Aldo Vergano, Umberto Barbaro and Devil's Ravine: Italian filmmakers in early People's Poland: 1948–56. Issue 3 (1st June 2023)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Miller-Klejsa, Anna
• Is Part Of: Journal of Italian cinema & media studies. Volume 11:Issue 3/4(2023)
• Page Start: 561
• Page End: 579
• Publication Date: 2023-06-01
• Subjects: Polish film culture -- Italian filmmakers in Poland -- Stalinism in 1940s and 1950s -- socialist realism -- cold war culture -- neorealism -- Film School in Lodz -- mountain film; Motion pictures -- Italy -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; Mass media -- Italy -- Periodicals; 791.430945
• DOI: 10.1386/jicms_00198_1
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2047-7368

Abstract

This article traces and analyses the activities of Umberto Barbaro and Aldo Vergano in the People's Republic of Poland during the late 1940s. It focuses on the production and reception of Czarci żleb ( Devil's Ravine ) (Kański and Vergano 1949 ) in order to examine the extent to which the activities of the Italians were used by the Polish communist authorities for their own political ends. The article draws attention to the opinions formulated by both filmmakers and relevant critics in interviews about the relationship between film art and politics. This part of analysis is of crucial importance, as both Barbaro and Vergano came to Poland bearing the aura of artists who had been deprived of their jobs in Italy for political reasons. The article investigates how far these filmmakers were instrumentalized for political purposes by the Polish communist authorities.