“THEMERSON AND THEMERSON” ON ARTE TV CHANNEL
„Themerson and Themerson”, Wiktoria Szymanska’s debut documentary, was presented in Wroclaw as a part of last year’s Era New Horizons Film Festival. This time it is going to be shown on the French-German ARTE Channel.
The Themersons have been influencing me during various stages of my life. I used to read their books written for children, without knowing who they were or how they lived. Then I was inspired by their avant-garde films at university. Somehow, these slight traces made me constantly run across them, most of the time in rather unlikely situations. That is why I decided to dive into their story. It turned out that these two people are real, have lived and been amongst us until recently and left behind an extraordinary legacy – this is how Wiktoria Szymańska was describing the Themersons, the protagonists of her film, at the Q&A session during last year’s Era New Horizons Film Festival in Wrocław. *
During the first half of the twentieth century, Polish avant-garde film boasted no collaboration more significant than that between Franciszka and Stefan Themerson. It is with thanks to them we gained “The Adventure of a Good Citizen”, a manifesto of artistic freedom and intellectual independence, which has inspired many generations of artists after them. The Themersons never exceeded the boundaries of good taste and values of beauty. It was very particular, sophisticated and extremely elegant avant-garde. Wiktoria Szymanska’s film describes the very same characteristics; she talks us through them with tenderness and delight.
Unsurprisingly, as the auteur agrees, “Themerson and Themerson” is a piece that grew from her own teenage and later ongoing fascinations – states Iwona Sobczyk in her article “Themerson and Themerson”. The elegance of truth for Polish daily newspaper “Gazeta Wyborcza”. – It is her personally looking for traces and collectables of her masters, about whom she tells with sensitivity and delight. She is not hiding behind the camera. She incorporates fragments of their work, archive footage of their private life, she talks to their friends and family members. Looking up her masters her work doesn’t apply only to the objective perception of reality. She creates abstract compositions, softens the paintings, and revives sketches of Franciszka Themerson, transforming them into a live animation. She imbues the visuals with bizzaire, disturbing melancholy.
Wiktoria Szymańska about the structure of the film: The idea itself of merging numerous formats belong to the Themersons, because they immensely experimented on various levels. To me, it was a fantastic opportunity to portray multiple disciplines in a variety of ways, exploring the foundation of their success (…). Arguably, merging contemporary techniques with old-fashioned cinema comes from having been inspired by the Themersons (…). The film’s narrative is entirely comprised of tales of the Themersons and the letters that they wrote to each other, making an incredible correspondence – especially related to their war time experiences. The film captures their intimate relationship through the series of letters.
„Themerson and Themerson” will be screened on ARTE Channel on 24th of August at 12.10am, then again on 29th at 3.30am.
Three films by Franciszka and Stefan Themerson are available at the international platform UbuWeb (watch here).
(Translation by Aleksandra Kaplon)