History Politics & Nostalgia in Polish Cinema

The work of Andrzej Wajda, one of the world's most important filmmakers, shows remarkable cohesion in spite of the wide ranging scope of his films, as this study of his complete output of feature films shows. Not only do his films address crucial historical, social and political issues; the complexity of his work is reinforced by the incorporation of the elements of major film and art movements, such as Socialist Realism, Italian Neorealism, the documentary tradition, French New Wave, Surrealism, the grotesque, the theatre of the absurd, propaganda film, Polish Romantic tradition and many other artistic phenomena (jazz, Polish student subculture). It is the reworking of all these different elements by Wajda, as the author shows, which give his films their unique visual and aural qualities.