Polish Spy Movies of the 1960s in Light of Transcripts from Meetings of Script Assessment and Film Approval Commissions

Abstract

This article addresses the problem of the unique reception of spy films made in the 1960s in the People’s Republic of Poland. In line with the tenets of New Historicism (cultural poetics), the New Film History and the historical poetics of film, the author focuses on the political, ideological and rhetorical nature of these movies, focusing especially on the analysis of various contexts in their historical setting. Analysis of the transcripts and minutes from script assessment and film approval meetings, important in terms of the process of producing a film and clearing it for distribution, helps to reconstruct both the disputes about the predominant features of the spy film at the time and the fears of its subversive reading. Analysis of these documents makes it possible to show the tensions, limitations and contradictions of the spy film formula of the time, related to cultural politics and the perception and use of genre conventions, to reconstruct the processes of negotiation of meanings, the interpretative strategies of the time, and the social and cultural tensions of the historical moment.

Keywords:

• Polish cinema
• culture of the People’s Republic of Poland
• spy films
• film reception
• archival documents

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Interestingly, in a review for the meeting of the script assessment commission dedicated to Two Gentlemen N, Ścibor-Rylski accused Tadeusz Chmielewski of failing to document the work of the communist police and counterintelligence. Protokół z Komisji Ocen Scenariuszy w dniu 19 maja 1961 r., 10.

2 Bond movies were referred to also during the pre-release screening of Ms. Zuza’s Diamonds, while the transcript of the meeting contains an error, probably pointing to Wanda Jakubowska’s mistake or the ignorance of the editor of the document; the word Bond is replaced by Brando, still the context unequivocally indicates agent 007. Stenogram kolaudacji filmu “Brylanty pani Zuzy” reż. Pawła Komorowskiego dnia 8 września 1971 r., 3.

3 Evaluating one of the scenes in Two Gentlemen N, Krzysztof Teodor Toeplitz pointed out: “We do not intend to trigger unfavourable sentiments against counterintelligence in the viewers”. Later he expressed his concerns about “the public’s unfavourable approach to counterintelligence, and the fact that staff of this kind of construction industry are not allowed to go abroad is proof of vigilance, even if the viewers may suspect that it is evidence of lack of trust in them”. Protokół z Komisji Ocen Scenariuszy w dniu 19 maja 1961 r., 10, 21. In turn, according to Aleksander Ścibor-Rylski, the protagonist of Heads and Tails is hardly a role model as his conduct involves provocations and he is brutal, unscrupulous and disloyal. Ścibor referred moreover to the tripartite play Niebezpieczne ścieżki (Dangerous Paths), directed in 1969 by Andrzej Konic and produced by the Television Theatre, based on the book by Marian Reniak, the script author of Password: Korn and consultant for On the Edge: “There were situations there that drew the ire of many viewers, because the protagonist became a member of a dangerous gang operating in Krakow after the war, and when he gained the complete trust of his comrades, drew them into an ambush and led to their detention”. Stenogram z posiedzenia Komisji Kolaudacyjnej Filmów Fabularnych w dniu 5.IV1974 r., 7, 14.

4 Interestingly, the scene where one of the counterintelligence operatives intimidates the person being questioned, shouts at him and demands “passwords, pseudonyms, and contact data” was opposed by Starski only by virtue of its incongruity with the poetics of the film. Stenogram z posiedzenia Komisji Kolaudacyjnej w dniu 20.V.68 r., 7. Perhaps, however, even if it seemed far-fetched, he was aware of the fact that at a given time it, too, might have stirred unwanted associations.