Electric Sheep podcast: The Polish New Wave?

June 11, 2010 — Polska! Year

Electric Sheep podcast:

The Polish New Wave?

Edited broadcast 11/06/10 as an episode of I’m ready for my close-up on Resonance 104.4 FM

Still from On the Silver Globe by Andrzej Zulawski and posters for The Godfather part II, Nashville and Stranger than Paradise by Andrzej Klimowski and Danusia Schejbal

On the Silver Globe, an estoric Polish Sci-Fi epic directed by in 1977 – then lost and believed destroyed by the authorities for a decade before its cinema release – was screened at Tate Modern last year as part of a mini season of films titled: ‘Polish New Wave – The History of a Phenomenon that Never Existed’. Looking ahead to the release of this film on DVD on the UK, Alex Fitch talks to the director – Andrzej Żuławski – about his struggles in getting the film released and the travails in making his horror films The Third Part of the Night (1971) and Possession (1981) under the eyes of a communist regime.
Alex also talks to Polish poster designer Andrzej Klimowski and his wife Danusia Schejbal (famously depicted as the victim of an assassin’s bullet on Klimowski’s poster for Robert Altman’s Nashville) about working on the fringes of Polish film making in the late 1970s and whether the films of the time could be seen as belonging to an artistic movement.

More for more information and a variety of formats you can stream / download, please visit the home of this podcast at www.archive.org

Links: Andrzej Klimowski and / Danusia Schejbal‘s websites
Andrzej’s pages at www.polishposter.com and The Royal College of Art
Theatre design by Danusia: A Chaste Maid in Cheapside and A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Listen to Alex’s previous interviews with Andrzej
Info on Polish posters at Cinéphilia West

Info on ‘The Polish New Wave’ at Tate Modern including On the Silver Globe
Buy The Third Part of the Night from Second Run DVD

Recommended events:

MARTIN ROWSON: CREATIONS IN BAD FAITH, DRAWINGS FOR NEW HUMANIST MAGAZINE

Since 2002 satirical cartoonist Martin Rowson has been drawing exclusive covers and illustrations for New Humanist magazine. Rowson’s acid nib has provided the perfect visual accompaniment to New Humanist’s cheeky godlessness. Show features more than 50 pieces from a unique collaboration truly made in hell.

8 Jun to 12 Jun

Menier Gallery , 51 Southwark Street, London SE1 1RU

COMICS AND MEDICINE: Medical Narrative in Graphic Novels

Confirmed keynote lectures by Paul Gravett, Brian Fies and Marc Zaffran

This one-day interdisciplinary conference aims to explore medical narrative in graphic novels and comics. Although the first comic book was invented in 1837 the long-format graphic narrative has only become a distinct and unique body of literary work relatively recently. Thanks in part to the growing Medical Humanities movement, many medical schools now encourage the reading of literature and the study of art to gain insights into the human condition. A serious content for comics is not new but representation of illness in graphic novels is an increasing trend. The melding of text and visuals in graphic fiction and non-fiction has much to offer medical professionals, students and, indeed, patients. Among the growing number of graphic novels, a sub-genre exploring the patients’ and the carers’ experiences of illness or disability has emerged.

Presentations will examine the development and trends evident in medically themed graphic fiction and manga, the relative strengths of the medium and the motivation behind its creation, whether by healthcare professionals, service users or carers. The use of ‘comics’ in medical and public education, and their role in health communication and scholarship will also be discussed.

17 June 2010

Institute of English Studies,
School of Advanced Study, University of London