The Polish
doco for the
BFI’s Century
of Cinema disti
nguishes itself
from all t
he others in
the series
by being the
only one
not to have any
film c
ritics,
academic
s, directors,
etc prov
iding a com
mentary. I
nstead it tak
es the refr
eshing route
of havi
ng ordin
ary peop
le of all ag
es talkin
g about w
hat’s speci
al to t
hem about
movies –
so we get s
ome old fo
lks descr
ibing their
first trip
to the cinema
when a lot of
people didn’
t even know wh
at a fil
m was, mem
ories of wha
t it was
like to go to
the movies as
childre
n, teena
gers, and ad
ults befor
e, during,
and after
WWII, and esp
ecially
the key scene
s from films
that have ma
de lasting i
mpression
s upon them
(not unexpec
tedly, Wajda
’s KANAL
strikes a nerv
e), which ar
e shown in acc
ompaniment
, so that it b
ecomes the in
terviewees who
ultimately
decide what’s
shown in the d
oco. This
kind of stuff
is what
the ‘100 Y
ears of
Cinema’
celebratio
n is really abo
ut.The Poli
sh doco f
or the BFI
’s Century of C
inema di
stinguish
es itself fr
om all the othe
rs in the ser
i