A Heterogeneous Character – Opera, Circus and Kitsch in Filip Bajon’s Film Aria for an Athlete

Abstract

Analysing Filip Bajon’s film Aria for an Athlete, the author focuses on the relationship between opera and circus, paying attention primarily to their interrelationship and not the differences. According to the author, the category common to both types of performance is kitsch. Any kind of art has in its history a phase of kitsch, yet what is derived from the kitsch can become the beginning of art. While describing the coexistence of opera and circus, the author makes a study of three characters in the film: Władysław Góralewicz, Max the clown and the tenor Baptisto Messalini. In her opinion, these representatives of the world of circus and the opera, respectively, have a number of attributes that allow to assigning them the culture which is alien to them. Max, a circus clown, elevates kitsch, but also shows a duality of nature of both commedia dell’arte and film, Góralewicz, the artist- -wrestler rooted in the circus, longs for the opera, the singer Messalini, whose profession is to create culture, brings kitsch to life.