Tadeusz Makarczynski 1941-1950 Documentary Poland Short Film

Tadeusz Makarczynski – Do redakcji nadszedl list AKA A Letter at the Editorial Office (1950)

adminOctober 16, 2021

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The documentary shows the work of journalists and the importance of the press in building socialism. It is an exemplary implementation of the socialist-realist convention imposed on Polish cinema in 1949, in which all elements of the film structure were subordinated to the persuasive function.

In accordance with the convention of a propaganda documentary, the image in “Do redakcja nadszedł list” / “A letter has arrived to the editor” is exclusively an illustration of the propaganda commentary on which the construction of the entire film is based. As in many works of the 1950s, the authors combine in it few observational elements with staging, the documentary element with the fictional one. The picture, devoted to the glorification of the socialist press, is built around a plot in which a tractor driver, Wichłacz, reports a defect in an Ursus tractor to the correspondent of the “People’s Tribune”, Wilczyński. Thanks to an appeal prepared by the journalist, the information reaches the factory, where the factory committee of the Polish United Workers’ Party (PZPR) meets and passes the matter on to rationalizers. The fault is fixed. The vague and schematic story is only a pretext to show the effectiveness of the socialist press and the interest of journalists in the matters of workers and peasants. It is for them that one edits, and it happens that they become editors. The socialist press “speaks about real life” and is owned by the masses. In the formula of digression the stages of working on an article are shown. One sequence is devoted to newspapers published in the Eastern Bloc countries and the communist press in capitalist countries. Another criticizes the Polish press before the war and the present-day bourgeois press published in the West. The final scene shows a boy learning journalism by preparing wall newspapers. “By learning, we fight for peace, progress, socialism.” – argues the narrator. The author of the subtle and poetic “Warsaw Suite” (1946) produced several flagship works of Socialist Realism in the early 1950s. In the same year as “Do redakcji nad nadszedł list”, he created “Nowa sztuka” (“New Art”) (1950), and two years later “Mazowsze” – a colorful concert on the screen (1952).