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Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television

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Multifunctional Chopin: the representation of Fryderyk Chopin in Polish films

Ewa Mazierska
a a

University of Central Lancashire Version of record first published: 22 Jan 2007.

To cite this article: Ewa Mazierska (2004): Multifunctional Chopin: the representation of Fryderyk Chopin in Polish films, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 24:2, 253-268 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0143968042000223736

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Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television Vol. 24, No. 2, 2004

Multifunctional Chopin: the representation of Fryderyk Chopin in Polish lms

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EWA MAZIERSKA, University of Central Lancashire

Frederic or Fryderyk (as he is known in Poland) Chopin [1], a distinguished Polish French composer and piano virtuoso, is one of the favourite artists to be represented in cinema. There are over 20 lms in which he appears either as a principal or secondary character [2]. These lms are very heterogenous in terms of the period when they were made (the rst was produced in 1918, the last one in 2002), the country of production (amongst many they are Poland, Germany, France, Britain, Spain and the USA), genre (Chopin was a character of solemn biopics, love stories and romantic comedies), as well as in their approach to the function of the biography of a famous artist and its relationship to his/her true life [3]. This article will investigate the relationship between cinematic representations of Chopin and the wider culture in which such representations are produced. I am interested in establishing the ideological purposes for which the portrayals of Chopin were used, how his biography and personality were re-created in the cinema to suit these purposes, and if the lmmakers were successful in fullling their ideological objectives. I will also discuss the relationship between representing Chopin in a particular way and making an artistically accomplished lm. Rather than discuss all lms about Chopin ever made, I will concentrate on two Polish biopics, Mlodosc Chopina (The Youth of Chopin, 1952), directed by Aleksander Ford, and ChopinPragnienie milosci (ChopinDesire of Love, 2002), directed by Jerzy Antczak, passing over another lm about Chopin made by Polish director, La Note Bleue (The Blue Note, 1990) by Andrzej Zulawski, as his lm was made in France and was addressed primarily to a French or international audience. The principal context in which I will discuss the lms about Chopin will be Polish culture, or more specically, Polish culture at the moment when the particular biopic was made. First, it is worth saying something about biographical lms in general as well as providing some background to Chopins life and his legend.

Artists on Screen in the West and in the East In her article Artists mythologies and media genius, madness and art history, Griselda Pollock attempts to establish the main features of the representation of artists in art history and media, concentrating on the case of Vincent Van Gogh. She suggests that, as paradigm of the modern artist, Van Gogh can serve as a model of the way artists are depicted in art history books and in popular media. She sums up this approach by the term psycho-biography. Around his [Van Goghs] life and work what appears to
ISSN 0143-9685 print/ISSN 1465-3451 online/04/020253-16 2004 IAMHIST & Taylor & Francis Ltd DOI: 10.1080/0143968042000223736

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be a particular form of discourse has developeda special way of discussing the artist and his works which is presented as if it were only a response to a reection of his exceptional individuality, his genius [4]. The artist is characterised by excess, mania, pathology, otherness and, consequently, solitude and tragedy, and his art is regarded as a reection of these aspects of his personality. Pollock, who is close to the Marxist perspective on art, which emphasises the relationship between artistic production and social, economic and political history, is highly critical of perceiving madness as the main factor in Van Goghs work, or indeed, that of any other painter. She suggests that the discourse on madness and art operates to sever art and artist from history [5]. The popular media and cinema in particular tend to follow art history books in foregrounding the artists life (at the expense of his work) and regarding the artists excessive personality as a crucial factor in his art, neglecting other factors, such as the socio-political circumstances of his existence. Similar conclusions are reached by John A. Walker in his book Art and Artists on Screen. He agrees that psycho-biography (although he does not use this word) is regarded by art historians and lmmakers as the key to understand an artists work. Walker, who based his research on a larger group of lms about real and ctitious artists, also observes that they tend to emphasise the gap between artists and society. The rift gives rise to a whole series of conceptions of artists as beings who are different from ordinary people: they are inspired geniuses, eccentrics, bohemians, lunatics, outsiders, rebels, iconoclasts and scourges of the bourgeoisie (upon whom, paradoxically, they usually rely for nancial support). Artists preserve in their practice something society in general has lost, for example control over their work, pride and pleasure in their labour. They are still in touch with unconscious desires and forcesthe erotic, the perverse, the obscene and the blasphemouswhich straight society has outlawed or repressed. They also invoke archaic and primitive formspagan religions, magic, alchemy, the occult, shamanismwhich rational, scientic society considers it has transcended. The artist thus becomes a repository of values which mainstream society has relinquished [6]. No wonder there is a conict between the artists and society; typically the society is unable to appreciate or even to understand the new, unusual way of perceiving the world which an artist proposes. On the other hand, the artist tends to reject a compromise with his social milieu and the wider world, even at the price of failing to gain wide appreciation and nancial advantage. In the lms which Walker analyses, the justice is always on the artists side, of which the ultimate proof is his/her posthumous fame and a large following of imitators. Although Pollock and Walker limit their discussion to ne artists, their analysis is also applicable to popular biographies and media representations of other types of artists, including musicians, as they are also usually portrayed as bohemians and outsiders, who disregard the rules of mainstream society, particularly in relation to erotic and family life. Moreover, they are often mad or physically frail (or both). Similarly, their artistic achievements, both in terms of their style and quality, are explained by their excessive personality, their genius, rather than by the historical conditions of their life or their education. Numerous examples of such representations include the lms of Ken Russell, the best known author of lms about musicians; examples are The Music Lovers (1970) about Tchaikovsky and Mahler (1974) about the eponymous composer, while other classics of the type include The Great Waltz (1938) by Julien Duvivier about Johann Strauss and Amadeus (1984) by

