https://doi.org/10.21697/zk.2025.12.06
Lucky Antoni (1960) by Halina Bielińska and Włodzimierz Haupe was, in a non-obvious way, one of the films that announcec or even started the cinema of new memory – trying to re-describe World War II, its effects and impact, and in this context also Polish identity in the 1960s. One of the characteristic features of this phenomenon were the special connections between the war and the present. The aim of the article is primarily to analyze the ways of approaching the memory of World War II displayed in the film, which will become characteristic of the dominant images of war in Polish cinema of the 1960s.
The protagonists, who are to receive a new home in Poland rebuilt after the war, find a tank on the plot instead. It is a special (post-)war element, seemingly disturbing the landscape of Poland trying to forget about the war. The rebuilt Warsaw and the row of new houses in the suburban landscape deny the war and its effects, showing that it belongs to the past. The tank appearing suddenly invalidates this message. It connects the war with the present and does not allow us to forget about it. It belongs to a different order and, as such, should evoke a sense of threat. Finding a way to deal with it, however, becomes a proof that the memory of the past can be tamed, made an unproblematic part of everyday life. What Lucky Antoni’s protagonists did with the tank, Polish cinema of the 1960s later did with the memory of World War II.
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Język Polski
English