiences – the subjective ones of the author himself, and those inscribed in the era, and the development of the Tenth Muse. Włast wrote his columns in a brilliant and witty way, trying to capture the most important aspects of cinema as an art. When reading his texts, it is worth treating them as a record of a theoretical reflection, combining criticism with reflection on the essence of film creation, examples of which he found in American cinema and European avant-garde.