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Milos Forman. More recent examples, such as the biography of Jacqueline Du Pres, Hilary and Jackie (1998), directed by Anand Tucker conform to this approach, which, following Pollock, can be described as psycho-biographical. Representations of artists as mad geniuses, separated from society and history, are largely conned to the West. In art history and popular media, practised in socialist countries, the emphasis was put on the very factors in the artists biographies, which were neglected by Western directorshistorical circumstances of their lives, such as their class position, the inuence of their teachers and mentors, as well as social, economic and political events, and the whole culture which surrounded them. In the seminal book on the topic of biography in the Soviet Union, Sovietskij biograczieskij lm (Soviet Biographical Film, 1949) written by Rostislav Yureniev, we nd such requirements towards directors of biopics as that the protagonist should be a great man and progressive activist, whose achievements the audience would like to imitate [7]. Yureniev also postulates that the main character in a biopic should be a typical representative of his epoch, nation and class, whose life is a true reection of the spirit of his time [8]. Furthermore, the screen biography should foreground the historical meaning of the work and life of the famous individual, and therefore its author should concentrate on their social dimension, at the expense of depicting of his/her private life [9]. Yureniev published his book at the time when socialist realism dominated the cinemas of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Later socialist realism was rejected and new paradigms dominated cinema in respective countries. However, I will argue that privileging the historical context of an artists life and the inuence of political, social and economic factors of his work remained the dominant model of biopic in countries such as the Soviet Union, Poland or Hungary. This approach can be termed historical [10]. Examples include the Polish lm Warszawska premiera (Warsaws Premiere, 1950), directed by Jan Rybkowski about Stanislaw Moniuszko (which will be discussed later), Czech Z meho zivota (From My Life, 1954), directed by Vaclav Krska about Bedrich Smetana, and Komitas (1988), directed by Armenian director Don Askarian. The last lm, about the eponymous great Armenian composer and singer (true name Soghomon Soghomonian), deals with an issue at the heart of the Western discourse on artists, the artists madness (Komitas spent the last 20 years of his life in mental institutions), but explains it by the historical circumstances of his lifetrauma caused by the 1915 genocide, when Turkey killed two million Armenians. In this group I would also place The Pianist (2002) by Roman Polanski about Polish Jewish pianist and composer Wladyslaw Szpilman, famous for his interpretation of Chopins music, as well as some of the most popular Polish songs of the 1950s and 1960s. I would argue that the world-wide recognition of this lm is largely the result of Polanskis decision to concentrate on Szpilman as a typical example of his epoch, nation and class. Obviously, each approach is no more than a model. In practice, Western art historians, as well as lm directors, were unable to neglect completely the historical context of the life of a painter or composer. Similarly, the socialist historians and lm directors could not reduce an artist to the sum of historical circumstances. Moreover, on both sides we nd lms which defy the norm, particularly those made by non-mainstream directors, such as Chronik der Anna Magdalena Bach (Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach, 1968), directed by Jean-Marie Straub, which situates Bachs life and music rmly in economic and social history, avoiding any sensationalist events. Accordingly, in my discussion of Chopin on screen I will be equally interested in those aspects of a lm which conform to a particular model of biography, as in those which oppose it.

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ChopinEternal Romantic Although it is always possible to shape ones biography in such a way that it suits a particular idea or message, it can be also argued that some lives are more suitable to psycho-biographic and some to historical approach. For example, artists who suffered a prolonged illness, especially of the sort, which was romanticised in history, such as tuberculosis or schizophrenia, and died young are ideal heroes of psycho-biographies [11]. Similarly, those whose beginnings were humble and who were uprooted, living far from their families and countries of birth, provide exemplary material for this type of biography. Another factor which is conducive to constructing a psycho-biopic is an artists unconventional or tragic love. Conversely, artists who were death dodgers, reaching old age in good mental and physical health, remained in monogamous relationships and literally and metaphorically stayed near their homes, are preferable choices for the historical approach. Obviously, the open involvement of an artist in any socio-political movements and political content of his/her work is also a bonus for those who want to treat their biographies as an historical phenomenon. Accordingly, Chopins life and music appears ideal material for the rst type of biography. Born in 1810 in Zelazowa Wola near Warsaw to a Polish mother and French father, who left his country to take the post of governor with a Polish aristocrat, all his life Fryderyk was regarded as frail and died of consumption at the age of only 39. Moreover, when he was 20 years old, he left his family and country of birth to settle in France, never to return to Poland, but always missing the country of his childhood. Although he gained recognition as a composer, pianist and pedagogue, he also went through periods of nancial insecurity, which were exacerbated by his apparent disinterest in matters other than music [12]. Chopins romantic life can also be read as a succession of unfullments and failures. His Polish loves for a young singer, Konstancja Gladkowska, and the daughter of an aristocrat, Maria Wodzinska, to whom he was engaged, were never consummated, cut short by Chopins emmigration. In France Chopin embarked on an affair with a famous French writer, George Sand (real name Amandine Aurore Lucile Dudevant) (18041876), who was six years older than he. Later he was also romantically involved with Sands daughter, Solange. The very fact of entering such an unusual love triangle gives Chopin an aura of mild perversity. Moreover, neither of these relationships was successful in the traditional sense, as he never married Sand and after eight years he parted from her. He also rejected Solanges love and she married another man. He never had any children and died in solitude. In popular consciousness Chopins music is regarded as very emotional, conveying feelings such as sadness, nostalgia or conversely extreme joy, even ecstasy. These qualities, as well as the fact that most of Chopins compositions were written for a single piano, construe both the performer and audience of his music as possessors of romantic nature: sad, dreamy, prone to changes of mood and slightly out of tune with ordinary life. Such a perception is strengthened by the way Chopins music is featured in other media [13]. In lms and novels love of Chopins music, particularly in the case of women, is evidence of being delicate and introverted. Also, in the recent television adaptation of The Forsyte Saga, on several occasions one of the female characters, Irene, is shown playing Chopinher love of his music being a sign of her yearning for a great, romantic love and her rejection of the values of the materialistic, rational Forsytes. The numerous popular representations of Chopin: paintings, sculptures, literary biographies strengthen these aforementioned perceptions. For example, in portraits Chopin is shown as a handsome, but sad man, immersed in his own thoughts. There

