Third Polish Cinema

(Trzecie Kino Polskie)

   The term "Third Polish Cinema" was coined by some Polish critics in the mid-1960s to stress another generational change occurring in Polish cinema. For them, "the third generation" consisted of filmmakers raised, sometimes even born, in postwar Poland, whose political initiation was not the war and its aftermath, but rather the events of the Polish October (1956) and the Władysław Gomułka years of "small stabilization" (1960s). After the "first generation"—the postwar generation represented by, among others, Wanda Jakubowska and Aleksander Ford—and the Polish School (second) generation, the late 1960s marked the emergence of filmmakers for whom philosophical reflections on culture rather than national history and politics were of prime importance. These were filmmakers preoccupied with reality, sceptical about the world, suspicious of the national romantic tradition, and interested in personal cinema. Although used extensively, the term "Third Polish Cinema" has little explanatory power. It covers disparate film poetics and distinct directorial personalities, such as Jerzy Skolimowski, Krzysztof Zanussi, Edward Żebrowski, Janusz Majewski, Grzegorz Królikiewicz, Witold Leszczyński, and several others.

   Historical Dictionary of Polish Cinema by Marek Haltof