Confronting the Past. Trauma, History and Memory in Wajda’s film

Confronting the Past. Trauma, History and Memory in Wajda’s filmHistorical films are important carriers of collective memory, and as a genre historical films can activate both strong feelings and strong debate. Historical fiction films often tell very accurate and almost documentary stories, but fictional films have the freedom to make historical reality in quite another way than factual historical films. This article deals with some of the most important historical film genres and uses a general theory of genres, emotions, memory and history to analyse the historical films of Polish film director Andrzej Wajda, especially those made post 1989. Dealing with both his heritage drama Pan Tadeusz (1999) and critical historical drama Katyń (2007), the article analyses the ways in which Wajda uses historical narratives to comment on both history and contemporary society, and how this strategy is reflected in all his historical films. The article argues that the traumatic and contrast-filled history of Poland makes historical films especially important and interesting as a critical part of public debate and the reframing and reinterpretation of the past

Med politiet i ’virkeligheden’: Reality-tv og kriminalitet

Kriminalstoffet på tv bliver ofte anklaget for at spekulere i vore lavere instinkter, og med reality kommer vi tættere end nogensinde på sam- fundets bund og det utrættelige politi, som har til opgave at opretholde lov og orden. Artiklen gennemgår en lang række af de senere års kri- minalprogrammer og diskuterer dokumentarismens former med en særlig belysning af æstetik, retorik og synsvinkel i undergenrerne »reality magasin« og »reality soap«. Lars Engels’ serie »Historier fra en politistation« tages op til særlig debat, fordi Engels – vanen tro – arbejder med en mindre iscenesættelse og ukommenteret virkelig- hedsgengivelse, end vi finder det i andre »reality soaps«