The Backstage Film as a Genre and as a Social Mirror
Wojciech Świdziński
woyciesz@gmail.comThe Aleksander Zelwerowicz National Academy of Dramatic Art (Poland)
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6840-4069
Abstract
This article attempts to characterize a genre that has not yet been described: the backstage film. Its storyline follows the process of creating a theatrical performance, from casting to a successful premiere, which takes place despite numerous obstacles. An important feature of the film is its depiction of the theater company as a micro-community with the potential of a social metaphor. Busby Berkeley’s backstage musical can be considered the prototype of the genre. In the subsequent decades, it was referred to or deconstructed by John Cassavetes, Bob Fosse, Carlos Saura, among others, and recently by Alejandro González Iñárritu. Krzysztof Kieślowski and Agnieszka Holland in their films representing moral anxiety cinema used the formula of the backstage film to talk about disillusionment and to question the idea of an ensamble They suggested that their films should be read not as a criticism of the institution of theater, but as universal social metaphors.
Keywords:
backstage film, theatre, Busby Berkeley, John Cassavetes, Krzysztof Kieślowski, Agnieszka HollandReferences
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Authors
Wojciech Świdzińskiwoyciesz@gmail.com
The Aleksander Zelwerowicz National Academy of Dramatic Art Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6840-4069
PhD in Humanities; theatre and film scholar. Lecturer at the Theatre Academy in Warsaw, member of the Polish Society for Film and Media Studies. He published the book Co było grane? Film zagraniczny w Polsce w latach 1918-1929 na przykładzie Warszawy [What Was on Screens? Foreign Movies in Poland 1918-1929 A Case Study of Warsaw] (2015). He is also the author of an academic study of Andrzej Włast’s collection of movie columns. He published scientific and popular science articles in Kwartalnik Filmowy, Ekrany, Pleograf and Stolica.
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