The Law of the Looking Glass. Sheila Skaff

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      The Law of the Looking Glass

      Ohio University Press Polish and Polish-American Studies Series

       Series Editor: John J. Bukowczyk

      Framing the Polish Home: Postwar Cultural Constructions of Hearth, Nation, and Self, edited by Bożena Shallcross

      Traitors and True Poles: Narrating a Polish-American Identity, 1880–1939, by Karen Majewski

      Auschwitz, Poland, and the Politics of Commemoration, 1945–1979, by Jonathan Huener

      The Exile Mission: The Polish Political Diaspora and Polish Americans, 1939–1956, by Anna D. Jaroszyńska-Kirchmann

      The Grasinski Girls: The Choices They Had and the Choices They Made, by Mary Patrice Erdmans

      Testaments: Two Novellas of Emigration and Exile, by Danuta Mostwin

      The Clash of Moral Nations: Cultural Politics in Piłsudski’s Poland, 1926–1935, by Eva Plach

      Holy Week: A Novel of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, by Jerzy Andrzejewski

      The Law of the Looking Glass: Cinema in Poland, 1896–1939, by Sheila Skaff

      SERIES ADVISORY BOARD

      M. B. B. Biskupski, Central Connecticut State University

      Robert E. Blobaum, West Virginia University

      Anthony Bukoski, University of Wisconsin-Superior

      Bogdana Carpenter, University of Michigan

      Mary Patrice Erdmans, Central Connecticut State University

      Thomas S. Gladsky, Central Missouri State University (ret.)

      Padraic Kenney, Indiana University

      John J. Kulczycki, University of Illinois at Chicago (ret.)

      Ewa Morawska, University of Essex

      Antony Polonsky, Brandeis University

      Brian Porter-Szûcs, University of Michigan

      James S. Pula, Purdue University North Central

      Thaddeus C. Radzilowski, Piast Institute

      Daniel Stone, University of Winnipeg

      Adam Walaszek, Jagiellonian University

      Theodore R. Weeks, Southern Illinois University

      The Law of the Looking Glass

       Cinema in Poland, 1896–1939

      Sheila Skaff

      OHIO UNIVERSITY PRESS

      ATHENS

      Ohio University Press, Athens, Ohio 45701

       www.ohioswallow.com

      © 2008 by Ohio University Press

      All rights reserved

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      Printed in the United States of America

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      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Skaff, Sheila.

      The law of the looking glass : cinema in Poland, 1896–1939 / Sheila Skaff.

      p. cm.

      Includes bibliographical references and index.

      ISBN-13: 978-0-8214-1784-3 (cloth : alk. paper)

      ISBN-10: 0-8214-1784-3 (cloth: alk. paper)

      1. Motion pictures—Poland—History. 2. Motion picture industry—Poland—History. I. Title.

      PN1993.5.P55S44 2008

      791.4309438'09041—dc22

      2008006416

      ISBN: 978-0-8214-4252-4 (e-book)

      Publication of books in the Polish and Polish-American Studies Series has been made possible in part by the generous support of the following organizations:

      Polish American Historical Association,

      New Britain, Connecticut

      Stanislaus A. Blejwas Endowed Chair in Polish and Polish American Studies,

      Central Connecticut State University, New Britain, Connecticut

      The Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America, Inc.,

      New York, New York

      The Piast Institute: An Institute for Polish and Polish American Affairs,

      Detroit, Michigan

      Contents

       List of Illustrations

       Series Editor’s Preface

       Acknowledgments

       Guide to Pronunciation

       INTRODUCTION. The Cult of Visibility

       1. The First Films, 1896–1908

       2. The Emergence of a Competitive Industry, 1908–18

       3. From National Cinema to Cinema in the Nation-State, 1918–23

       4. The Golden Years of Silent Cinema, 1923–29

       5. The Transition from Silent to Sound Film, 1929–30

       6. The Transition in Practice, 1930–36

       7. Beyond the Talkies, 1936–39

       CONCLUSION. Visual Imagery and Language after World War II

       APPENDIX. Select Filmography

       Notes

       Bibliography

       Index

      Illustrations

       An advertisement for an early demonstration of the Cinématographe