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is also a quality of fragility about his physique. His slender body and Roman nose render him as a man of aristocratic pedigree (although his true background, as was previously mentioned, was rather modest). On the whole, by looking unhappy and dreamy, dying young, childless and on foreign soil (foreign from the Polish perspective), he perfectly conforms to an ideal of romantic artist, at least in the commonplace or cliched sense of this word. We can regard him as a Van Gogh of the musical world. The majority of lmmakers also followed this stereotype, an epitome being Zulawskis The Blue Note about Chopins last visit to Sands estate of Nohant. In Zulawskis lm Chopin spits blood, often faints (therefore must be carried by servants or by a donkey), suffers delusions, is unpredictable in his behaviour and alienated from the wider world. Even his relationships with George Sand and Solange do not really matter to him from time to time he succumbs to their attention and affection, but even then he remains distant, impenetrable to any man or a woman, communicating only with his piano. The connections of Chopin with romanticism in a stricter sense, understood as a particular artistic style and a period in European history, are more complex. For example, Arthur Hedley, while acknowledging some romantic traits in his music, such as being inuenced by Polish landscape and folklore, nds in Chopins music a creative equlibrium, resulting from bringing together the classical concern for form and the romantic urge for inspiration [14]. Hendley also disputes the claim that Chopin had a romantic, dishevelled personality. In regard to young Chopin he writes: Enjoying the patronage of princes, he ran the risk of being snubbed (as sometimes happened to young Liszt), but this, so far as one knows, never happened, thank to Chopins early-developed sense of tact, his delicate perceptions of limits to be drawn and frontiers that might not be crossed. In these impressionable years were implanted that exquisite feeling for what is right, that reserved and perfectly correct attitude towards the outside world which were to become a fundamental and unalterable part of his character [15]. A similar opinion regarding the romanticism of Chopins music and personality can be also found in a book by Adam Zamoyski, appropriately entitled Chopin, powsciagliwy romantyk (Chopinreserved romantic). [16] It is also worth mentioning here that romanticism both as an artistic paradigm and as a style of living is perceived as a crucial aspect of Polish national culture. The greatest Polish writers, painters, musicians, even lmmakers, irrespective of when they lived, are classied as Romantics [17]. The numerous tragedies, aficting Poland, including over hundred years of non-existence as an independent state and many unsuccessful uprisings to regain sovereignty, resulted in the popular belief that Polish history and fate are essentially romantic. There is also a commonly held view that the Polish soul is romantic, which means that Poles are very emotional, irresponsible and reckless, as well as prone to nostalgia and sadness. It is unnecessary to decide which of these claims are justied, and which belong to national mythology. Being regarded as a model romantic makes Chopin a central gure in the discourse on Polish national culture, a quintessential Pole. Chopin as a Young Revolutionary: Mlodosc Chopina (The Youth of Chopin) The romantic legend surrounding Chopins persona and life is the measure of difculties encountered by any lmmaker who tries to depict Chopin according to an historical perspectiveas a child of his time, a man who was strongly inuenced by political events and attempted to shape the wider world around him. The immense

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challenge to represent Chopin this way was undertaken by Aleksander Ford (1908 1980), the rst Polish director, to make a lm about this composer, later renowned for his superproduction of Krzyzacy (The Teutonic Knights, 1960), based on a famous novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz of the same title. Ford, who began his career in the movies in 1929 and in the 1930s was a co-founder of a left-leaning society of lmmakers, called START, intended to make a lm about Chopin even before the Second World War, but then his dream did not materialise. Mlodosc Chopina (The Youth of Chopin, 1952) was not only made in a socialist country, when all lm production was nanced and controlled by the state, but at a time when socialist realism dominated Polish cinema. Polish lmmakers, in common with their counterparts in other countries of Eastern Europe, following the directives of Andriei Zhdanov, were expected to present reality not in an objective, scholastic way, but in its revolutionary development. Moreover, they were meant to concentrate on the characters enthusiastic for the socialist cause and in this way strengthen the cause of Communism [18]. In response to this demand a number of lms were made about people with revolutionary credentials, the best known example being Zolnierz zwyciestwa (Soldier of Victory, 1953) by Wanda Jakubowska about a famous (or infamous, as he is perceived today) Communist, Karol Swierczewski. In addition, biographies of some eminent people who normally would not be regarded as Communists or revolutionaries, especially artists, were re-modelled to adjust to the socialist realist paradigm. Particularly interesting from this perspective is the previously mentioned Warsaws Premiere (1951) by Jan Rybkowski about the composer Stanislaw Moniuszko (1819 1872). Moniuszko is represented here as a patriot and man of proto-Communist persuasion, in love with simple folk, as opposed to siding with the upper classes, and deeply inspired in his art by Polish folklore. In common with other biopics of this period, in Rybkowskis lm patriotism is almost equated with being of humble background and/or having left-wing views. The simple people are represented as true Poles, who create and cherish Polish culture, while the upper classes are portrayed as greedy and selsh traitors, more interested in foreign fashions than indigenous traditions. The success of Warsaws Premiere in attracting ordinary viewers and fullling the socialist realist ideal was a factor in the way The Youth of Chopin was made. However, the task of Ford was more difcult than Rybkowskis, not least for the fact than unlike Moniuszko who spent his whole life in Poland and held high positions on the Polish music scene, Chopin was a cosmopolitan, who lived most of his adult life abroad. To overcome this problem, the director decided to depict Chopin between the 15th and 21st years of his life, spent mainly in Poland, when his afnity to Polish culture and people could hardly be questioned. In common with Rybkowskis Moniuszko, Fords protagonist enjoys socialising with ordinary Polish people, such as domestic servants, peasants and factory workers, visiting their houses, taking part in folk weddings and other events where popular culture ourishes. He also shows sympathy to the misery of the Polish lower classes, exploited by the Polish aristocracy, the Russian Tzar and the Catholic Church. The Church is represented in a particularly bad light, as greedy and hostile towards the Polish ght for independence from Russia. Ford also demonstrates that Chopins music was deeply inuenced by the Polish landscape, which the young composer knew rst hand, wandering the elds near Warsaw and sometimes even getting lost in the Mazovian woods. Such a representation of Chopin on the one hand supports the dubious claim that Chopin was close to socialism (in reality he was indifferent to class politics) and on the other perfectly corresponds with the idea that the folklore and life of ordinary people was an important inspiration for romantic art.

