What happens to sensitives and momma’s boys from a good home when they watch war with their sharp, ten-year-old eyes? They grow up to be tough cynics.
In 1958, shortly after receiving the Publishers’ Prize, Hłasko, then aged 24, gave the following interview to Polish Radio:
„Madam, a man is born without his will, then lives without pleasure, dies without his will. Is this such a cheerful story, I don’t know? (…) I’m not a cynic, (…) it’s life.”
If it turns out badly we will get not only a couple of films, but also a TV series about Hłasko.
One might cite, for example, Hłasko 1670. A bit of costumes, a bit of disguise, a lot of issues to the camera, straight to the eye, some cinematic dialogue „just like from Hłasko”.
The subtly glinting cynicism on the screen represents a highly lucrative business strategy in the context of film projection.
It is possible that the outcome will not be as unfavourable as anticipated. It is conceivable that Andrzej Titkow (author of the 1986 film Beautiful Twenty-Something, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Es1DnbGvvJo) may succeed in making a fourth film based on Hłaska’s Sowa, córka piekarza (The Owl, the Baker’s Daughter), which he considers the least successful of Hłaska’s novels.
In a discussion with Tadeusz Sobolewski, Titkow articulated his approach to filmmaking:
“My ideal is direct action. There are films created from an external perspective, where the director and camera maintain a distance from the subject matter, presenting it in a detached manner. My approach is to work (…) from the inside out.” (Interview with Tadeusz Sobolewski, “Kino”, 2 March 1993).
Cynicism recommends approaching at most a stick distance to anything in this world.
In a cynical sense, there are more pressing matters to attend to. Contemporary cynicism is aesthetically displeasing, but in moderation it is conducive to relaxation, is beneficial to one’s health, is popular with filmmakers, and will doubtless be celebrated on an appropriate occasion. However, there is a hope that it will eventually undergo a reversal.























































































































































































































