Head of Medusa, or Realism in Films of the Cinema of Moral Anxiety

The article discusses the films belonging to the Cinema of Moral Anxiety (1976-1981) as the most characteristic examples of realism in film in Polish cinematography between 1945 and 1989. The main aim of the early feature films of Krzysztof Kieślowski, Agnieszka Holland, Feliks Falk, Janusz Kijowski, and the work by Andrzej Wajda, Krzysztof Zanussi and Janusz Zaorski that can be classified as Cinema of Moral Anxiety, was a critical description of reality. This description was possible, thanks to skillful handling of the medium of photographic realism and realism in staging. The first part of the article presents in brief the historical and cinematographic context of the origins of the Cinema of Moral Anxiety. The second part discusses the major films of the movement in terms of the relationship between the strategies used in them and the process of creation of their critical and descriptive character. The order of the argument is set out by the achievements of four film cinematographers: Sławomir Idziak, Edward Kłosiński, Jacek Petrycki and Krzysztof Wyszyński. The following are the key issues: how does photographic realism manifests itself in film? How does it define their aesthetics and what is its impact on the creation of the director’s reflection upon socio-political context of the time? What are the limitations and difficulties associated with the aesthetics of realism? The third part of the article deals with the relationship of the realist aesthetics of the films belonging to the Cinema of Moral Anxiety movement with the moral reflection contained within them. The article concludes with some reflection upon typical protagonists of the films of the Cinema of Moral Anxiety. [originally published in Polish in Kwartalnik Filmowy 2011, no. 75-76, pp. 122-148