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Further evidence of Chopins Polishness in Fords lm is his falling in love with a young woman from Warsaw, the singer Konstancja Gladkowska. The composer left his native land before their affair had any chance to blossom, but it is suggested in the lm that Chopin kept Konstancja in his memory during his emigration to Vienna and Paris, dreaming about her when ill. From the socialist realist perspective restricting the narrative to depicting Chopin only in his youth had several additional advantages. One of them was to demonstrate the effectiveness of education and indoctrination by showing how this young mans personality was inuenced, even transformed by various external factors, particularly his teachers (including the famous historian and university professor, Ignacy Lelewel), his school friends and the whole revolutionary atmosphere which was sensed in Warsaw in the late 1820s. Evidence of Chopins eagerness to absorb new, progressive ideas is the fact that he composes music as an immediate response to the political events in which he participates. Another advantage in concentrating on the Polish chapter of Chopins life is to use his experiences of this period as propaganda for Communist revolution and good PolishRussian relations. Chopins friends and fellow students dream about overthrowing the Tzar because it would result in liberating Poland as a republic, in which peasants would possess their own land, as opposed to serfdom which existed at the time and was favoured by the Polish aristocracy. Abolishing the Tzardom was also the aim of the Russian Decabrists and Ford goes to great lengths to emphasise on the one hand the similarity between Polish and Russian revolutionaries, and on the other the ideological gap between Chopins circle and Polish aristocrats who supported the status quo in Poland. Being aware that representing Chopin as a fully edged political radical, plotting to ght the Tzar with weapons would contravene the historical truth in an unacceptable way, Ford represents the artist as a loyal, but marginal member of political movement. His friends, perfectly aware of his unique musical talent and poor health, constantly urge him not to engage directly in the patriotic struggle. Consequently, Chopin serves the cause of the anti-Tzar uprising/pro-peasants revolution largely through his music. For example, when the young rebels organise a meeting to discuss the revolution, they ask him to play the piano in the adjoining room, so that their enemies would not hear their discussion, only the music. Ford also suggests that Chopins music, in another instance, inuenced peoples ideas and behaviour, even encouraging them to take part in the revolution, in this way conforming to the socialist realistic notion of the artist as an engineer of human souls. The idea of revolution, which principally refers to military struggle, in The Youth of Chopin is also applied to music. Chopin dreams about revolutionising music, as conveyed in an episode when he attends a concert in Warsaw by the famous Italian composer and violin virtuoso, Niccolo Paganini. Afterwards Chopin confesses that he wants to be like Paganini in reference to the piano by changing the way piano music is written and performed. Chopins musical revolution bears completely positive connotations and by osmosis instils good association with military revolution. Conversely, professors in the musical academy who are unfavourable towards Chopins musical innovations are also politially conservative, accepting Polands part in the Tzars empire. Ford also touches on Chopins life abroad, but he uses even this period to convey the artists patriotism and his commitment to the revolutionary cause. After leaving Poland Chopin goes to Vienna to further his musical career. There he learns about the outbreak of the November Uprising of 1830, when Poles, including many of his fellow

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Warsaw students marched against the Tzar and resulting in thousands of Poles being executed or exiled. Chopin did not take part in this tragic event, but Ford makes us believe that he not only wanted to, but attempted to return to Poland to ght alongside his friends. Unfortunately, bad weather and illness prevented his returnthe stagecoach, in which he travelled to Warsaw, was buried in snow and the coachman decided to return to Vienna. Chopin did not repeat his journey to Warsaw, but conned to bed and suffering high fever he imagined his friends ghting in the uprising in Warsaw against the Tzars army. The scenes are accompanied by Chopins music, which creates an impression that it motivated the insurrectionists. Thus in spite of being physically absent, in a metaphorical sense Chopin remained in his country during the uprising. Later we see Chopin playing one of his compositions inspired by the uprising at the large concert in Vienna. His elevated performance deeply moves his audience and the concert is transformed into a demonstration of solidarity by the inhabitants of Vienna for brave and suffering Poles. When Chopin moves to Paris, the bulk of his friends, exiled after the failure of the November Uprising, move there also. Virtually wherever he turns, he meets his compatriots. Similarly, the old discussion about how Poland should regain its independence from Russia and whose interests such independence would serve are now relocated from Warsaws salons to Paris. Chopin, of course, in common with his Polish friends, is on the progressive side. Their meetings strengthen the impression that the November Uprising was a war between the rich and the dispossessed, rather than between Poland and Russia. Relocating the lms action to Paris also allows the Polish struggle for independence to be situated more rmly in the context of international revolutionary movement. The Paris streets, as represented by Ford, are thronged with people singing about the brotherhood of workers and demonstrating in favour of the revolution. Chopin, together with fellow emigres, is shown joining the crowd of rebellious Parisians. In spite of emphasising the sponge-like personality of Chopin and rendering his art as a simple and immediate translation of his experiences into musical notes, there is also a touch of mystery to Chopins life and art in Fords lm. The principal reason for this is the choice of Czeslaw Wollejko for the main role. Wollejko, who resembles Chopin physically, having a Roman nose and slightly frail physique, specialised in the roles of aristocrats and eccentrics, who had difculties in coping with day to day existence, and with an aura of nonchalance and nostalgia about them. Likewise, in The Youth of Chopin his sad eyes, dreamy face and relatively short stature set him apart from the bulk of his friends, who are all masculine, well-built men of action. There is also a difference between his voice and manner of speaking, and that of the rest of the lms cast, betraying the sensitive nature of his character. Arthur Hedleys description of Chopin as a young man with the air of high breeding and graceful cough suits Wollejkos Chopin perfectly. It could be argued that thanks to Wollejkos creation, one can detect a touch of psycho-biography in Fords lm. Another factor complicating the overall historical approach to Chopins biography is his music, recorded for the lm by some of the best Polish players and singers, including Halina Czerny-Stefanska, Wanda Wilkomirska and Stefania Woytowicz. In its complexity and variety, often lyrical or mischievous tone, it undermines the central idea, conveyed through the narrative of Fords lm, that Chopin used music as a simple vehicle to illustrate the events in which he participated. By means of mise-en-scene, Ford also, perhaps unintentionally, invokes nostalgia for the ` Polish aristocratic and military culture. We are made to admire the style and beauty of

