Walerian Borowczyk as a surrealist documentary filmmaker

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.34768/fp2023a12

Keywords:

surrealism, documentary film, French cinema, Polish cinema

Abstract

Famous film critic André Bazin classified a distinction between “those directors who put their faith in the image and those who put their faith in reality”. The documentary output of Walerian Borowczyk, best known for his animated and feature films, seems difficult to fit into any of these categories. The author of this article analyses Borowczyk’s films as Diptych (Diptyque, 1967), A Private Collection  (Une collection particulière, 1973), Letter from Paris (Brief von Paris, 1976) and The Greatest Love of All Times (L’amour – monstre de tous les temps, 1977). Those pictures are rare examples of surrealist ideas incorporated into documentary cinema.

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Author Biography

  • Piotr Prusinowski, Zielona Góra
    Doctor of humanities in the discipline of literary studies (title of the dissertation: Elements of surrealism in film adaptations of Young Poland prose - "The Story of Sin" by Walerian Borowczyk and "On the Silver Globe" by Andrzej Żuławski). A graduate of Polish philology in the field of film, television and media culture at the University of Adam Mickiewicz in Poznań and literary studies at the University of Zielona Góra. He published his articles, among others: in "Images" (UAM), "Bulletin of Media Education" (KUL), "Polish Philology" (UZ), "Scripta Humana" (UZ), "Forum Poetyki" (UAM), "Litteraria Copernicana" (UMK) and monographs Culture in the world of mirrors. More about uniqueness and multiplication in the art of the 20th and 21st centuries (UMCS), Dirty, disgusting, unwanted in culture (UAM), From the silver screen to paper. Traces of film art in literature (UZ). In 2008, he received a distinction in the Young Film Critics Competition. Krzysztof Mętrak.

References

Prusinowski P., Walerian Borowczyk jako dokumentalista surrealistyczny, „Filologia Polska. Roczniki Naukowe Uniwersytetu Zielonogórskiego” 2023, nr 9, https://doi.org/10.34768/fp2023a12.

Bazin A., Film i rzeczywistość, przeł. B. Michałek, Warszawa 1963.

Bird D., 18 March 2018: Walerian Borowczyk: Documentaries, https://www.closeupfilmcentre.com/film_programmes/2018/walerian-borowczyk-obscure-pleasures/documentaries/.

Bird D., Duch Goto, przeł. K. Kosińska, „Kwartalnik Filmowy” 2006, nr 53.

Borowczyk W., Kino nie jest sztuką zespołową, rozm. M. Delahaye, S. Pierre, J. Rivette, oprac. i przeł. W. Chyła i W. Michera, „Kwartalnik Filmowy” 1997, nr 18-20.

Giżycki M., Kunstkamera Borowczyka, „Kino” 2013, nr 6.

Hendrykowska M., Iluzjonista, „Film” 1997, nr 4.

Hendrykowski M., Gatunki filmowe (22) – Symfonia miasta, „Film” 1998, nr 12.

Janicka K., Światopogląd surrealizmu, Warszawa 1985.

Kowalski T., Ludzie, którzy chcą wrócić do Mélièsa, „Film” 1957, nr 51.

„List z Paryża” Borowczyka od 10 maja na MUBI, https://www.fixafilm.pl/2021/05/10/list-z-paryza-borowczyka-od-10-maja-na-mubi/.

Maiorino A., “Letter from Paris” di Walerian Borowczyk: il corpo elettrico di Parigi, https://www.taxidrivers.it/178731/streaming/letter-from-paris-di-walerian-borowczyk-su-mubi.html.

Mikurda K., Boro: Escape Artist, [w:] Boro, l’île d’amour, red. K. Kuc, K. Mikurda i M. Oleszczyk, New York-Oxford 2020.

Porębski M., Uwagi o genezie twórczości filmowej Borowczyka i Lenicy, „Kwartalnik Filmowy” 1964, nr 4.

Surrealizm. Teoria i praktyka literacka, wyb. i przeł. A. Ważyk, Warszawa 1973.

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Published

2023-12-21

How to Cite

Prusinowski, Piotr. “Walerian Borowczyk As a Surrealist Documentary Filmmaker”. Filologia Polska. Roczniki Naukowe Uniwersytetu Zielonogórskiego, vol. 9, Dec. 2023, pp. 229-3, https://doi.org/10.34768/fp2023a12.

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