Family Similarities: Films by Władysław Pasikowski and Films From the Kowloon Peninsula Compared

Marcin Adamczak

kwartalnik.filmowy@ispan.pl
Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań (Poland)

Abstract

The article presents “family similarities” between Władysław Pasikowski’s early films and several pop­ular films by John Woo and Ringo Lama made in Hong Kong. The surprising similarity of motifs includes: the image of male friendship together with homoerotic accents, the status of women, the variability of identity and melancholy in the context of the decline of the familiar social order. In spite of lack of direct inspiration, the explanation of this similarity seems to lie in the use of similar aesthetic patterns (mainly American) and some production analogies leading to the simultaneous creation of films characterised by common elements in geographically and culturally distant film cultures. A separate theme is the association of these titles with the VHS culture of the last two decades of the 20th century. Therefore the article ends with a critical fragment on Pasikowski as a director whose work was made most popular through the medium of the VHS.


Keywords:

Władysław Pasikowski, John Woo, Ringo Lama, homoeroticism

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Published
2017-06-30

Cited by

Adamczak, M. (2017) “Family Similarities: Films by Władysław Pasikowski and Films From the Kowloon Peninsula Compared”, Kwartalnik Filmowy, (97-98), pp. 43–60. doi: 10.36744/kf.2063.

Authors

Marcin Adamczak 
kwartalnik.filmowy@ispan.pl
Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań Poland

Adiunkt w Instytucie Kulturoznawstwa Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza; wykłada także w Szkole Filmowej w Łodzi oraz na Uniwersytecie Gdańskim. Stypendysta Fundacji na Rzecz Nauki Polskiej (2010 i 2011). Laureat Kon­kursu im. Krzysztofa Mętraka (2011). Dyrektor fe­stiwalu Cinemaforum w Warszawie. Autor książek: Globalne Hollywood, filmowa Europa i polskie kino po 1989 roku (2010) oraz Obok ekranu. Perspektywa badań produkcyjnych a społeczne istnienie filmu (2014).

 



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