The Law of the Looking Glass

Book excerpt: Polish cinema has produced some of Europe's finest directors, such as Krzysztof Kie´slowski, Roman Polanski, Andrzej Wajda, and Krzysztof Zanussi, but little is known about its origins at the turn of the twentieth century. In The Law of the Looking Glass, Sheila Skaff analyzes the early years of Polish cinema. She looks at local film production, practices of spectatorship, clashes over language choice in intertitles, and the controversies surrounding the first synchronized sound experiments before World War I. Skaff discusses the creation of a national film industry in the newly independent country of the interwar years; silent cinema; the transition from silent to sound film, including the passionate debates in the press over the transition; and the first Polish and Yiddish “talkies.” The Law of the Looking Glass places particular importance on conflicts in majority-minority relations in the region and the types of collaboration that led to important films such as Der dibuk.