Antoni Słonimski as a Screenwriter
Piotr Sitkiewicz
piotr.sitkiewicz@ug.edu.plUniversity of Gdańsk (Poland)
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4092-9039
Paweł Sitkiewicz
University of Gdańsk (Poland)
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2039-9154
Abstract
The article attempts to create a portrait of Antoni Słonimski as a screenwriter. The authors examine all projects in which Słonimski was involved, from the prewar period to the 1960s. The result of their academic investigation, based on archival materials, journalistic texts, and literary works, as well as the memories of people active in the Polish film industry, is an analysis of Słonimski’s two complete screenplays, primarily the comedy To były czasy/Miasto milionerów [Those Were the Times/City of Millionaires], and a reconstruction of three of his unfinished screenplay attempts, especially for Andrzej Wajda’s Przedwiośnie [The Coming Spring]. The authors discuss the origins of all these films, sketching the background of the cultural policies of prewar and communist Poland. They also answer the question why they were not completed, and above all, they attempt to define the style and film imagination of Słonimski, a writer important for Polish culture.
Keywords:
Antoni Słonimski, screenplay, unmade filmsReferences
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Authors
Piotr Sitkiewiczpiotr.sitkiewicz@ug.edu.pl
University of Gdańsk Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4092-9039
Literary scholar and editor, he teaches editing at the University of Gdańsk. Author of the books Człowiek-Brzytwa. Cztery szkice o felietonach Antoniego Słonimskiego [Razor-Man: Four Sketches on Antoni Słonimski’s Columns] (2024) and Bruno Schulz i krytycy. Recepcja twórczości Brunona Schulza w latach 1921-1939 [Bruno Schulz and the Critics: The Reception of Bruno Schulz’s Work in 1921-1939] (2018). Editor of the volumes Bruno Schulz w oczach współczesnych. Antologia tekstów krytycznych i publicystycznych z lat 1920-1939 [Bruno Schulz in the Eyes of His Contemporaries: An Anthology of Critical and Journalistic Texts from 1920-1939] (2021) and Najpierw okładka! Polskie okładki książkowe 1944-1970 [Cover First! Polish Book Covers 1944-1970] (co-authored with Janusz Górski, 2017). Member of the editorial board of the journal Schulz/Forum.
Authors
Paweł SitkiewiczUniversity of Gdańsk Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2039-9154
Film and media historian, Associate Professor at the University of Gdańsk. He writes about animation, film culture of the 1920s and 1930s, and history of comics. Author of four books, including Polska szkoła animacji [Polish School of Animation] (2011) and Gorączka filmowa. Kinomania w międzywojennej Polsce [Cinematic Fever: Moviegoing in Prewar Poland] (2019). Co-author of the lexicon Powieści graficzne [Graphic Novels] (2015), edited by Sebastian J. Konefał.
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