Contemporary Retro Crime Films as a Medium of Cultural Memory about the People's Republic of Poland

• In Event: The Memory of the Polish People's Republic in Genre Cinema

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyze contemporary Polish films of the retro crime genre with action set in the 1960s-80s from the perspective of cultural memory of the communist era. These works are part of the strongly represented trend in today's Polish media of the culture of nostalgia. In them, the crime mystery is the starting point for the reconstruction of the image of the past. However, the crime is also a pretext for taking up broader considerations of the specifics of the totalitarian system and a reason for carrying out social criticism covering the problems of life models, norms, values, power relations etc. The study will use the concept of memory by Susannah Radstone, and the perspective of nostalgia and retro style by Paul Grainge. The main research hypothesis assumes a dialogical relationship between "now" and "then" in the films discussed. Thus, on one hand, these works exemplify contemporary global trends of commodification and consumption of the past, on the other hand, they exemplify the processes of revision of collective memory in the context of contemporary challenges and the negotiation of national identities. The planned analysis is intended to answer the following questions: (1) How do directors analyze the past: tradition, society, culture?, (2) What typical elements of the communist era are remembered in the movies, and what elements are forgotten?, (3) How do the themes taken up on screen integrate into today's discussions of collective identities, fears, norms and social values of Poles?

Author

• Ilona Małgorzata Copik, U of Silesia in Katowice (Poland)