LFU:online

Students have dealt with important representatives of the Polish Film School and their films, discussed their film-aesthetic approaches and their relevance for international filmmaking, and got to know the historical context: What happened in the People's Republic of Poland and Eastern Europe after Stalin's death?

After the death of Iosif Stalin in 1953, the so-called thaw set in throughout Eastern Europe - a relatively liberal period that led to things suddenly becoming possible in literature, art and film that had previously been completely unthinkable. This development does not stop at the People's Republic of Poland. A particularly striking example is the Polish Film School / Polska szkoła filmowa, a group of filmmakers at the State Film School in Łódź who break away from the politically imposed doctrine of socialist realism and try to break new ground in cinematic art. Involved are numerous directors who would later achieve international prominence, such as Jerzy Kawalerowicz, Andrzej Wajda, Wojciech Has, Kazimierz Kutz, Janusz Morgenstern, Tadeusz Konwicki, and Roman Polański.

The course aims to highlight both the international significance of the Polish film school - Martin Scorsese, for example, is a self-confessed devotee - and the impact that the films had in the People's Republic of Poland, as they dealt in particular with the horrors of World War II while at the same time pointing out the dull and nationalistic distortion of history by realist socialism.

All films are available with German or English subtitles.

Flipped classroom - students prepare texts in self-study and work on assignments; classroom times are exclusively for plenary discussions and to clarify open questions. Literary and theoretical texts are used as preparatory materials, as well as short video lectures if required.

Portfolio

A bibliography is supplied at the start of the semester

None.