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the aristocratic palaces, visited by Chopin and his friends, as well as their elegant costumes and impeccable manners. Needless to add that such an elegance (condemned in the ofcial political discourse as decadent) poignantly contrasts with the socialist culture of the time Fords lm was made. Moreover, as Konrad Nalecki and Andrzej Wajda (the same who several years later would free Polish cinema from the constraints of socialist realism) observed in 1952, Ford makes reference to several different traditions in Polish painting, including bourgeois sentimentalism (particularly in the love scenes), paintings of battle scenes of Artur Grottger and folk pictures of Aleksander Kotsis and Jozef Chelmonski [19]. On the whole, The Youth of Chopin comes across as a lm fullling many apparently irreconcilable objectives: showing Chopin as a man whose biography and personality reected the conicts of his times, but also a musical genius, whose talent was a mystery to his peers, promoting patriotism and internationalism, advocating Communism and invoking nostalgia for bygone days, when some people were gentlemen and ladies, rather than all being comrades. As a consequence, the lm appealed to different types of audiences, including the nationalists and patriots for whom Chopin epitomised Polish romanticism. As time passed, however, Polish critics tend to notice only socialist realistic aspects of Fords biopic at the expense of the features which undermined or questioned them. Nowadays The Youth of Chopin is regarded as a model example of the socialist realist school [20]. In my opinion, however, it is a perfect example of how the boundaries of this paradigm could be stretched to accomodate other messages and subtexts, even conicting with the ideology, created by Alexander Zhdanov and Rostislav Yureniev [21]. Chopin as Unconvincing Patriot and Infantile Lover The most recent lm about Chopin made in Poland is Chopinpragnienie milosci (ChopinDesire of Love, 2002), directed by Jerzy Antczak. The director, who is also the co-author of the script (the second scriptwriter is Antczaks wife, Jadwiga Baranska), prided himself for making the lm most faithful to Chopins life. In Antczaks own words, he and Baranska not only went through Chopins biographies, but also numerous documents from his past [22]. ChopinDesire of Love is also more ambitious than its predecessors in covering the artists life: from his teenage years until his death or even, so to speak, beyond his grave. I refer here to the last scene of the lm, in which Chopins sister brings his heart from France to Poland, to be buried in his native country. Moreover, in common with Ford, Antczak made an attempt to depict Chopins life against the broad backdrop of political, social and cultural events in Poland and France. In this way a biopic, as with The Youth of Chopin, is combined with an epic. It was believed that Antczaks cinematic experiences made him a very suitable choice for directing this type of lm. He is well known and respected for screen adaptations of Polish literary classics of large budget and high production values, including one of the best epics in the history of Polish cinema: Noce i dnie (Nights and Days, 1975), based on the novel by Maria Dabrowska (with Jadwiga Baranska in the main part) about an impoverished gentry couple, set against the backdrop of the political changes which took place between the 1860s and the beginning of the First World War. The artistry of Nights and Days lies primarily in the authors ability to reveal the complex relationship between individual lives and the wider culture. The main couple, Bogumil and Barbara Niechcicowie, on the one hand are the victims of the tragic fate of their

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country, while on the other they attempt to create their own fate and shape the history of their country. In 1980 Antczak immigrated to the USA hoping to make a career in Hollywood, but was unsuccessful and in the early 1990s he returned to Poland to resume his career. ChopinDesire of Love is his rst lm after an eight year break. Its production was accompanied by a signicant media hype: the critics expected a lm which would combine the national aspect of Chopins life with his private existence at least as successfully as Antczak did with Bogumil and Barbaras lives in Night and Days. It is more difcult to place ChopinDesire of Love in the context of Polish cinema of its time than it was in the case of The Youth of Chopin. The cinema in postcommunist Poland is not governed by any set of rules imposed by the political authorities, and it is even difcult to discern after 1989 any dominant schools or paradigms. Having said it, however, I will argue that in its style and ideological approach ChopinDesire of Love is close to several literary adaptations made at the end of the 1990s and the beginning of the next decade, such as Ogniem i mieczem (With Fire and Sword, 1999), directed by Jerzy Hoffman, and Pan Tadeusz (1999), directed by Andrzej Wajda, which can be described as a heritage cycle [23]. They all have a classic, epic style, resulting in faithfulness to chronology and above-average length and their setting is a rural idyll. Furthermore, they are made from a nationalistic perspective, pronouncing love of ones country as the highest duty of each Pole, and suggesting that those who do not feel attached to their motherland are unhappy or emotionally impoverished. Nationalism is also conveyed and encouraged by nostalgia either for the times when Poland was politically strong and feared by its neighbours, and/or when its culture ourished. They are addressed largely to young people who through cinema are meant to learn about the history of their country. In all cases, there was hope that schools organising trips of pupils to cinema to see such lms will assure their box ofce success. Although unlike the aforementioned lms, Antczaks biopic is not a literary adaptation, in common with them it has a literary, epic style and prides itself on possessing high production values, being attentive to recreating details of setting and costume. Moreover, it plays a part in the current debate about nation and nationalism due to the fact that Chopins music is one of the most precious jewels in Polish cultural heritage distinctively Polish and at the same time admired by foreigners. Furthermore, in common with its predecessors in the heritage cycle, ChopinDesire of Love was meant to ll the cinema with young viewers, eager to learn about their national heritage. The reasons for the upsurge in the number of heritage lms in recent years are complex. In order to present them one has to touch upon a multitude of factors, such as Polish cinematic traditions, the way Polish lms are nanced and distributed and the power of lm veterans within the Polish lm industry and their personal ambitions [24]. However, one of the most important is the perception of a crisis in national identity and culture which occured after the collapse of the Communism. In the opinion of lmmakers, such as Hoffman and Wajda, the road to the renewal of Polish culture is through remembering, recreating and celebrating the nations past [25]. By making a lm about Chopin as the greatest Polish composer, Antczak openly subscribed to the same political agenda as Hoffman and even more as Wajda, who in his adaptation of the work of the national Polish poet, Adam Mickiewicz, Pan Tadeusz, also features Mickiewicz as one of the characters in the movie, representing him as a suffering exile. Yet, unlike Wajda, Antczak wanted to enrich his patriotic agenda by depicting a private aspect of Chopins lifehis love for George Sand, as well as detailing Chopins musical career and conveying his genius. Such an ambition can be partly attributed to Antczaks desire to make a denitive and total biography of Chopin

