The Law of the Looking Glass: Cinema in Poland, 1896–1939 (Polish and Polish American Studies)

The Law of the Looking Glass: Cinema in Poland, 1896–1939 reveals the complex relationship between nationhood, national language, and national cinema in Europe before World War II. Author Sheila Skaff describes how the major issues facing the region before World War I, from the relatively slow pace of modernization to the desire for national sovereignty, shaped local practices in film production, exhibition, and criticism. She goes on to analyze local film production, practices of spectatorship in large cities and small towns, clashes over language choice in intertitles, and controversy surrounding the first synchronized sound experiments before World War I. Skaff depicts the creation of a national film industry in the newly independent country, the golden years of the silent cinema, the transition from silent to sound film — and debates in the press over this transition — as well as the first Polish and Yiddish “talkies.” She places particular importance on conflicts in majority-minority relations in the region and the types of collaboration that led to important films such as The Dybbuk and The Ghosts . The Law of the Looking Glass: Cinema in Poland, 1896–1939 is the first comprehensive history of the country’s film industry before World War II. This history is characterized by alternating periods of multilingual, multiethnic production, on the one hand, and rejection of such inclusiveness, on the other. Through it all, however, runs a single unifying thread: an appreciation for visual imagery.

Polish cinema has produced some of Europe’s finest directors, such as Krzysztof Kie ́slowski, Roman Polanski, Andrzej Wajda, and Krzysztof Zanussi, but little is known about its origins at the turn of the twentieth century. In spite of poor technical quality, cinema was popular with the many ethnic groups in partition-era Poland. Filmmakers, producers, and intellectuals recognized the artistic potential of cinema, most notably the philosopher and avant-garde novelist Karol Irzykowski, who in 1922 wrote The Tenth Muse, a theoretical work of criticism of the new medium.
In the early years of Polish cinema, films were shown in the cities and in smaller towns by traveling exhibitors. Sheila Skaff finds that an enduring appreciation for visual imagery is evident in every period of the history of cinema in Poland. She analyzes local film production, practices of spectatorship, clashes over language choice in intertitles, and the controversies surrounding the first synchronized sound experiments before World War I.
Skaff discusses the creation of a national film industry in the newly independent country of the interwar years; silent cinema; the transition from silent to sound film, including the passionate debates in the press over the transition;
and the first Polish and Yiddish “talkies.” Yiddish films are among the most famous films in the interwar period, such as Michal Waszy ́nski’s Der dibuk in
1937, which depicted Jewish life and culture in Poland before the Holocaust.
The Law of the Looking Glass places particular importance on conflicts in majority-minority relations in the region and the types of collaboration that led to important films such as Der dibuk.

"The Law of the Looking Glass: Cinema in Poland, 1896-1939 reveals the complex relationship between nationhood, national language, and national cinema in Europe before World War II. Author Sheila Skaff describes how the major issues facing the region before World War I. from the relatively slow pace of modernization to the desire for national sovereignty, shaped local practices in film production, exhibition, and criticism." "The Law of the Looking Glass: Cinema in Poland, 1896-1939 is the first comprehensive history of the country's film industry before World War II. This history is characterized by alternating periods of multilingual, multiethnic production, on the one hand, and rejection of such inclusiveness, on the other. Through it all, however, runs a single unifying thread: an appreciation for visual imagery."--Jacket