Beyond Authenticity, Beyond Romanticism: Films about Maanam

Abstract

My article examines two Polish films from the 1980s, Wielka majówka (The Big Picnic, 1981) by Krzysztof Rogulski and Czuję się świetnie (I Feel Great, 1984) by Waldemar Szarek, which cast Maanam, one of the most popular Polish bands of this period. I present them in the context of a dominant representation of artists in Eastern European cinema and of Polish Romanticism, which endows artists with a specific role, arguing that this approach is to some extent different to what we typically observe in western biopics. Together, these two films show that while in the 1980s filmmakers in Poland recognised the commercial potential of using rock music and rock stars in films, they were not fully aware of the advantages of making biopics according to the western formula or did not care about these advantages.