Stefan Themerson, Franciszka Themerson
The Films of Stefan and Franciszka Themerson
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Add rightsFormat DVD Interzone
Original format 35mm
Year 1937-1945
Language(s) English
Subtitles English, Polish
Artist(s) Stefan & Franciszka Themerson
Booklet 86 pages
Running time 30 min
Films
ADVENTURES OF A GOOD CITIZEN (1937) 9'
CALLING MR SMITH (1943) 10'
THE EYE AND THE EAR (1944-45) 10'
Description
The Themersons had a significant influence on the art and philosophy of the Eastern European avant-garde during the 1930s. Their work reflected something of the forms and ideas of Dadaism and Constructivism of the period, but what distinguished them most throughout their lives was their remarkable inventiveness and taste for technical experimentation. This was evident in every field they explored: photography, literature, art, design and publishing, as well as cinema. They were the most important makers of avant-garde film in pre-war Poland. After settling in London in the early 1940s, they made two films under the aegis of the Polish government in exile, including their first British film, Calling Mr Smith (1943), an appeal to open the eyes and minds of the British public to Nazi atrocities in Europe. In London, they became key figures in the post-war cultural scene, founding Gaberbocchus Press, an important small publishing house that published the first English editions of Jarry, Adler, Apollinaire, Schwitters, Queneau, among others, while writing novels, poems, philosophical treatises, operas, and creating paintings and theatre sets. They died in London in 1988.