The Powerful Man: Young-Poland Decadence in a Film by Henryk Szaro

Abstract

In the Polish cinema of the interwar period, especially in the 1920s, it is difficult to find any depictions of the decadent worldview, although authors affiliated with decadence once dominated the artistic imagination prior to the First World War. To some extent, the disappearance of decadence was a result of Poland regaining national independence in 1918 after having been partitioned by three neighbouring countries for over one hundred years. Such films as Dla Ciebie, Polsko [For You, Poland] (dir. Antoni Bednarczyk, 1920) or Cud nad Wisłą [The Miracle at the Vistula] (dir. Ryszard Bolesławski, 1921) concentrate on a propagandist reconstruction of Polish identity by presenting a cohesive narrative of Polish history. Moreover, popular melodramas, often period pieces, referred to subjects previously barred by censorship. For example, a novel by Stefan Żeromski about one of the most tragically unsuccessful Polish uprisings, Wierna rzeka [The Faithful River] (1912), was adapted for the screen in 1922 as Rok 1863 [The Year 1863] (dir. Edward Puchalski), while the Polish national epic poem Pan Tadeusz by Adam Mickiewicz (1834) was filmed in 1928 (dir. Ryszard Ordyński). Commercial filmmakers also produced entertaining films inspired by Hollywood.