At the beginning, Poland was still absent from the maps, Polish films not only began to be made, but they demonstrated their own national character. They were characterized by the struggle for the Polish identity, which constituted the essence of the first Polish feature film Prussian Culture.
After regaining independence in 1918, the patriotic function of the national film making increased. The première of The Miracle at the Vistula by Ryszard Bolesłewski in March 1921 – only seven years after the actual event – confirmed that the cinema can contribute to creating the national identity of the audience.
The rebuilding of the Polish film industry after the Second World War was connected with a dramatic change of its status, which was forced by the new political system. The creation of films was monopolized by the state production company, which facilitated film production, but at the same time imposed ideological limitations on filmmakers.
In the second half of the 1940s, they still managed to create some films of considerable value. These were the first depictions of the war-time martyrdom – Wanda Jakubowska’s The Last Stage (1946) and Aleksander Ford’s Border Street (1949) – as well as Leon Buczkowski’s films – Forbidden Songs (1946) and Treasure (1948) – continuing the pre-war tradition of lighter movies.
The Wright brothers invented the first airplane. The French Lumiere brothers are also widely recognized as inventing the film camera and making cinema possible. In the same period a number of Polish investors were making headway in the early development of film production.
One of the most notable individuals at the time was Kazimierz Prószyński (1875-1945). A Polish inventor, Prószyński built his first film camera, the Pleograph, in 1894. It was patented before the Lumiere brothers' invention. Prószyński used his invention to film what is considered to be the first Polish narrative film, Powrót Birbanta / The Return of a Merry Fellow.
Also, the Polish silent cinema unearthed a major star, who could take advantage of the internationalism afforded by the absence of dialogue. Born Barbara Apolonia Chałupiec, it was as Pola Negri that she shone in first Polish, then German, silent.
In 1922, she made the big switch to the US and ended up becoming one of silent Hollywood's biggest stars, courting scandal with a string of affairs (including with Chaplin and Valentino) and being tagged as the "Queen of Tragedy".
Student: Staicu Andrei
Teacher: Stupariu Ionica
The History of Cinema in Poland