ASSIGNMENTS  &  READINGS

• Jan. 24   Introduction to the Course - Writers and Films of East Central Europe

            Feature Film:  Closely Watched Trains (Ostre sledovane vlaky)

                 Directed by Jiri Menzel,  Czechoslovakia, 1966,  92 min.  b/w

• Jan. 31    Memories of World War II:  Occupation and Resistance        

         Read: 

  • 1. Rothschild, Return to Diversity, chaps. 1 & 2.
  • 2. Boleslaw Michalek & Frank Turaj, Modern Polish Cinema. ( Indiana University Press, 1988), chap. 8: "Andrzej Wajda: The Essential Pole."

             Feature Film:  Canal (Kanal)

                 Directed by Andrzej Wajda, Poland, 1956, 95 min.  b/w

•   Feb. 7    Memories of World War II: The Destruction of the Jews

    Read:

  • 1.Tadeusz Borowski, This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen.
  • 2. Michalek & Turaj, Modern Polish Cinema, Chap. 7: "Andrej Munk: The Perspective of a Skeptic."

             Feature Film:  The Passenger (Pasazerka)

                 Directed by Andrzej Munk, Poland, 1963, 63min.  b/w

•   Feb. 14   Memories of World War II: Slovaks and Jews 

  Read:     Begin Milosz, The Captive Mind. 

       Feature Film:  The Shop on Main Street (Obchod na korze)

                 Directed by Jan Kadar, Czechoslovakia, 1965, 128 min.  b/w 

•   Feb. 21   Memories of War's End: The Communists Seize Power

           Read:    

  • 1. Complete Czeslaw Milosz, The Captive Mind

  • 2. Rothschild,  Return to Diversity, Chap. 3.

         Feature Film:  Ashes and Diamonds (Popiol i diament)

                 Directed by Andrzej Wajda,  Poland, 1958, 104 min.  b/w

•   Feb. 28   Stalinism: The Polish Experience

           Read:    

  • 1. Marek Hlasko, The Eighth Day of the Week
  • 2. Rothschild, Return to Diversity, chap. 4.

         Feature Film:  The Interrogation (Przesluchanie)

                 Directed by Ryszard Bugajski, Poland, 1982, 118 min., col.

•   March 6   Stalinism: The Czechoslovak Experience

           Read:     Milan Kundera, The Joke

        Feature Film:  Larks on a String (Skrivanci na niti)

                 Directed by Jiri Menzel, Czechoslovakia, 1969 (1990), 95 min., 

            March 13      SPRING BREAK

•    March 20  "Thaw": Experimenting Within Limits

  Read:  

  • 1. Rothschild, Return to Diversity, chap. 5:
  • 2. Daniel J. Goulding (ed.), Five Filmmakers (Indiana University Pr,1994), chap. 3: "Polanski," by Herbert Eagle.

  Feature Film:  Knife in the Water (Noz w wodzie)

                 Directed by Roman Polanski, Poland, 1962, 94min., b/w

•      March 27  The Czech "New Wave"

  Read:

  • 1. Vaclav Havel, Open Letters: Selected Writings, 1965-1990, pp. 125-214: "The Power of the Powerless."
  • 2. Daniel J. Goulding (ed.), Five Filmmakers (Indiana University Pr,1994), chap. 2: "Forman," by Peter Hamas

   

  Feature Film:  Loves of a Blonde (Lasky jedne pravolasky)

                 Directed by Milos Forman, Czechoslovakia, 1965, 82 min 

•       April 3   Solidarnosc and the Intellectuals

  Read:    

  • 1. Rothschild, Return to Diversity, chap. 6
  • 2. Selections from Adam Michnik,  Letters from Prison and Other Essays,
     

  Feature Film:  Man of Marble (Czlowiek z marmuru)

                 Directed by Andrzej Wajda, Poland, 1977,  col.   

•       April 10  Solidarnosc, Revolution and Martial Law

  Read:

  • 1. Selections from Michnik, Letters from Prison and Other Essays.
  • 2. Lawrence D. Orton, "'Normalizing' Polish Writers," and Marek Nowakowski, "House Search" and "The Cellar,"  Cross Currents, 5 (1986): 209-234.           

   

  Feature Film:  Man of Iron (Czlowiek z zelaza)

                 Directed by Andrzej Wajda,  Poland, 1981,  col. 

•      April 17  Censorship and Repression

                 Read: 

• 1. Selections from Miklos Haraszti, The Velvet Prison: Artists Under State Socialism.
• 2. Goulding, ed., Post New Wave Cinema, chap. 4: "Hungary: The Magyar on the Bridge"

       Feature Film:  Another Way (Egymasra nezve)

Directed by Karoly Makk, Hungary, 1982, 100 min., col.     

•      April 24  Every-Day Banality Under "Mature Socialism 

  Read: 

  • 1. Michalek & Turaj, Modern Cinema of Poland, chap. 9: "Krzysztof Zanussi: The Cinema of Intellectual Inquiry."
  • 2. Daniel J. Goulding, ed., Post New Wave Cinema in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe (Indiana University Press, 1989), chap. 4: "Poland: The Cinema of Moral Concern."
    
    

  Feature Film: Camouflage (Barwy Ochronne)

Directed by Krzysztof Zanussi, Poland, 1977)

•       May 1   Fate and Choice Under "Mature Socialism"

  Read:

  • 1. Tadeusz Konwicki, The Polish Complex.
  • 2. Kieslowski on Kieslowski, edited by Danusia Stok (Boston: Faber & Faber, 1993), 110-12, 204-11.                      

       Feature Film:  Camera Buff (Amator)

                 Directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski, Poland, 1978.

•     May 8     FINAL EXAMINATION