Image of Upper Social Classes in the Polish Feature Film in 1947–1989

Abstract

The article presents the Image of Upper Social Classes in the Polish Feature Film in the years 1947–1989. It analyzes several dozen films as a kind of historical sources and allows to show the influence of politics on mass culture. Upper social classes of the old Poland were sentenced to destruction in the Polish People's Republic. In the period of socialist realism they were presented as the main enemy of the people, a symbol of reaction and the source of evil. But since the mid-fifties they were looked at with a kind of sentiment, although emphasizing the fact that they belonged to a closed chapter of history. The approach to these privileged classes, and what follows, their image in art, including film, was changing together with the political changes in Poland. It can be clearly seen in the films produced before 1989. The way of presenting nobles or bourgeoisie coincided with the dynamics of transformations in Poland of that times.