Thesis (PhD)--Macquarie University. Division of Society, Culture, Media & Philosophy, Department of Media. / Bibliography: leaves 391-427. / Preamble or redesigning Poland: 1989-2004 -- Introducing Polish cinema -- Of (post) transitional Polishness and film -- Of the Polish film industry, culture and criticism 1989-2004: a story in three acts -- Of nostalgia and arcadias in heritage films -- Of the People's Republic and its memory -- Of the transitional ethos -- Of (post) transitional comic relief -- Conclusion. / This thesis examines patterns of (post) transitional developments in Polish cinema between 1989 and 2004. It proposes a three-stage approach to the analysis of transitional continuities in films about the mythical Polish past, The Polish People's Republic (PRL), the contemporary reality and contemporary Polish comedies. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / iv, 427 leaves

Poland - like other Eastern and Central European countries - was for many years politically, socially and culturally cut off from the Western Europe. Did this have an impact on the representation of Polish cinema in English-language film criticism? Judging by the number of books about Polish cinema as a whole or about Polish directors and their films it would seem that the answer must be negative. However, a closer look at other books about world cinema and especially French cinematography proves that in spite of limited contacts Polish films were widely discussed in English-language literature. Another question is whether this representation was an exact and true one. The answer is again a positive one in spite of the political, social and cultural isolation. A comparison to Polish film criticism shows that Polish films were not generally misunderstood or rejected. Furthermore, English-language authors sometimes found different interesting plots missing in film literature in Poland. Therefore, surprisingly, the political partition did not obstruct cultural exchange and the most important Polish films were still available and discussed in the English-speaking world. However, there was still a gap in the knowledge about some aspects of Polish Cinema such as, for example, Polish cult comedies phenomenon. Therefore there is still a need for the popularisation of some important for the Polish nationality films outside of Poland and for deeper critical thought about Polish cinematography - which is an reflection of the society itself.

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Mit dem Ende des Zweiten Weltkrieges und mit der Proklamierung der DDR im Jahre 1949 wurde ein neues Kapitel in der Geschichte der deutsch-polnischen Beziehungen eröffnet. Die DDR und die Volksrepublik Polen wurden der Regierung der Sowjetunion unterstellt und als „Brüderländer“ aufgefordert, gegenseitige Kontakte in verschiedenen Bereichen zu pflegen. Eines von diesen Gebieten war auch das kulturelle Leben, von dem ein bedeutender Teil der Filmaustausch war. In den Jahren 1949-1990 wurden im Lichtspielwesen der DDR über 300 Spielfilme aus der Volksrepublik Polen verliehen, was zweifelsohne eine imposante Anzahl war. Die große Mehrheit dieser Filme wurde in der DDR-Presse rezensiert. 40 Jahre lang waren die Kritiken in Bezug auf das Filmangebot aus der Volksrepublik Polen im Lichtspielwesen der DDR ein fester Bestandteil der DDR-Alltags- und Kinopresse. Es sind innerhalb von dieser Zeit tausende von Rezensionen zu polnischen Filmen geschrieben worden, von deren ein großer Teil in dieser Arbeit analysiert wurde. Die Analyse der Pressebeiträge stellt ein Bild der Beurteilungen der polnischen Produktionen durch die DDR-Journalisten dar, lässt aber auch ganz genau Änderungen in den Beziehungen zwischen der Volksrepublik Polen und der DDR in den Jahren 1949-1989 erkennen. Dadurch bildet die politische Situation in den beiden Nachbarländern den Hintergrund dieser Arbeit, wobei fünf wichtige geschichtliche Phasen ausgewählt werden, die die Kapitel der Arbeit bilden. Zwei Unterkapitel dieser Arbeit werden der Rezeption der Filme von zwei bedeutendsten polnischen Regisseuren der Nachkriegszeit gewidmet: Andrzej Wajda und Krzysztof Zanussi. / With the end of the Second World War, and the formation of the DDR in 1949, a new chapter in the history of German-Polish relations began. The DDR and the People''s Republic of Poland were placed under the control of the Soviet Union, and as “brother lands” were encouraged to foster a mutual contact and exchange in various areas. One such area of exchange was in cultural life, of which a significant part was the sharing of films from both countries. In the years 1949-1990 over 300 Polish films were distributed in East German cinemas, an indisputably significant figure. The great majority of these films were reviewed in the DDR press, and in fact reviews of the cinematic offerings from the People''s Republic of Poland formed a regular component of East German newspapers during this period of 40 years. Over this time, thousands of reviews of Polish films were written, a large number of which are analysed in this dissertation. The analysis of press articles forms a picture of how Polish film productions were regarded by DDR journalists, but also reveals the changing relationship between the two countries in the period from 1949 to 1989. Thus the political situation in these neighbouring countries forms the background of this dissertation, with each chapter discussing one of five important historical phases. Two sub-chapters of this dissertation are devoted to a discussion of the East German reception of the films of Andrzej Wajda and Krzysztof Zanussi – two of Poland''s most important post-war directors.

The aim of this dissertation is to study urban domesticity in Polish film and literature against the background of the political and social transformations that have taken place in recent decades. The study begins with the so-called belle époque of the Polish People’s Republic and the decade of Edward Gierek, continues through the political upheavals, the period of martial law, and the system transformation of 1989 and the two following decades, which have been marked by the introduction of democracy, global capitalism, consumerism etc. The primary sources consist of almost thirty literary and cinematic works from various genres covering a period of forty years – twenty before the system change, and twenty after. Their common denominator is their setting in the socialist housing projects (blokowisko).  The dissertation places itself in the field of geocriticism and literary/cinematic spatiality. The object of the study is the ̒social space’ (Henri Lefebvre) of the urban home, and the main analytical frames are spatial representations and narrative space, which are viewed as important in shaping both character and plot. The analysis also draws from cultural theory by Michel Foucault, Marc Augé, Mikhail Bakhtin, Mircea Eliade, and Loïc Wacquant. The dissertation detects a shift in the representations of the urban home that indicates that the home has become more private and secluded after 1989, also suggesting that a spatial and social marginalization of the socialist housing projects has occurred. These findings are interpreted as consistent with theories in human geography on changes in the perception and experience of space due to global paradigm shifts and changes in the production system.