Head of Medusa, or Realism in Films of the Cinema of Moral Anxiety
Abstract
The article discusses the films belonging to the Cinema of Moral Anxiety (1976-1981) as the most characteristic examples of realism in film in Polish cinematography between 1945 and 1989. The main aim of the early feature films of Krzysztof Kieślowski, Agnieszka Holland, Feliks Falk, Janusz Kijowski, and the work by Andrzej Wajda, Krzysztof Zanussi and Janusz Zaorski that can be classified as Cinema of Moral Anxiety, was a critical description of reality. This description was possible, thanks to skillful handling of the medium of photographic realism and realism in staging. The first part of the article presents in brief the historical and cinematographic context of the origins of the Cinema of Moral Anxiety. The second part discusses the major films of the movement in terms of the relationship between the strategies used in them and the process of creation of their critical and descriptive character. The order of the argument is set out by the achievements of four film cinematographers: Sławomir Idziak, Edward Kłosiński, Jacek Petrycki and Krzysztof Wyszyński. The following are the key issues: how does photographic realism manifests itself in film? How does it define their aesthetics and what is its impact on the creation of the director’s reflection upon socio-political context of the time? What are the limitations and difficulties associated with the aesthetics of realism? The third part of the article deals with the relationship of the realist aesthetics of the films belonging to the Cinema of Moral Anxiety movement with the moral reflection contained within them. The article concludes with some reflection upon typical protagonists of the films of the Cinema of Moral Anxiety. [originally published in Polish in Kwartalnik Filmowy 2011, no. 75-76, pp. 122-148]
Keywords:
Cinema of Moral Anxiety, realism, People's Republic of PolandReferences
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Authors
Marcin Maronkwartalnik.filmowy@ispan.pl
The Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin Poland
Graduate of the Department of Direction of Photography and Television Production at the Łódź Film School, received his Doctorate of the Humanities from the Jagiellonian University (Krakow); cinematographer and specialist in film studies. Author of the monographic volume on the works of Wojciech J. Has Dramat czasu i wyobraźni. Filmy Wojciecha J. Hasa [Drama of Time and Imagination: The Films of Wojciech J. Has] (2010). Co-author of Zdjęcia – Jerzy Lipman [Director of Photography – Jerzy Lipman] (2005, ed. T. Lubelski), a book on the work of the cinematographer Jerzy Lipman. He has published i.a. in Kwartalnik Filmowy and collective volumes. He works as Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts of Maria Curie-Skłodowska University (Lublin), where he teaches photography and film history. He also teaches at the Academy of Polish Film organised by the Polish Film Institute. His main interests are in Polish cinema, cinéma d’auteur, and the relationships between literature, philosophy and film. His current research is on the presence of Romantic representations and ideas in Polish film, and on Polish cinema of the 1970s.
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