THE RED AND THE WHITE

The Red and the White: The Cinema of People’s Poland takes a fascinating look at the history of post-war Polish cinema, and how it was affected by the political, social and cultural upheavals throughout the period 1947–89. This timely study re-evaluates the legacy of Socialist Realism, the representation of World War II, cinematic portrayals of national myth and cultural history, literary adaptation and surrealism, and discourses of exile and national identity. Although paying particular reference to the work of Krzysztof Kieslowski and Andrzej Wajda, this book considers the contribution of a wide range of filmmakers, including Jerzy Skolimowski, Krzysztof Zanussi, Agnieska Holland, Andrzej Munk, Jerzy Kawalerowicz, Wojciech Has and Roman Polanski. The volume also includes unique primary archival research into the role of state-sponsored censorship, and coverage of Polish-Jewish representations in film. Among the many films discussed are A Generation, Eroica, Ashes and Diamonds, Family Life, The Promised Land, The Hour Glass Sanatorium, Hands Up!, Decalogue 8, Europa, Europa and The Double Life of Veronique.

January 2005
280 pages

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Paul Coates is Reader and Head of the Film Studies Department at the University of Aberdeen. His previous books include The Story of the Lost Reflection (1985), The Gorgon’s Gaze (1991), Film at the Intersection of High and Mass Culture (1994) and Lucid Dreams: The Films of Krzysztof Kieslowski (1999).

‘An important critical history of Polish cinema that delves deeply into the political context of the films it discusses. Drawn from extensive research in Polish sources, literary expertise and sensitive film analysis, this work will be invaluable to all who wish to understand Poland, its culture and its films.’
– Maureen Turim, University of Florida

‘The Red and the White will truly astonish both English-speaking and Polish-speaking readers … In short, A landmark work for Polish cinema!’
– Janina Falkowska, University of Western Ontario

‘The Red and the White certainly offers a rich read for cinephiles, but it is also an ambitious attempt to understand the still underexplored psychological legacy of communism in Poland.’
– Eliza Subotowicz, Film Comment

'The book is uniquely conceived around a thematic of colour, with the enabling opposition being that between "the red and the white" of the title, the colours of the Polish flag. An early assimilation of these colours to the categories of the political and the aesthetic, respectively, suggests a repetition of some of the discursive binaries of Polish culture [...] One of the striking effect of the book is that, with its first and last chapters devoted to the work of a single director, it suggests a condensed narrative of Polish cinema in the shift from the blocked intentionality of Wajda to the constitutive subjunctivity of Kieslowski [..] a landmark in Polish Cinema Studies.'
- Christopher J. Caes, Slavic and East European Journal