‘HollyŁódź’: A Film Lover’s Guide to Poland’s Most Cinematic City
Home to the Polish National Film School, Łódź is the beating heart of Polish cinema. In 2017, it was even designated as a UNESCO Creative City of Film. Here, Culture.pl reviews some of Łódź’s many appearances on the big screen.
The school, however, it not Łódź’s only claim to fame. The city is a cinematic chameleon, and over the last 20 years, its eclectic architecture and the vestiges of its once thriving textile industry have attracted filmmakers from abroad. They have transformed Łódź into a World War II ghetto, the black-and-white backdrop of an Oscar-winning film, as well as a stand-in for rural Alabama.
Łódź through the eyes of its own
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Roman Polański on the set of ‘The Tenant’, 1976, photo: Mary Evans Picture Library / Forum
With so many world-renowned filmmakers coming out of the Łódź Film School, it’s not surprising that the city makes an appearance in the some of the classics of Polish cinema. As a student at the school, a young Roman Polański used the city as a backdrop for many of his early student films.
Break Up the Dance, a film made for his documentary film class with Andrzej Munk, almost got Polański expelled for inciting violence. Having planned a ‘party’ in a fenced courtyard near the film school, Polański invited a local gang to ‘break up the dance’ while he filmed the sudden outbreak of violence. Set to a score by Krzysztof Komeda, the 1957 short offers not only a glimpse into Polański’s oeuvre, but also into the landscape of Łódź.
Unlike Polański, Andrzej Wajda made it through his studies at the school without the threat of expulsion for inciting violence. The master of Polish cinema returned to the city of his studies many times throughout his more than 60-year career.
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Still from Andrzej Wajda's 'The Promised Land', 1974, Photo: Polfilm / East News
Based on Władysław Reymont’s novel, Wajda’s 1975 film The Promised Land is set in Łódź and follows three men – a Pole, a Jew, and a German – as they try to navigate the struggles and intrigue of the city’s textile industry at the end of the 19th century. It is a story of Łódź, but also of an industry and individuals consumed by industrialisation.
Aleksander Ledóchowski noted in Kino (Film) magazine:
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Wajda's vision of this city of Łódź is amplified, exaggerated, possessed by a single goal. The sound of looms and the turmoil of the stock market are his music, which stuns and kills feelings, numbs the mind and lures with a mad rhythm. Wajda's city is an exaggerated and monstrous black kingdom of capital and financial speculation. This is Łódź, but also the jungles of Manchester or Chicago. Łódź has its own theme song – the staccato sound of the looms. In the background is the ever-increasing noise of machines and conveyor belts. The mega-factory rhapsody drowns man's cry. Red drops of blood appear on white dresses like flowers.
Though much in the city has changed since the era in which The Promised Land is set, walking the streets of Łódź still offers traces of that ‘monstrous black kingdom of capital’. Many of the factories are still there, albeit often repurposed as residences or art spaces. The opulent 19th-century Scheibler Palace, where parts of the film were shot, is today part of the Łódź Museum of Cinematography.
Shot more than 40 years later, Wajda’s final film is also set in Łódź. Afterimage is a poignant reflection on history politics, and expression, set when the doctrine of socialist realism came to dictate the aesthetic and philosophic parameters of art following WWII. The film follows the story of Władysław Strzemiński (played by Bogusław Linda), a pioneer of the Polish avant-garde art during the Interwar period. Strzemiński taught painting at the State School of Visual Arts in Łódź and designed the Neoplastic Room at the Museum of Art in the city.
Wajda’s film follows Strzemiński’s story as he is stripped of his position at the university and his work at the museum is put into storage. While the film does not end on a happy note, those interested in Strzemiński might be glad to hear the university from which he is fired in the film was renamed in his honour in 1988 and is today the Strzemiński Academy of Fine Arts (located at 121 Wojska Polskiego Street). The Strzemiński-designed Neoplastic Room destroyed in the film was also reconstructed and is a highlight of the permanent exhibition of the Museum of Art (Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź).
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Neoplastic Room in the Museum of Art, photo: Dariusz Kulesza / Agencja Gazeta
The production of Afterimage brought Wajda back to the city of his early studies, with many scenes shot on location in Łódź. One of the early scenes in the film shows Strzemiński’s studio apartment flooded in red light as a banner with Stalin is draped over his building, foretelling the deluge of Stalinist policies that will come to strip him of his livelihood and creative freedom. For those looking to see the tenement house, it can be found at the intersection of Próchnika and Żeromskiego.
The YMCA Poland building on Moniuszki Street served as the location of the art exhibition staged by Strzemiński’s students (and destroyed by communist officers). A walk along Włókiennicza Street will take you down the path of Strzemiński’s increasingly bleak existence – you’ll pass the location of the butcher’s shop where he was denied meat and the paint shop where he was refused the right to purchase paint.
Włókiennicza Street was also filmed as the route for the May 1st Parade in which Strzemiński’s daughter, Nika, takes part. The Tatry Cinema is still around today (40 Sienkiewicza Street) and served as the location for Władysław and Nika’s trip to the movies – with hope, visitors today will have a better experience there than that which is depicted in the film.
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As you seek out the scenes from the film while touring Łódź, don’t be surprised if they look a little different. During filming, locations were stripped of their modern elements – traffic lights, road signs, lampposts and contemporary trams were all removed and local business owners consented to having their signs hidden and façades repainted.
