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Cinéma & Cie. Film and Media Studies Journal
Ph.D. Thesis Abstract - The Transition from Silent to Sound Film in Poland
Text.Serial.Journal
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Projects & Abstracts
2003-10-01
2022-12-03
2003-10-01
2024-02-14
Cinéma & Cie
Sheila Skaff
2003/10/01
University of Michigan–Ann Arbor 
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Ph.D. Thesis Abstract - The Transition from Silent to Sound Film in Poland
https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/cinemaetcie/article/download/19239/17081
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THE TRANSITION FROM SILENT TO SOUND FILM IN POLAND
Sheila Skaff / Ph.D. Thesis Project
University of Michigan




   In my dissertation I study the transition from silent to sound film, including the pre-
conditions and aftermath, that occurred in Poland in 1929 and 1930. I argue that in the
transition the language chosen for scripting and producing films contributed to the
widening cultural divide between majority and minority groups in Poland. I contend
that in the 1930’s film ceased to present the possibility of national unity or universal,
non-language-based understanding and came to be acknowledged as an international,
but language-specific cultural product. As it became a necessity, the act of choosing a
language for film production began to carry cultural, psychological and social conse-
quences for the minority and majority national groups in the country. From this point
it is possible to speak not of film culture as it existed in the years of silent cinema, but
of multiple film cultures. I develop my argument through analysis of the changes in
production, exhibition, and theoretical writing brought about by the transition.
   The introduction to my dissertation serves two purposes. First, it offers a brief
overview of Polish history in the first four decades of the 20th century. I describe the
conditions relevant to the emergence of cinema: the Russian, Prussian and Austro-
Hungarian Empires that divided the formerly Polish lands and the reinstitution of the
Polish state after the First World War. I then provide a summary of the main political
and cultural events of the twenty-year period of political independence and analyze the
impact of these events, including the economic depression, political transformation,
rising tension between majority and minority groups, and the expansion of creative
output in the fields of Polish and Yiddish literature, print media and literary theory on
the film industry. Second, I trace the transition from silent to sound film in several dif-
ferent countries in order to situate the film industry in Poland. I consider the motiva-
tions, practical difficulties and successes experienced by national film industries of var-
ious sizes and in various stages of development, noting the contending desires for tech-
nological advancement and economic growth that the holders of the patent rights in
sound film equipment attempted to reconcile in their foreign markets.
   This dissertation aims to be the only extensive English-language history of Polish and
Yiddish filmmaking and exhibition in Poland between 1896 and 1939. The first chapter
chronicles the history of film production from 1896 to 1939. I provide descriptions of
the major films of each period and biographies of the major filmmakers. I examine the
people and events of each period: the beginnings of film production, attempts at invent-
ing equipment and the first narrative films in 1896-1914; documentary production dur-
ing the First World War; the foundation of a national film industry in the newly inde-
pendent country and the “golden age” of silent cinema in 1918-1929; the transition to
sound film; the consolidation and commercialization of the film industry in 1930-1935;

­122                                                            CINEMA & Cie, no. 3, Fall 2003
                                                                  THE TRANSITION FROM SILENT

and the blossoming of Yiddish cinema, after a seven-year lapse in production, in 1936-
1939. I provide an in-depth examination of the situation surrounding the production of
the films that marked the transition to sound in 1929 and 1930, including the import of
new equipment and the acquisition of skills. I look at foreign investment and initia-
tives to create films simultaneously in several languages. I examine how the demands
of investors, which began to include cinema owners and people outside of the industry,
increased as a result of drastically rising production costs after the transition. I analyze
the most well-received films as well as student movements to reject the emerging sys-
tem in support of avant-garde, “artistic” and “socially constructive” films. Through an
analysis of the process of acclimation to the new technology, I argue for the attachment
of great significance to the differences in film production in Poland before, during and
after the transition.
   The second chapter takes up selected writings from the period between 1927 and
1933. Drawing entirely from original sources, I analyze the changes in theorizing about
film with regard to the relationship between word and image just before and during the
transition. I study the writings of theorists, critics and other intellectuals on the differ-
ences between silent and sound film. I study the meaning assigned by writers in Poland
to film language. I analyze their repeated requests for film to serve as a universal lan-
guage in connection with related linguistic movements, such as Esperanto, that flour-
ished in Poland at this time. I argue that these theories and movements relied on the
filmic image as silent and therefore were displaced in the transition to sound. During
the transition a new understanding emerged with regard to the communicative prop-
erties of the medium that questioned the desire for non-language-based communica-
tion. This new understanding produced a significant change in the possibilities and
perception of film in Poland.
   The third chapter chronicles the history of film exhibition from 1896 to 1939. I trace
the evolution of cinema from the travelling exhibitors at the turn of the century to the
elaborate supercinemas of the 1930’s. I describe the growth of distribution companies
and the effects of the government’s fiscal priorities and censorship policies on film dis-
tributors, cinema owners and audiences. I compare the exhibition of imported films
with the exhibition of domestic films and describe the traditions surrounding the
practices of intertitles, subtitles and dubbing. I examine the situation of motion pic-
ture theaters before, during and after the transition in order to demonstrate the impact
of the transition on film-going practices. I describe the changes in social behavior that
accompanied the transition, specifically with regard to the division of motion picture
theaters into Polish-only and Yiddish-only that occurred as films began to speak to one
language group exclusively. I analyze the role of cinema in the country’s social struc-
ture and the reaction of audiences to its transformations. I argue that the transition
from silent to sound film in Poland in effect increased the segregation of the country’s
majority and minority groups and ensured the complete separation of cinemas into
Polish and Yiddish.
   Based on my study of these four decades of cinema history, I contend that the impor-
tation of sound film technology had a broad and lasting effect on culture in Poland
before the Second World War.




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