Oriental Films on Polish Cinema Screens in the 1920s: The Creation of Strangeness
Wojciech Świdziński
kwartalnik.filmowy@ispan.plInstitute of Art, Polish Academy of Sciences (Poland)
Abstract
During the 1920s a significant number of oriental films was made. Their action took place in Arab harems, Indian palaces and desert wildernesses. Films such as French Atlantis by Jacques Feyder, German The Indian Tomb by Joe May or the American Sheikh by George Melford with Rudolph Valentino in the title role, reflects numerous stereotypes about the East, that were the fruit of orientalism and European colonialism which at the time was at its apogee. For millions of viewers these films were not only a source of wonder and emotions, but a specific form of learning, which all too often gave a false picture of the reality. The way these films were received in Poland in the 1920s is also very interesting. Anatol Stern, Karol Irzykowski, Julian Tuwim and Leon Brun reflected on their artistic quality, the vision of the world they presented and on the way how the Orient was perceived - for some insightful and moving, for others naive and deceitful.
Keywords:
interwar period, orientalism, Polish cinemaReferences
Benoît, Pierre. 1921. Atlantyda: powieść. Tłum. Anonim. Gdańsk: Lotos.
Google Scholar
Benoît, Pierre. 1981. Atlantyda. Tłum. K. Bukowski. Warszawa: Czytelnik.
Google Scholar
Brun, Leon. 1922. Indyjski Grobowiec. „Przegląd Teatralny i Kinematograficzny” nr 21.
Google Scholar
Brun, Leon. 1925. Stanisława Napierkowska czyli jak wygląda i co mówi tajemnicza władczyni z „Atlantydy”, w: L. Brun, Gwiazdy filmowe. Nieznane szczegóły z ich życia. Warszawa: Rój.
Google Scholar
Budd, Mike. 2009. Odsłony „Gabinetu doktora Caligari”. Tłum. I. Kurz. W: I. Kurz (red.). Film i historia. Antologia, Warszawa: WUW.
Google Scholar
Hansen-Miller, David. 2011. Civilized Violence. Subjectivity, Gender and Popular Cinema. Farnham: Ashgate.
Google Scholar
Hesse, Hermann. 1991. Podróż na Wschód. Tłum. J. Prokopiuk. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Wodnika.
Google Scholar
Heymanowa, Stefania. 1923. Szejk. „Teatr i Kino” 50.
Google Scholar
Heymanowa, Stefania. 1924. Władczyni Sahary. „Teatr i Kino” 12.
Google Scholar
Irzykowski, Karol. 1982. Palace: „Sumurun”. W: tegoż. Pisma, t. 6. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie: Kraków.
Google Scholar
Loutfi, Martine Astier. 1996. Imperial Frame. Film Industry and Colonial Representation. W: D. Sherzer (red.). Cinema, Colonialism, Postcolonialism: Perespectives from the French and Francophone Worlds. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Google Scholar
Pitera, Zbigniew. 1976. Dzieje gwiazdy. Warszawa: WaiF.
Google Scholar
Plesnar, Łukasz A. 2009. Hollywood: epoka jazzu. W: T. Lubelski, I. Sowińska, R. Syska (red.). Historia kina, t. 1: Kino nieme. Kraków: Universitas.
Google Scholar
Rogowski, Christian. 2008. Movies, Money, and Mystique. Joe May’s early Weimar Blockbuster, „The Indian Tomb” (1921). W: N. Isenberg (red.). Weimar Cinema: An Essentional Guide to Classic Films of the Era, New York: Columbia University Press.
Google Scholar
Said, Edward W. 2005. Orientalizm. Tłum. M. Wyrwas-Wiśniewska, Poznań: Zysk i S-ka.
Google Scholar
Schick, Irvin Cemil. 2012. Seksualność Orientu. Przestrzeń i Eros. Tłum. A. Gąsior-Niemiec, Warszawa: Oficyna Naukowa.
Google Scholar
Slavin, David Henry. 2001. Colonial Cinema and Imperial France 1919-1939. White Blind Spots, Male Fantasies, Settler Myths. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Google Scholar
Słonimski, Antoni. 2007. Romans z X Muzą. Teksty filmowe z lat 1917-1976, Warszawa: Biblioteka „Więzi”.
Google Scholar
Stern, Anatol. 1959. Wspomnienia z Atlantydy. Warszawa: WaiF.
Google Scholar
Trystan, Leon. 1922. Publiczność a kino. „Przegląd Teatralny i Kinematograficzny” 43.
Google Scholar
Tuwim, Julian. 2008. Kinochamy. W: Tegoż. Jarmark rymów. Tylko dla dorosłych. Warszawa-Rzeszów: Ad Oculos.
Google Scholar
Authors
Wojciech Świdzińskikwartalnik.filmowy@ispan.pl
Institute of Art, Polish Academy of Sciences Poland
Absolwent Wydziału Wiedzy o Teatrze Akademii Teatralnej im. A. Zelwerowicza w Warszawie, doktorant w Instytucie Sztuki PAN, pracownik Ministerstwa Kultury i Dziedzictwa Narodowego. Interesuje się historią kina oraz związkami filmu i teatru.
Statistics
Abstract views: 0PDF downloads: 0
License
Copyright (c) 2012 Wojciech Świdziński
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)
- Wojciech Świdziński, The Backstage Film as a Genre and as a Social Mirror , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 116 (2021): Cinema and Social Identity
- Wojciech Świdziński, Benshi in “Yoseba” or Following Other Shadows , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 116 (2021): Cinema and Social Identity
- Wojciech Świdziński, Description of Customs of the Regulars of the Film Atlantis , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 111 (2020): Senses and Affects
- Wojciech Świdziński, Comedians and Comics: The Second Life of the Interwar Film Stars , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 125 (2024): Cinema as a Memory Machine
- Wojciech Świdziński, Changing Preferences: A Change of Perspective , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 121 (2023): Cinema and Young Audience
- Wojciech Świdziński, Is It Possible to Identify Who Was the King of Laughter?: Notes on Film Reception Studies in Interwar Poland , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 127 (2024): Empirical Film Studies
- Wojciech Świdziński, Make Yourself a Universe, or Anatomy of the Contemporary Comic Book Film , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 101-102 (2018): European Cinema of 21st Century
- Wojciech Świdziński, Where the Wind Blows From: Western Inspirations in the Work of Miyazaki Hayao , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 91 (2015): Film Between Pop Music and Pop Culture
- Wojciech Świdziński, “The Tenth Muse (Impressions)”: Andrzej Włast’s Columns on Film From the Period of 1923-1924 , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 86 (2014): Dimensions of Time
- Wojciech Świdziński, Polish Feature Films From the Interwar Period in Review , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 83-84 (2013): Body in Film
