Since his death in 1996, Krzysztof Kieslowski has remained the best-known contemporary Polish filmmaker and one of the most popular and respected European directors, internationally renowned for his ambitious Decalogue and Three Colors trilogy.

In this new addition to the Directors'Cuts series, Marek Haltof provides a comprehensive study of Kieslowski's cinema, discussing industrial practices in Poland and stressing that the director did not fit the traditional image of a "great" East-Central European auteur. He draws a fascinating portrait of the stridently independent...

In 1902, scientist and inventor Kazimierz Proszynski made the first Polish narrative film, The Return of a Merry Fellow (Powrot Birbanta). Since then, the Polish film industry has produced a diverse body of work, ranging from patriotic melodramas and epic adaptations of the national literary canon to Yiddish cinema and films portraying the corrupted side of communism. Poland has produced several internationally known films, including Andrzej Wajda's war trilogy, A Generation (1955), Kanal (1957), and Ashes and Diamonds (1958), Roman Polanski's Knife in the Water (1962), and Andrzej Munk's The...

In 1902, scientist and inventor Kazimierz Proszyński made the first Polish narrative film, The Return of a Merry Fellow. Since then, the Polish film industry has produced a diverse body of work, ranging from patriotic melodramas and epic adaptations of the national literary canon to Yiddish cinema and films portraying the corrupt side of communism. Poland has produced several internationally known films, including Andrzej Wajda's war trilogy, A Generation (1955), Kanal (1957), and Ashes and Diamonds (1958); Roman Polański's Knife in the Water (1962); and Andrzej Munk's The Passenger...

Examines the classic Polish Holocaust film The Last Stage (Ostatni etap), directed by the Auschwitz survivor Wanda Jakubowska (1907-1998). Released in 1948, The Last Stage was a pioneering work and the first narrative film to portray the Nazi German camp. Haltof's fascinating book offers to English-speaking readers a wealth of new materials and sources.

Screening Auschwitz examines the classic Polish Holocaust film The Last Stage (Ostatni etap), directed by the Auschwitz survivor Wanda Jakubowska (1907-1998). Released in 1948, The Last Stage was a pioneering work and the first narrative film to portray the Nazi German camp. Haltof's fascinating book offers to English-speaking readers a wealth of new materials and sources, mostly from original Polish sources and obtained through extensive archival research.

With its powerful dramatization of the camp experience, The Last Stage shaped subsequent Shoah films,...

This thoroughly revised and updated edition of Marek Haltof's seminal survey takes stock of dramatic shifts in Polish society and to provide an essential account of the nation's cinema from the nineteenth century to today.

This thoroughly revised and updated edition of Marek Haltof's seminal survey takes stock of dramatic shifts in Polish society and to provide an essential account of the nation's cinema from the nineteenth century to today.