Multifunctional Chopin: the representation of Fryderyk Chopin in Polish films

Abstract

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes To stress that Chopin in this paper will be discussed as a character in Polish films, I will use the Polish version of his name—Fryderyk. See Hanna Milewska, Adam Wyzynski, Chopin na ekranie, Kino (March 2002), p. 13. Ibid., pp. 13–16. Griselda Pollock, Artists mythologies and media genius, madness and art history, Screen, 21, (1980), p. 62. Ibid., p. 65. John A. Walker, Art and Artists on Screen (Manchester, 1993), p. 16. Quoted in Jerzy Toeplitz, Mlodosc Chopina, Kwartalnik Filmowy, 5/6 (1952), p. 118. Ibid., p. 118. Ibid., p. 118. It could be argued that some of the requirements are incompatible, for example, ‘being great’ and ‘being a typical representative of his class and nation’. Persuasive criticism of psycho‐biography and an apology of a ‘mature’, complex historical approach to an artist's life are found in two articles by a veteran of Polish film criticism, Zygmunt Kaluzynski: Muzycy bez muzyki, Video Club, 12 (1996), pp. 40–41 and Kizior, Beethoven i Chopin suchotnik, Polityka, 18 (2002), pp. 55–56. See Susan Sontag, Illness as Metaphor (London, 1979). Compare Arthur Hedley, Chopin: the man, in Alan Walker (ed.), Frédéric Chopin: Profiles of the man and the musician (London, 1966). There are over a hundred films with Chopin's music used in the soundtrack. Source: Polish Film Archive. Hedley, op. cit., p. 8. Ibid., p. 6. Adam Zamoyski, Chopin, powsciagliwy romantyk (Krakow, 2002). A perfect case in point is the director Andrzej Wajda, regarded as the main representative of romanticism in Polish cinema. See Andriej Zdanow, Przemowienie na Pierwszym Wszechzwiazkowym Zjezdzie Pisarzy Radzieckich (17 sierpnia 1934), in his Przemowienia o literaturze i sztuce (Warszawa, 1954). Konrad Nalecki and Andrzej Wajda, O wykorzystaniu tradycji malarstwa w sztuce filmowej. Na przykladzie filmu Milosc Chopina, Nowa Kultura, 30 (1952), p. 26. See Wieslaw Chelmniak, Pragnienie mdlosci, Wprost (10 March 2002), p. 111; Hanna Milewska, Adam Wyzynski, op. cit., pp. 14–15. In this respect The Youth of Chopin is an achievement comparable with Ford's The Teutonic Knights. See Jacek Marczynski, Lodowaty spokoj aniola, Rzeczpospolita (28 February 2002), p. SA11; Liliana Snieg‐Czaplewska, Romantyczna goraczka, Viva, 6 (2002), p. 30. See Ewa Mazierska, In the land of noble knights and mute princesses: Polish heritage cinema, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 21 (2001), pp. 167–182. Some of the reasons are discussed in greater detail in Ewa Mazierska, op. cit. Such an opinion can be regarded as evidence that Poles prefer to live out their national identity by means of some surrogate. Such an approach to national identity, in my opinion, could be understood and excused in times when Poland did not exist as an independent state, but at present it largely signifies the artists' conservatism and inability to come to terms with reality. See Zbigniew Pietrasik, Pan Chopinowski, Polityka, 9 (2002), Wieslaw Chelmniak, op. cit., pp. 110–111. Hedley, op. cit., p. 7. Compare Elzbieta Ostrowska, Filmic representations of the ‘Polish mother’ in post‐Second World War Polish cinema, The European Journal of Women's Studies, 5 (1998), pp. 419–435. See Bozena Janicka, Chopin—pragnienie milosci, Film, 3 (2002), p. 48. See Zbigniew Pietrasik, Pan Chopinowski, Polityka, 9 (2002), Wieslaw Chelmniak, op. cit., pp. 110–111, Andrzej Kolodynski, op. cit., p. 38.