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and partly to his tacit expectation that while the patriotic side of Chopins life will attract schools, the melodramatic will bring individual viewers to the cinemas. Although it is not impossible to be a brilliant artist, passionate lover and a devoted patriot, it is equally true that there is a tension, if not an overt conict between those various roles and loyalties. Consequently, representing somebody in all these roles poses a major challenge for a lmmaker, who risks being supercial and psychologically unconvincing. Discovering whether Antczak did rise to this challege is one of my objectives in this section of my article. Chopins patriotism, which at this moment in Polish history almost equated with hatred of Polands occupiers, particularly Russia, is already demonstrated in the rst episode of Antczaks lm. The teenage Fryderyk is woken at night and requested to go immediately to see the Great Prince Konstanty, the Tzars deputy governing the Polish part of the Russian empire. The young musician is very reluctant to accede to this demand, but in the end agrees, persuaded by his father that fullling Konstantys desire would ensure that he gives Fryderyk a scholarship to Paris. The ruler, who is represented as emotionally unbalanced, even mad, asks Chopin to play some marches with him on the piano and their playing on four hands soothes Konstanty. Later we see Konstanty publicly sentencing Polish anti-Tzar conspirators to exile in Siberia. This event is witnessed by the inhabitants of Warsaw, including the Chopins, precipidating Fryderyks decision not to serve Konstanty any more, even if it means losing the chance of a scholarship abroad. Nevertheless, Fryderyk soon goes to Paris with money, which was meant to be his sisters dowry. The year of his emmigration is 1830, which is also the year of the outbreak of the November Uprising. To avoid the impression that Chopins decision to leave Poland resulted from his indifference towards the fate of his country (which was also a concern of Aleksander Ford in The Youth of Chopin), Antczak provides some justications as to why he did not participate in the uprising. When Chopin condes to his friends that perhaps he should remain in Poland to ght the Tzar, they tell him that he would do more good for the Polish struggle for independence playing in the Paris salons and they point out that his poor health makes him unsuitable as an insurrectionist. Both of these reasons were also given by Ford, but The Youth of Chopin also included a scene when sick Fryderyk actually leaves Vienna for Warsaw to take part in the uprising. Such an episode might contradict historical truth, but it prevented the viewers from thinking that Chopin was only a declarative patriot who in reality preferred a comfortable life abroad. Following Chopins emigration to Paris, representing the artists apparent patriotism constitutes for Antczak even a greater problem. As previously mentioned, in his lm Ford overcame this difculty by representing Paris as a little Poland, full of exiled Polish revolutionaries, intellectuals and artists, who stuck together and did not abandon their dream of an independent Poland. This society was depicted as Chopins sole social milieu. By contrast, in Antczaks lm there are very few Poles in Paris and they do not constitute any distinctive community. Accordingly, we get the impression that in this city Chopin cannot lead a life similar to that in Warsaw. Neither does he seek any exiled friends in Paris. If he meets any Poles it is because they approach him or are even sent to him from Poland. Instead he happily sinks into Parisian high society, then succumbs to charms of George Sand and her entourage. Most of the time we see him accompanied only by Sand and her children, rst in Majorca, where the couple moved, seeking a better climate for the frail composer and avoiding the prying eyes of Parisians, regarding their affair as scandalous, then to Sands estate in Nohant. In order to maintain Chopins patriotic credentials, Antczak decides to place Poland

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at the centre of the artists inner life. He shows that many of Chopins experiences in France and Majorca were connected in his mind with his memories of Poland. For example, plants and birds which he sees in Nohant remind him of those which he saw in Mazovia. Conversely, experiences which are very different from those of his childhood are also associated with the Polish period because of their very difference. On such occasions Antczaks character reminisces nostalgically on his idyllic, Polish past and complains about the lack of anything which was very precious to him when he was younger. This refers particularly to sensual experiences, such as images, sounds, smells. His Polish mother, Justyna, who is depicted both as a devoted parent and as a Polish patriot (she knows many Polish songs and hates the Tzarist oppressors), also plays a very prominent part in Fryderyks memories. By contrast, his French father, although he remained in Poland after his sons emigration, does not feature in his memories at all. Another means to demonstrate that deep in his heart Chopin remained a Pole are frequent extra-diegetic images of an archetypal Polish landscape with willows and storks. Such images accompany Chopins polonaises and mazurkas, which are most strongly associated with Poland. Similarly, on the rare occasions when Chopin has direct contact with Polish culture, it immediately inspires him to write music which is very Polish in character. An example is the scene when his Polish servant plays some (folk) music on his violin and almost at this very moment Chopin composes a mazurka. Conversely, experiences of living in France or on Majorca are on no occasion translated into music in Antczaks lm. These ways of demonstrating Chopins love of Poland are easy to comprehend, which is an advantage in the light of the fact that the lm is addressed largely to young viewers. At the same time they strike as banal and old-fashioned, both in terms of representing Polishness and an artists mind. Polish reviewers of the lm complained at the excessive number of storks and willows featured in Antczaks lm and the cliched character of their images, used on numerous occasions before in connection with Chopin [26]. For example, a willow features in the best known monument of Chopin, which stands in Lazienki Park in Warsaw, often described as the most famous piece of kitsch in Poland. Similarly, storks and willows were used many times in the publicity material for Chopin Festivals. Moreover, they featured prominently (and were an object of reviewers criticism) in the earlier Polish heritage lm, Wajdas Pan Tadeusz. Paradoxically, in playing on stereotypes of Polish culture, Antczak does not testify to the richness of Polish natural and cultural heritage, but on the contrary, to its poverty. The idea that the artistic process consists of reproducing sensations and memories was also conveyed in The Youth of Chopin. The difference is that in Fords lm Chopins music was typically an illustration of political events, such as protests, marches and revolutions, while in Antczaks biopic it depicts Chopins private experiences. Another difference between Ford and Antczaks rendering of Chopins music lies in that the latter chose for his lms only the best known Chopins compositions, as if he was anxious not to challenge the viewers taste and their perception of Chopins ouvre. The overall result conrms the Polishness of Chopins art, but again renders it as cliched and perhaps even questions Chopins inventiveness. As previously mentioned, the story of Chopin the patriot, serving his country by writing Polish music, is intertwinned in Antczaks lm with the story of Chopin the lover. In this respect his lm follows the long tradition of Chopins biopics; examples are La valse de ladieu (Farewell Waltz, 1927) by Henry Russel, A Song to Remember (1944) by Charles Vidor and Impromptu (1991) by James Lapine, which also concen-

