The film till now : a survey of world cinema (1960)

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VIII Eastern Europe The cinema of Poland was literally born out of the devastation of the war, although some Polish technicians had worked in the USSR and the USA during the occupation of their own country. After the war, short film-making was quickly started, followed by such features as Wanda Jakubowska's The Last Stage (1948) and Aleksander Ford's Border Street (1947), well-made but not outstanding, both films looking back to the war for their inspiration. After 1953, output increased but an aggressive censorship by the State Film Board kept the subjects well to the line. Ford's The Five Boys from Barksa Street ( 1 953) showed an improved technical excellence and the beginnings of handling characters as human beings and not stock figures. Ford's pre-war work will be remembered in Sabra (1933), a film made in Palestine with considerable qualities.1 In the autumn of 1956, with certain political restrictions relaxed, a number of self-contained production units were formed and it is from these, especially the experimental unit Kadr, that the recent stimulating Polish films have come. Jerzy Stawinski, scriptwriter, and the directors Andrzej Wajda (a pupil of Ford), Jerzy Kawalerowicz and Andrzej Munk have been responsible for a group of films which have aroused the admiration of many European critics and film-makers. The Shadow (1956) and The Real End of the Great War (1957), both by Kawalerowicz; Man on the Tracks (1956) and Eroica (1957) by Munk; A Generation (1954) and Kanal by Wajda, and the comedy Eva Wants to Sleep (1958) by Chmielewski — these represented a new force in European cinema which was exciting and provoking. Each film has gradually revealed a firmer independence of viewpoint combined with a sharpening of cinematic skill and experience. Among many Polish short and experimental films, xVide page 616. 756