selected articles
Column_A SAD STORY
The article which I mentioned described a case of a certain lady, a writer, who emigrated to the West and during her stay there she carried out an in-depth scrutiny of the publishing market. She extrapolated her observations onto the purely Polish reality, thus obtaining a mathematically certain conclusion: in our country, too, some day (i.e. today) literature won’t excite anyone, nobody will be moved by a majestic sentence or a vividly portrayed character; the only thing that will matter will be a scandal, preferably a double one, like in the case of a certain famous clitoris. I must respectfully admit that the lady prophesized this situation quite accurately.
SASNAL, LOVE OF EXISTENCE, AND A BOY IN AN AFTER-SCHOOL CLUB – NOTES ON THE EXHIBITION IN ZACHĘTA
When I contemplate modern painting, the works by Rembrandt, Vermeer or Cezanne keep coming back to my memory as a point of reference. They represent a perfect or near-perfect visual embodiment of the ideal of painting. From that point of view, the exhibition in Zachęta can be described as shreds of the shattered tradition of the ideal of painting, as shaped by the Western tradition. This exhibition may well confirm the fact that we live in an age of a modern iconoclasm, which is all the more surprising because the Western tradition managed to deal very successfully with this disturbing human tendency.
press review
EXTRAS OF HISTORY, EPICURES OF LIFE
Few days ago, the successive edition of the Cannes Film Festival started. Soon, in women's press we will read (or rather see) what is in fashion on the red carpet this season; and from specialist press we will learn who is awarded the Palm d'Or. One is certain, it is not going to be a Polish film, because, as an established tradition now, none of our films have made it to the main competition. Nevertheless, we will mark our presence by a so-called Polish Day, connected with the projection of Andrzej Wajda's Kanal. The time and the place are not accidental: it was exactly in Cannes that 50 years ago this film was awarded Jury Special Prize, tied with Bergman's The Seventh Seal. The importance of Kanal in Polish cinematography does not need to be explained. I may only refer you to the May issue of “Kino” (no. 5/2007), where Tadeusz Lubelski writes on how the film was received and the influence the Cannes awards exerted on it.