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trated on Chopins love life, typically depicting his affair with George Sand. As was previously mentioned, Sand was six years older than Chopin, and when they met she already had two children from her previous marriage and a reputation as a liberated woman who changes her lovers as often as her gloves. Antczak, however, with the exception of the rst scene with Sand, when we see her wearing male costume and smoking a cigar, challenges this view. Instead, he represents her as a devoted mother and betrayed wife who was looking for love outside marriage out of desperation, not out of lust. When Sand met Chopin, her maternal instinct was directed also to him. Their rst true encounter took place when she looked after Chopin when he was ill and he reciprocated her affection largely out of gratitude. At this stage their relationship was purely platonic. Although it later acquired a sexual dimension, still, according to Antczak, the main role Sand played in the artists love was that of carer and guardian. For example, when the couple moved to Majorca, accompanied by Sands children, Maurice and Solange, Sand took sole responsibility for nding and maintaining a house for them. She cooked for the whole family, washed clothes, tended the leaking roof and was so tired with domestic labour that she showed no interest in lovemaking. She also started to call Fryderyk Malenki (My Little) which further accentuated her maternal attitude to her lover. Chopin made no effort to help Sand, either physically, or mentally, in supporting her efforts to keep the whole family happy. On the contrary, he succumbed to the role of Sands adopted child, becoming capricious and demanding. He even used his illness and his talent as an excuse to always be dissatised and indifferent to others. In due course the focus of the lm moves from the relationship between Chopin and George Sand to the competition between Chopin and Sands son, Maurice, for her heart. Although this contest is initiated by Maurice, who refuses to accept that he is not the only man in his mothers life, it is encouraged and bolstered by Fryderyk, who wants the same things from George which her son demands. In this way he demonstrates his immaturity and inability or unwillingness to differentiate the role of a lover from that of a son. It is excellently portrayed in an almost humorous scene set during a lunch in Nohant, in which Maurice and Fryderyk both expect her to give them their favourite part of a roasted chickenits breast. However, as there is not enough chicken breast for everyone at the table, only Maurice receives it, causing in Chopin an outburst of hysteria. He accuses Sand of a deliberate attempt to humiliate him and soon he leaves her house mortally offended. Furthermore, it appears that the conict between Fryderyk and Maurice is the ultimate reason why Chopin and Sand part forever. Interestingly, the relationship between Chopin and Sands daughter Solange plays only a minor role in the deterioration of the relationship between George and Fryderyk. It appears as if Sand disapproves of a possible affair between Chopin and Solange not because she is jealous of her lover, but because she is worried that it can emotionally damage her daughter. Sands taking the role of surrogate mother of Chopin and the gap in their maturity is strengthened by the difference in age between the actors playing respective parts, which is almost twice as large as between the real Fryderyk and Aurora. Danuta Stenka (b. 1961), who plays Sand, is 11 years older than Piotr Adamczyk (b. 1972), who is cast as Chopin in ChopinDesire of Love. Moreover, in Antczaks lm Sand is often juxtaposed with Chopins real mother, Justyna Chopin, which adds to the impression that the artist treated Sand as a substitute of his mother, rather than a lover. If we are to believe Arthur Hedley, who writes that Chopin undoubtedly had the art of getting his own way, and one can observe in his intimate relationships some of that curious

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tyranny of the weak over the strong which has puzzled philosophers and psychologists [27], then we must regard Antczaks rendering of Chopins character as close to reality. However, at the same time it undermines the legend of the artist as a noble patriot which Antczak also tries to preserve. The overall result is a lm, which is inconsistent and broken in the middle. By portraying Sand as a maternal gure, rather than as a passionate lover, Antczak polonised her. In her bottomless devotion, selessless, patience, strength, practical sense and sexlessness, as well as in her lack of interest for the high life, led in the salons of Paris, Sand is reminiscent of the gure of the Polish mother. This model was introduced in the 19th century and soon became the dominant model of femininity in Poland. Evidence of that is the fact that we nd incarnations of the Polish mother in numerous later historical and artistic representations of women, including lms, made after the Second World War. The Polish mother was born following the partitions between Prussia, Russia and Austria, when Poland ceased to exist as a separate state. At the time men took part in the ght for independence and women became head of the family, as well as breadwinners. The Polish mother is a gure of signicant authority and she is an entirely positive character, yet it belongs rmly to patriarchal discourse, constraining Polish womens subjectivity and denying them sexual desires [28]. Likewise, Antczaks representation of Sand as the Polish mother and his overall emphasis on the role of mother in the mans life can be regarded as evidence of the strength of patriarchal discourse in Polish postcommunist cinema. Such a polonisation of Sand helps to situate Antczaks lm more rmly in the nationalistic and patriarchal, heritage paradigm. However, unlike the majority of lms, made after 1989, including the adaptations of literary classics, patriarchy in this case does not equate with misogyny. Against the backdrop of a plethora of lms which casts women as dangerous witches and selsh bitches, and in the best case silly girls, ChopinDesire of Love is one of the most pro-women lms made in Poland in this period. When discussing The Youth of Chopin, I mentioned that casting worked against the socialist realist paradigm, to which Fords lm was meant to conform. In particular, the romantic personality of Czeslaw Wollejko counteracted the idea that young Chopin was like a sponge, eagerly absorbing all external inuences. In Antczaks version, the casting also works against the ideological framework of the lm, albeit for different reasons and with different consequences. Adamczyks Chopin is devoid of charisma: it is difcult to believe either in his musical talent or in his romantic charm. Moreover, the fact that the actor is of rather strong physique and round face makes his character a rather unlikely sufferer of consumption. Consequently, we regard him as an ureasonable, capricious child, rather than a man who loses his mind due to physical and mental suffering. When I was watching ChopinDesire of Love in a cinema in Warsaw, where the audience was made up almost entirely of secondary school students, his appearances, particularly in the second part of the lm, were greeted with malicious comments from the viewers, which conveyed, albeit in a less polite way, the opinion that Chopin is immature and spoilt. George Sand played by Danuta Stenka, on the other hand, has intelligence, beauty and glamour, making Sand one of the most formidable female characters in Polish post-Communist cinema. Maybe aware of the difference in the artistic ability between the two main actors, the director gradually moves his interest from Chopin to Sand. In the second part of the lm, when the action moves rst to Majorca and later to Nohant and Paris, she becomes the main heroine of the story, while Chopin metaphorically withers and turns pale. Polish critics even argued that the importance of George Sand should be recognised in the title of the lm [29].

