“Europa” Rediscovered
Marcin Giżycki
mgizycki@hotmail.comPolish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology (Poland)
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7525-0205
Abstract
Stefan and Franciszka Themersons’ Europa is a 1932 Polish avant-garde film inspired by an Anatol Stern poem. The film was considered lost during WWII but was miraculously found in Bundesarchiv in 2019 by the employees of the Pilecki Institute’s Berlin branch. A restored copy of the film premiered at the London Film Festival in October 2021. Now we have a chance to compare our imaginary notion of the work to the actual piece, and the latter does not disappoint. Europa is a poetic vision of our world going mad, over-consuming goods, and preparing for a new war. It has a freeflowing chain of images, resembling city symphonies by Cavalcanti and Vertov. The Themersons used a number of frame-by-frame techniques, among them the so-called “animated photogram” of their own invention. The question remains as to whether the newly rediscovered version, originally prepared for screenings in France, is identical to the one screened in 1932 in Warsaw. (Non-reviewed material).
Keywords:
Stefan and Franciszka Themerson, Europa, avant-garde filmReferences
Brown, M. (2021). Rediscovered 1931 Film „Europa” to Get World Premiere in London. The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/sep/14/rediscovered-1931-film-europa-world-premiere-london-themerson
Google Scholar
Giżycki, M. (1987). O poezji semantycznej Stefana Themersona. Literatura na Świecie, (7), ss. 372-379.
Google Scholar
Giżycki, M. (1996). Awangarda wobec kina. Film w kręgu polskiej awangardy artystycznej dwudziestolecia międzywojennego. Warszawa: wydawnictwo małe.
Google Scholar
Lehmann, J. (1976). Filmowa twórczość Franciszki i Stefana Themersonów. W: A. Helman (red.), Z dziejów awangardy filmowej, materiały z sesji „Awangarda filmowa lat dwudziestych”, Sosnowiec, 10-12 marca 1975. Katowice: Uniwersytet Śląski, ss. 125-126.
Google Scholar
Stern, A., Berman, M. (red.) (1965). Mieczysław Szczuka. Warszawa: Wydawnictwa Artystyczne i Filmowe.
Google Scholar
Toeplitz, J. (1933, 5 stycznia). „Europa”. Kurier Polski, s. 5.
Google Scholar
Zagrodzki, J. (1974). Początki polskiego filmu eksperymentalnego. Projekt, (5), s. 27.
Google Scholar
Zagrodzki, J. (1981). Outsiderzy awangardy. W: Stefan i Franciszka Themerson. Poszukiwania wizualne, katalog wystawy. Łódź: Muzeum Sztuki, ss. nlb.
Google Scholar
Zahorska, S. (1932). Polski film – dobry! Wiadomości Literackie, (52), s. 3.
Google Scholar
Authors
Marcin Giżyckimgizycki@hotmail.com
Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7525-0205
Film and art historian, critic, filmmaker. Professor at the Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology in Warsaw (Poland). Senior Lecturer at Rhode Island School of Design in Providence (USA). Artistic Director of “Animator” – International Animated Film Festival in Poznań (Poland). Former editor-in-chief of Animafilm – the ASIFA quarterly. He has published eight books and around 400 articles on film and art in Polish and international publications. He has also made a number of documentary, live action, experimental, and animated films in Poland and the USA. In 2016 he received the Award for Outstanding Contribution to Animation Studies at “Animafest”, the World Festival of Animated Film in Zagreb (Croatia).
Statistics
Abstract views: 254PDF downloads: 196
License
Copyright (c) 2022 Marcin Giżycki
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The author grants the publisher a royalty-free non-exclusive licence (CC BY 4.0) to use the article in Kwartalnik Filmowy, retains full copyright, and agrees to identify the work as first having been published in Kwartalnik Filmowy should it be published or used again (download licence agreement). The journal is published under the CC BY 4.0 licence. By submitting an article, the author agrees to make it available under this licence.
In issues from 105-106 (2019) to 119 (2022) all articles were published under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence. During this period the authors granted a royalty-free non-exclusive licence (CC BY-ND 4.0) to use their article in „Kwartalnik Filmowy”, retained full copyright, and agreed to identify the work as first having been published in our journal should it be published or used again.
Most read articles by the same author(s)
- Marcin Giżycki, Why I Do Not Like Advertising in the Cinema , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 105-106 (2019): Cinema and Political Transformation
- Marcin Giżycki, „L’âge d’or” – the Masterpiece of Provocation , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 109 (2020): Architectural Space in Film
- Marcin Giżycki, The Revenge of Joker and Parasites , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 108 (2019): Film Production and Distribution
- Marcin Giżycki, Smartphone – The Triumph of Eisenstein , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 112 (2020): Polish Documentary, Polish Animation
- Marcin Giżycki, The Chronology of the Life and Work of Zenon Wasilewski , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 112 (2020): Polish Documentary, Polish Animation
- Marcin Giżycki, … Only Stills Remained: Nonexistent Films of Cindy Sherman , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 115 (2021): Form Film, Content Film
- Marcin Giżycki, The King/Queen of Camp , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 107 (2019): Journey, (E)migration, Pilgrimage
- Marcin Giżycki, The Rebellious Eye , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 111 (2020): Senses and Affects
- Marcin Giżycki, Tamara Sorbian-Kasprzycka, 1952-2020. In Memoriam , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 112 (2020): Polish Documentary, Polish Animation
- Marcin Giżycki, May an Artist Be a Criminal? A Few Questions Without Answers , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 113 (2021): Film and Technology
