Film ReviewsAfterimage: Art of Seeing
Jun 1, 2017 Anchorage Press
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Film directors are a dime a dozen, but as the pendulum swings from directors to auteurs to masters, the numbers get smaller and smaller; because while anyone can make a movie, not anyone can leave their mark on film making and culture over time and for generations. Andrzej Wajda was a master. He died in October 2016 at the age of 90. Afterimage (Powidoki, original title)is his last film, his swan song delivered with same steadfastness that defined his career. Like Ingmar Bergman did in his swan song, Saraband, Wajda reaches beyond his discipline into other arts to bring about a compressive discussion on Art—with a capital “A”.
In Afterimage, Wajda explores art and its relationship to the body politic by telling the story of another master, Władysław Strzemiński, a Polish painter who along with other greats in the interwar and post war periods ushered in the age of the Polish avant-garde. The painter served in WWI in the engineering corps and suffered catastrophic injuries that resulted in losing an arm and a leg. Strzemiński was married to another great artist, Katarzyna Kobro. Together, through his paintings and her sculpture, they redefined space and how viewers look at objects and subjects in space, or rather how they don’t because the idea is to perceive space as whole and infinite, without focus points. This idea expanded into social philosophy is antithetical to social realism of the time and Stalin’s regime. Strzemiński and Kobro had a daughter, Nika, played by Bronislawa Zamachowska. Nika’s character is instrumental in connecting past, present, and future, not just of her parent’s relationship but of Poland itself. Nika eventually became a writer and died in 2001.
Boguslaw Linda delivers the character of Strzemiński with compassion and depth. Linda himself grew up in post WWII Poland, which reeled not only from the war, but from the Stalin dictatorship as well, and has seen the transformation brought about by subsequent movements, and these reflected in film. Linda has worked in other sour searching projects like Dekalog (Kieslowski)in the late 80s that continued the exploration through Cinéma vérité on the smaller screen. Linda has been instrumental in speaking for Afterimage after Wajda’s death, and even before then as Linda supported the process to bring about the project because the original script was substandard and required several re-writings and a whole lot of persistence.
Biopics are difficult to make, and while they can make great stories, they are often just one artist’s fantasy about another artist or historical figure. Luckily for viewers, Wajda had a deep passion for art, process and Strzemiński’s work; and Strzemiński left a significant body of work, not just the paintings but also his written works. This helps flesh out the plot with interesting discussions on Art and its meaning, especially as it clashes with Stalin’s power structure. Strzemiński’s own conceptions of modern art expressed in “Theory of Seeing” and his theories on Unism were radical and elevated the relationship between art and humanity into a synthesis of awareness—there is what the eye mechanically sees and what the viewer is aware of, and the viewer can only truly see what his awareness allows.
Strzemiński’s theories on art are not just beautiful, they’re sublime. The title of the film, “Afterimage” is both tantalizing and symbolic on many levels. On the physiological level, “afterimage” refers to an image or picture remaining on the eye’s retina in some form after the eye has left that image and moved on to another. The afterimage then fades slowly and the next object takes its place. This is hugely significant in how artists understand perception because it expands how to visualize life movement through time—think of the iPhone’s live photos on a philosophical level. When Strzemiński is forced to choose between life as he believes it to be and the social realism and propaganda required by the regime, Strzemiński needs to make a choice; it’s these choices that precipitate his end, but in doing so, ensures the integrity of his work. It seems apropos that Afterimage is Wajda’s last film as it makes him ever-present after death.
Beartooth
Not rated, In Polish with English subtitles.
Run time: 1:38
June 5 at 5:30 PM
In Afterimage, Wajda explores art and its relationship to the body politic by telling the story of another master, Władysław Strzemiński, a Polish painter who along with other greats in the interwar and post war periods ushered in the age of the Polish avant-garde. The painter served in WWI in the engineering corps and suffered catastrophic injuries that resulted in losing an arm and a leg. Strzemiński was married to another great artist, Katarzyna Kobro. Together, through his paintings and her sculpture, they redefined space and how viewers look at objects and subjects in space, or rather how they don’t because the idea is to perceive space as whole and infinite, without focus points. This idea expanded into social philosophy is antithetical to social realism of the time and Stalin’s regime. Strzemiński and Kobro had a daughter, Nika, played by Bronislawa Zamachowska. Nika’s character is instrumental in connecting past, present, and future, not just of her parent’s relationship but of Poland itself. Nika eventually became a writer and died in 2001.
Boguslaw Linda delivers the character of Strzemiński with compassion and depth. Linda himself grew up in post WWII Poland, which reeled not only from the war, but from the Stalin dictatorship as well, and has seen the transformation brought about by subsequent movements, and these reflected in film. Linda has worked in other sour searching projects like Dekalog (Kieslowski)in the late 80s that continued the exploration through Cinéma vérité on the smaller screen. Linda has been instrumental in speaking for Afterimage after Wajda’s death, and even before then as Linda supported the process to bring about the project because the original script was substandard and required several re-writings and a whole lot of persistence.
Biopics are difficult to make, and while they can make great stories, they are often just one artist’s fantasy about another artist or historical figure. Luckily for viewers, Wajda had a deep passion for art, process and Strzemiński’s work; and Strzemiński left a significant body of work, not just the paintings but also his written works. This helps flesh out the plot with interesting discussions on Art and its meaning, especially as it clashes with Stalin’s power structure. Strzemiński’s own conceptions of modern art expressed in “Theory of Seeing” and his theories on Unism were radical and elevated the relationship between art and humanity into a synthesis of awareness—there is what the eye mechanically sees and what the viewer is aware of, and the viewer can only truly see what his awareness allows.
Strzemiński’s theories on art are not just beautiful, they’re sublime. The title of the film, “Afterimage” is both tantalizing and symbolic on many levels. On the physiological level, “afterimage” refers to an image or picture remaining on the eye’s retina in some form after the eye has left that image and moved on to another. The afterimage then fades slowly and the next object takes its place. This is hugely significant in how artists understand perception because it expands how to visualize life movement through time—think of the iPhone’s live photos on a philosophical level. When Strzemiński is forced to choose between life as he believes it to be and the social realism and propaganda required by the regime, Strzemiński needs to make a choice; it’s these choices that precipitate his end, but in doing so, ensures the integrity of his work. It seems apropos that Afterimage is Wajda’s last film as it makes him ever-present after death.
Beartooth
Not rated, In Polish with English subtitles.
Run time: 1:38
June 5 at 5:30 PM