Polish Cinematic Dystopias

POLISH CINEMATIC DYSTOPIAS: METAPHORS OF LIFE UNDER COMMUNISM – AND BEYOND In this essay I intend to identify and discuss the main features of dystopias, as represented in Polish cinema during the communist period. I will limit my analysis to the five most distinguished Polish science fiction films, produced in the relatively short time span between the late 1970s and mid-1980s: four by Piotr Szulkin: Golem (1979), Wojna światów - następne stulecie (War of the Worlds - Next Century, 1981), O-bi, o-ba. Koniec cywilizacji (O-bi, O-ba. The End of Civilization, 1985) Ga, ga, chwała bohaterom (Ga, Ga. Glory of the Heroes, 1986) and one by Juliusz Machulski: Seksmisja (Sex Mission, 1983). It is widely accepted that these films criticised communist rule; the image of life in a distant future or on a far off planet served as a useful metaphor of life in communist Poland (Jankun 1984; Zarębski 1984;..

Polish Postcommunist Cinema and the Neoliberal Order

Polish Postcommunist Cinema and the Neoliberal OrderThis essay discusses three Polish films from the last 10 years: Bailiff (Komornik, 2005), directed by Feliks Falk, Edi (2002), directed by Piotr Trzaskalski, and Silesia, directed by Anna Kazejak-Dawid, which is the first part in the omnibus film Ode to Joy (Oda do radości, 2005) of which the two remaining parts were directed by Jan Komasa and Maciej Migas. The main methodological tools are the concepts of neoliberalism and bare life. The article argues that the fall of communism led to the neoliberalisation of Polish society and the production of bare life. The aforementioned films attest to these changes and offer an assessment of them which conveys a specific ideology. By focusing on the construction of their narratives and characters, the article attempts to establish its main features and offer its explanation

Microwave characterization of materials for telecommunication systems

Novel low loss materials are needed to achieve miniaturization and further advances in wireless communications with precisely known microwave properties. Measurements of complex permittivity of low loss dielectric materials (especially anisotropic) in a wide range of temperatures still represent a challenging issue. Accuracy of surface resistance tests of superconducting materials can be low in some cases, and characterization of metamaterials is done only for one polarization and one incident angle, what is rather unsatisfactory. Accuracy of measurements is also determined by accuracy in determination of unloaded Qo-factor of test fixtures. Hence progress in microwave characterization of novel materials is also necessary. In this presentation a review of test resonators and a precise technique to measure the Qo-factor will be given. Also measurement results of complex permittivity of several low loss dielectrics and High Temperature superconducting materials will be shown

From Fordism to Post-Fordism: Representation of Work in the Films about Nazi Concentration Camps

FROM FORDISM TO POST-FORDISM: REPRESENTATION OF WORK IN THE FILMS ABOUT NAZI CONCENTRATION CAMPS Nazi concentration camps in cinema, as well as in other media, tend to be represented as an aberration from the human norm. Watching films about the camps (the mainstay of the Holocaust film), we get the impression that there is a clear division between life in a camp and normal life. The inclusion of walls and barbed wire, marking the boundary between the prisoners' world and that of free people, as well as between camp and non-camp stages of the characters' lives confirm this impression. I also regard camps as extraordinary. This extraordinariness has a double meaning. In some aspects Nazi camps deviated qualitatively from ordinary institutions and everyday practices. In others, they were different in a sense of intensifying certain aspects of practices tested in other historical circumstances or even regarded as normal and..

Heroines of Polish Cinema

AGNIESZKA AND OTHER SOLIDARITY HEROINES OF POLISH CINEMA Agnieszka is the heroine of two of Andrzej Wajda's films, Człowiek z marmuru (Man of Marble, 1976) and Człowiek z żelaza (Man of Iron, 1981). However, in Man of Iron, Agnieszka has quite a different personality and has a different narrative function, compared with Agnieszka in Man of Marble. What concerns me in this article, is the nature and socio-political background of Agnieszka's creation and her transformation from heroine of Man of Marble to Man of Iron and subsequently her 'post-Wajda incarnations' in later Polish films about the Solidarity movement. "Iron Agnieszka"In Man of Marble, which is set in the mid-1970s, Agnieszka is a final year film college student. She is completing her diploma film, financed by the state television, which also provides her with crew and equipment. Agnieszka decides to make a documentary, entitled Gwiazdy jednego sezonu (Falling..