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By removing Chopin to a secondary position in the lm and infantilising him, Antczak, perhaps unintentionally, contests the ethos of Polish heritage cinema, which casts men in the principal roles and glories macho masculinity. More importantly, from the perspective applied in this paper, it belittles a man treated as a Polish national hero. Paradoxically, from two lms about Chopin made in Polandone in the dark ages of Communism, another in Peoples Polandthe rst was more faithful to the popular legend of Chopin. As for their faithfulness to historical truth, both strike as biased, albeit in different ways, the rst by putting too much emphasis on the external, socio-political factors shaping Chopins life, the second by representing adult Chopin as immature and totally dependent on his lover. Polish critics, disappointed with Antczaks version of Chopins biography, called for a more faithful lm about Chopin, a lm which would depict his life truthfully and explain his greatness as a composer [30]. It will be increasingly difcult to make such a lm in Poland and not only because all biographies are inevitably partial, but also because of the importance of Chopin in Polish culture, which a large section of Polish audience expects to be acknowledged in lm. Directors should use the topic of the life of Chopin (or, for that matter, of any famous artist or person of importance in national culture) as an opportunity to investigate Polish history and nd new idioms with which to discuss Polands past. Uncritical celebration of Polish history and locking it into a handful of cliches does not demonstrate the richness of the culture of this country.

Correspondence: Ewa Mazierska, Department of Historical Studies, University of Central Lancashire, Preston PR1 2HE, UK. E-mail: jelonek@lesie.fsnet.co.uk

NOTES
[1] To stress that Chopin in this paper will be discussed as a character in Polish lms, I will use the Polish version of his nameFryderyk. [2] See Hanna Milewska, Adam Wyzynski, Chopin na ekranie, Kino (March 2002), p. 13. [3] Ibid., pp. 1316. [4] Griselda Pollock, Artists mythologies and media genius, madness and art history, Screen, 21, (1980), p. 62. [5] Ibid., p. 65. [6] John A. Walker, Art and Artists on Screen (Manchester, 1993), p. 16. [7] Quoted in Jerzy Toeplitz, Mlodosc Chopina, Kwartalnik Filmowy, 5/6 (1952), p. 118. [8] Ibid., p. 118. [9] Ibid., p. 118. It could be argued that some of the requirements are incompatible, for example, being great and being a typical representative of his class and nation. [10] Persuasive criticism of psycho-biography and an apology of a mature, complex historical approach to an artists life are found in two articles by a veteran of Polish lm criticism, Zygmunt Kaluzynski: Muzycy bez muzyki, Video Club, 12 (1996), pp. 4041 and Kizior, Beethoven i Chopin suchotnik, Polityka, 18 (2002), pp. 5556. [11] See Susan Sontag, Illness as Metaphor (London, 1979). [12] Compare Arthur Hedley, Chopin: the man, in Alan Walker (ed.), Frederic Chopin: Proles of the man and the musician (London, 1966). [13] There are over a hundred lms with Chopins music used in the soundtrack. Source: Polish Film Archive. [14] Hedley, op. cit., p. 8. [15] Ibid., p. 6. [16] Adam Zamoyski, Chopin, powsciagliwy romantyk (Krakow, 2002). [17] A perfect case in point is the director Andrzej Wajda, regarded as the main representative of romanticism in Polish cinema.

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[18] See Andriej Zdanow, Przemowienie na Pierwszym Wszechzwiazkowym Zjezdzie Pisarzy Radzieckich (17 sierpnia 1934), in his Przemowienia o literaturze i sztuce (Warszawa, 1954). [19] Konrad Nalecki and Andrzej Wajda, O wykorzystaniu tradycji malarstwa w sztuce lmowej. Na przykladzie lmu Milosc Chopina, Nowa Kultura, 30 (1952), p. 26. [20] See Wieslaw Chelmniak, Pragnienie mdlosci, Wprost (10 March 2002), p. 111; Hanna Milewska, Adam Wyzynski, op. cit., pp. 1415. [21] In this respect The Youth of Chopin is an achievement comparable with Fords The Teutonic Knights. [22] See Jacek Marczynski, Lodowaty spokoj aniola, Rzeczpospolita (28 February 2002), p. SA11; Liliana Snieg-Czaplewska, Romantyczna goraczka, Viva, 6 (2002), p. 30. [23] See Ewa Mazierska, In the land of noble knights and mute princesses: Polish heritage cinema, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 21 (2001), pp. 167182. [24] Some of the reasons are discussed in greater detail in Ewa Mazierska, op. cit. [25] Such an opinion can be regarded as evidence that Poles prefer to live out their national identity by means of some surrogate. Such an approach to national identity, in my opinion, could be understood and excused in times when Poland did not exist as an independent state, but at present it largely signies the artists conservatism and inability to come to terms with reality. [26] See Zbigniew Pietrasik, Pan Chopinowski, Polityka, 9 (2002), Wieslaw Chelmniak, op. cit., pp. 110111. [27] Hedley, op. cit., p. 7. [28] Compare Elzbieta Ostrowska, Filmic representations of the Polish mother in post-Second World War Polish cinema, The European Journal of Womens Studies, 5 (1998), pp. 419435. [29] See Bozena Janicka, Chopinpragnienie milosci, Film, 3 (2002), p. 48. [30] See Zbigniew Pietrasik, Pan Chopinowski, Polityka, 9 (2002), Wieslaw Chelmniak, op. cit., pp. 110111, Andrzej Kolodynski, op. cit., p. 38.

Ewa Mazierska is Senior Lecturer in Film and Media Studies, University of Central Laucashire. Her article In the land of noble knights and mute princesses: Polish heritage cinema appeared in the HJFRT, 21 (2001), pp. 167182.