Directed by: Kazimierz Karabasz
In the second half of the 1950s, a new generation of cineastes from the Łódź-based Polish Film School rose to prominence thanks to so-called ‘Black Series’ of short documentary films from from the WFD studio in Warsaw. With vaguely ironic storytelling and a focus on social problems, Black Series filmmakers were able to distance themselves from the prevailing socialist propaganda.
Kazimierz Karabasz soon emerged as one of WFD’s key figures, along with Andrzej Munk who later switched to feature film. Karabasz helped Polish documentary film to shift from collective to individual subjects.
Muzykanci (The Musicians, 1960) portrays the shared efforts of a Varsovian tram workers’ orchestra during rehearsals focusing on the psychology of its members and their spry director with iconic moustaches. Together with his long-life collaborator and cinematographer Stanisław Niedbalski, Karabasz learned to record voice and image together without using the floor lamps that would have encumbered camera movement. As the amateur music ensemble improves, the camera work becomes more fluid before returning to a broken rhythm for the frenzied ending.
The noble simplicity of Karabasz’s oeuvre was one of the triggers that pushed Krzysztof Kieślowski to pursue his own studies in filmmaking.
Originally published by The Krakow Post on September 01, 2012