The Films of Atom Egoyan

INSTITUTIONS AND INDIVIDUALS IN THE FILMS OF ATOM EGOYAN The majority of Atom Egoyan's films are set in contemporary Canada, a country regarded as one of the most civilised in the industrialised world, famous for its affluence, good working conditions, relative social equality and excellent standard of social welfare. ‘Egoyan's Canada' conforms to this picture, as his characters usually enjoy a comfortable and economically secure existence. In spite of comfort and affluence, they rarely give the impression of being happy. On the contrary, they seem to be unfulfilled, emotionally constrained, as well as suffering other problems associated with the dark side of the ‘postmodern condition'.(1) The purpose of this article is to discuss their situation as an illustration and critique of this condition. Institutions in private livesOne of the features of their lives is domination by institutions, which dictionaries define as ‘organisations or establishments, founded for specific purposes'...

Microwave properties and applications of HTS materials: history and progress

In this paper a review of properties of High Temperature Superconducting films when exposed to high frequency EM fields, measurements methods of surface resistance and HTS microwave applications in the last twenty five years is given. Most important developments in each of the three areas are reviewed and discussed. The current advances in the field are also summarized, and a brief attempt of "HTS microwave forecast' is presented. As it is known microwave applications of HTS materials were envisaged as the first mass market application as early as in 1887. This had driven a significant interest in microwave characterization of various HTS materials, fabrication of materials with optimal microwave properties, development of accurate measurement techniques and in their standarisation. Several start-up companies were created to develop HTS filters for cellular Base Station receivers with reduced adjacent band interference, increased coverage and better spectrum utilization. Outstanding HTS filters and Cryogenic Front Receivers Ends were developed with Out of Band Rejection as large as 80dB/MHz or Insertion Loss as small as 0.2dB. This initial hype (fed by media and the financial market) in HTS filters died out, mass market applications never occurred and companies disappeared. However research and development continued on a smaller scale, mostly in Asia. Recent developments include tri-band BPFs (for ISM, WiMAX and WLAN applications), superconducting quadruplexers and new concept HTS high power filters. Simulation results have shown that high selectivity HTS filters might remove a need for 1 MHz guard bands for planned LTE Public Safety Mobile Broadband in the presence of interference from adjacent Land Mobile Services in the 800MHz Band in Australia. Hence, in opinion of the author, there is room and need for HTS microwave systems in future communication systems

Travelling to the Margins of Europe

The problem for Europe is to learn how to marginalise itself. (Ien Ang)  CRITICS AND FILMMAKERS alike in recent years drew attention to the crisis experienced by national cinemas in European countries. The UK-based scholar Dimitris Eleftheriotis writes: This crisis is evident on many levels, from the critical-theoretical to the economic. Indeed the very term 'national cinema' is riddled with conceptual contradictions, and its theoretical, pedagogic and practical usefulness has been repeatedly challenged in recent years. But perhaps more relevant is the realization that shrinking domestic markets have become in most cases inadequate for the financial survival of national films. As a result more and more filmmakers have to rely on state or European funding (and in many cases both) for their productions. This in turn brings into play the contradictions in national and European policy ... and raises dilemmas of criteria and priorities: for example, is funding..

Želimir Žilnik and Eastern European independent cinema

In my paper I will discuss the career of, a director born in 1942 in Nis in Yugoslavia, whose career, spanning over forty years and Yugoslavia, West Germany and Serbia, excellently illustrates the concepts of independent and transnational cinema and their interface. Žilnik’s career well illustrates the advantages and pitfalls of “independent filmmaking”, especially in the context of Eastern Europe. Hence, in my paper, I will use his case to examine this concept, drawing on Marx and Marxist thought, such as the critique of the “culture industry” by Horkheimer and Adorno and the concept of “critical media” by Christian Fuchs, and the history of Eastern Europe and its cinema, with its figure of “artist-dissident” and the specific case of Yugoslavia. My main point is that there is no “independent cinema” in absolute terms; cinema can only be independent from something, hence ‘independent cinema’ means different things in different cultural contexts

Moral Luck in the Films of Woody Allen

MORAL LUCK IN THE FILMS OF WOODY ALLEN We happened to have won the war. But if we didn't win the war, then history would be created differently.(Judah's aunt in Crimes and Misdemeanors) The purpose of this essay is to discuss how moral issues are represented in two films of Woody Allen: Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) and Match Point (2005). My principal tool of analysis is the concept of 'moral luck', elaborated in an essay of the same title by Bernard Williams (1929-2003) (see Williams 1981a), widely cited as the most important British moral philosopher of his time. I am using this concept because these two Allen films can serve as a perfect illustration of its validity or, conversely, because the idea of moral luck supports the way the director deploys moral problems in his films. My discussion will consist of three parts. In the..