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Jerzy Skolimowski
The Cinema of a Nonconformist
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Book Presentation:
Jerzy Skolimowski is one of the most original Polish directors and one of only a handful who has gained genuine recognition abroad. This is the first monograph, written in English, to be devoted to his cinema. It covers Skolimowski's career from his early successes in Poland, such as Identification Marks: None and Barrier, through his émigré films, Deep End, Moonlighting and The Lightship, to his return to Poland where, in 2008, he made the internationally acclaimed Four Nights with Anna.
Ewa Mazierska addresses the main features of Skolimowski's films, such as their affinity to autobiographism and surrealism, while discussing their characters, narratives, visual style, soundtracks, and the uses of literature. She draws on a wide range of cinematic and literary texts, situating Skolimowski's work within the context of Polish and world cinema, and drawing parallels between his work and that of two directors, with whom he tends to be compared, Roman Polański and Jean-Luc Godard.
About the Author:
Ewa Mazierska is Professor of Contemporary Cinema, Department of Humanities, University of Central Lancashire. Her publications include Crossing New Europe: The European Road Movie (Wallflower Press, 2006), Dreams and Diaries: The Cinema of Nanni Moretti (Wallflower Press, 2004) and From Moscow to Madrid: Postmodern Cities, European Cinema (I.B. Tauris, 2003), all co-authored with Laura Rascaroli and Women in Polish Cinema (Berghahn Books, 2006), co-authored with Elżbieta Ostrowska.
Press Reviews:
"Ewa Mazierska's monograph is the first book-length study of [Jerzy Skolimowski's] work, nearly half a century after his emergence as a one-man Polish New Wave ... Mazierska eschews a chronological survey in favour of five themed essays ... this approach allows her to make connections between outwardly disparate films and mount a convincing challenge to the received opinion that there are fundamental differences between his Polish and non-Polish output ... this is an important, desperately overdue book." · Sight & Sound
"This is a long-awaited book. Although Jerzy Skolimowski, along with Roman Polanski and Agnieszka Holland, is among the most recognized Polish filmmakers working abroad, his oeuvre has not so far been the subject of a detailed analysis. Ewa Mazierska's monograph fills this gap… Mazierska's strength lies in solid close analysis within a broad contextual framework provided in relation to the films. The last chapter of the book devoted to aural strategies is a genuine achievement in analytical writing on cinema. Its scope and depth goes beyond the usual attention given to this aspect of cinematic form in monographs on filmmakers. Mazierska offers a groundbreaking analysis of both the formal and semantic aspects of sound and music in Skolimowski's work." · Slavic Review
"Mazierska pioneers in the field with the first ever book fully devoted to the director. Her monograph with its rich factual and theoretical tissue appears to be a breakthrough work that not only collects in one place information and available scholarship about the director, but also proposes solid conceptual framework, upon which further studies can be based...Next to its contribution to film knowledge, Mazierska’s work can certainly play an inspirational role for researchers and students of European cinema." · Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television
See the publisher website: Berghahn Books
See the complete filmography of Jerzy Skolimowski on the website: IMDB ...
> From the same author:
Poland Daily (2022)
Economy, Work, Consumption and Social Class in Polish Cinema
From Self-fulfilment to Survival of the Fittest (2020)
Work in European Cinema from the 1960s to the Present
Marxism and Film Activism (2018)
Screening Alternative Worlds
Dir. Ewa Mazierska and Lars Kristensen
Subject: Sociology
Contemporary Cinema and Neoliberal Ideology (2017)
Dir. Ewa Mazierska and Lars Kristensen
Subject: Sociology
The Cinematic Bodies of Eastern Europe and Russia (2016)
Between Pain and Pleasure
Dir. Ewa Mazierska, Matilda Mroz and Elżbieta Ostrowska
Red Alert (2016)
Marxist Approaches to Science Fiction Cinema
Dir. Ewa Mazierska and Alfredo Suppia
Subject: Genre > Science Fiction
Masculinities in Polish, Czech and Slovak Cinema (2010)
Black Peters and Men of Marble
Crossing New Europe (2006)
Postmodern Travel and the European Road Movie
by Ewa Mazierska and Laura Rascaroli
The Cinema of Nanni Moretti (2004)
Dreams and Diaries
by Ewa Mazierska and Laura Rascaroli
Subject: Director > Nanni Moretti
> On a related topic:
Boro, L'Île d'Amour (2020)
The Films of Walerian Borowczyk
Dir. Kamila Kuc, Kuba Mikurda and Michał Oleszczyk
Subject: Director > Walerian Borowczyk
Double Lives, Second Chances (2013)
The Cinema of Krzysztof Kieslowski
Subject: Director > Krzysztof Kieslowski
The Political Films of Andrzej Wajda (1996)
Dialogism in Man of Marble, Man of Iron, and Danton
Subject: Director > Andrzej Wajda
The Oneiric in the Films of David Lynch (2026)
A Phenomenological Approach
Subject: Director > David Lynch
A Critical Companion to Christopher Nolan (2025)
Dir. Claire Parkinson and Isabelle Labrouillère
Subject: Director > Christopher Nolan
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