Filmoteka Muzeum

The first issue of the avant-garde magazine “Blok” (1924) featured a drawing entitled 5 Moments of an Abstract Film by Mieczysław Szczuka. It presented a sequence of geometric elements located on one axis and separated by vertical lines. Observing the similarities between the figures and their transformations in the subsequent sections, Marcin Giżycki arrived at a conclusion that the drawing presented subsequent frames of a never-accomplished motion picture. It would have been the first study for an abstract film ever made in Poland. Giżycki made an attempt at a reconstruction by setting it in motion and assigning to each frame five different sounds, combined to produce a simple musical motif. The production was accompanied by a flipbook version of the film (Lokator Publishing House). It wasn’t Szczuka’s sole attempt at dealing with experimental cinema – “Blok” published one more study: 5 Essential Elements of an Abstract Film, and in 1927 he started making a film of his own. The production of He Killed, You Killed, I Killed was interrupted by the artist’s death and the only remnants of the work are the sketches of two of its frames.

References: M. Giżycki, Awangarda wobec kina. Film w kręgu polskiej awangardy artystycznej dwudziestolecia międzywojennego, Warsaw 1996; M. Giżycki, Konstrukcja-reprodukcja. Grafika, fotografia i film w konstruktywizmie polskim, „Kwartalnik filmowy” 2006, vol. 54-55; M. Giżycki, Walka o film artystyczny w międzywojennej Polsce, Warsaw 1989; M. Szczuka, 5 momentów/zasadniczych elementów filmu abstrakcyjnego [illustration], “Blok” 1924, vol. 1.
 

(AK)

Year: 2006
Duration: 1'49''
Language: no language
Source: HD video

© Marcin Giżycki

Acquisition date: Oct 18, 2011
Acquisition: deposit
Ownership form: deposit

FILM PROGRAMS CONTAINING THAT WORK