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Still from ‘Ida’, directed by Paweł Pawlikowski, photo: Opus Film
Wajda is not the only director to see Łódź's potential to transport film buffs back in time. The 1999 film Jakob the Liar, starring Robin Williams, Liev Schreiber, and Alan Arkin and directed by Peter Kassovitz, was filmed in Łódź and the nearby city of Piotrków Trybunalski – where the wartime ghetto was recreated. Set in 1944, the film tells the story of Jakob (Williams), a Jewish shopkeeper who tries to keep hope alive in the ghetto by pretending to have a radio and reporting encouraging news from the front.
Visitors to Łódź can also track down locations from Pawel Pawlikowski’s 2013 Ida. The film won awards around the globe, including the 2015 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Set in 1962, Ida tells the story of a young woman on the verge of becoming a nun, who first must confront the past – both of her family and her country. Shot entirely in black and white, in aspect ratio 4:3, the film is visually stunning, often evoking painterly compositions, rather than those of contemporary film.
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The city used to be all about textiles. It emerged out of nothing in the 19th century and became known as the Manchester of the Russian Empire. In the last 20 years, since the fall of communism, it has known nothing but hard times. It was bypassed by the wave of economic development of the period. So, it’s a melancholy place, but with a great beauty.
Those looking to take in the film’s sites of ‘beautiful melancholy’ in person might begin by walking down Legionów and Rzgowska Streets in Łódź. Some of the shots that give the filmmakers the most difficulty were captured on Legionów Street, where the historic tram that carried Ida (Agata Trzebuchowska) between Zeromskiego and Gdańska Streets required the roads to be closed and traffic redirected. The streets themselves were filled with extras dressed in 1960s clothing.
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Agata Trzebuchowska & Dawid Ogrodnik in ‘Ida’, directed by Paweł Pawlikowski, photo: Gdynia Film Festival
The scenes in which Ida and her aunt, Wanda (Agata Kulesza), mingle with the handsome jazz musician played by Dawid Ogrodnik were shot in the old Lajkonik restaurant at 50 Rzgowska Street. Ida says goodbye to her aunt in front of a building located at 13 Dowborczyków Street. The Jewish Cemetery on Bracka Street filled in for the Jewish Cemetery in Lublin, while a second cemetery on Smutna Street served as the backdrop of Ida’s reunion with Ogrodnik’s character.
Fans of the film and visitors to the city likely will find the contrast between the full colour contemporary Łódź and the stylised world of the film a fascinating sight to see in person.
The 2016 Israeli film Past Life similarly finds the backdrop for its historical drama in Łódź. Directed by Avi Nesher, Past Life is set in 1977 and follows two sisters (played by Nelly Tagar and Joy River) as they search for the truth about how their father survived WWII. Though the film was also partially shot in Germany and Israel, a number of Łódź landmarks make an appearance, including the Grand Theatre, the Academy of Music, Poznanski Palace, the Hotel Grand, the Hotel Savoy, Poniatowski Park and Włokiennicza Street (already familiar from Wajda’s Afterimage).
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Izrael Poznański’s Palace (Museum of History of the City of Łódź), photo: Mariusz Switulski / Alamy Stock Photo / East News
Directors use Łódź not only to recreate different settings in time, but also different settings entirely – rural Alabama, for instance. It is hard to picture how the European industrial city could replicate the rustic world of the American South, but director Robby Henson tried to do just that in his 2008 film House. The horror film finds two couples trapped in a dilapidated house in the woods – chased there by the deranged ‘Tin Man’.
The house that serves as the backdrop to the following suspense was located in Łódź on Scaleniowa Street. It has since been demolished and rebuilt at the Open Air Museum of Łódź Wooden Architecture at the Central Museum of Textiles.
If this Łódź horror film appeals to you, you would do well to check out Thr3e (2006), also directed by Robby Henson. The city centre, Reymont Square, and Piłsudski Avenue again serve as a stand-in for the US as a serial killer, this time the ‘Riddle Killer’, forces his victims to solve riddles in hopes of staving off death. Unfortunately, it seems its filming location was not enough to save this production – it was listed among ‘The Worst January Film Releases of All Time’ by Flavorwire.
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Still from the movie Marie Curie, directed by Marie Noelle, 2016. Pictured: Karolina Gruszka, photo: Witold Baczyk / Kino Świat
If horror is not your style, Marie Noëlle’s 2017 Polish-French-German-Belgian film about the life of Marie Skłodowska-Curie might be more appealing. Marie Curie tells the story of the famous scientist (played by Karolina Gruszka) in the years between her first and second Nobel Prizes (1903-1911). Though set in France, many scenes for the film were shot in Poland. Of course, Curie was herself Polish, so filming in Poland was a natural decision for Noëlle:
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After discovering the great beauty of Poland, I could see I was going to find and use a lot of locations in her [Skłodowska-Curie’s] homeland. I felt that this would be the soul of the movie… After my first scouting trip, we decided to shoot a big part of the movie in Poland. In the end, even the interiors of the Sorbonne University were shot in Poland.
With the halls of Kraków’s Jagiellonian University – the oldest in Poland – filling in for the Sorbonne, the Baltic beaches of Łeba posing as Normandy and Łódź’s 19th-century Izrael Poznański Palace serving as the backdrop for French high society, Noëlle’s film merges Poland and France – much like Skłodowska-Curie herself.
While Noëlle’s film takes viewers back in time, Claire Carré’s 2015 Embers transforms Łódź into an unnamed city in a post-apocalyptic future. Carré’s reflection on memory depicts a time in which humans can no longer recall the past and therefore exist only in the immediate present. Of the search for a post-apocalyptic setting that brought her to Łódź, Carré notes:
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It was important to me to shoot in real locations. The decay that nature brings to an abandoned space carries the weight of real time. That’s a kind of authenticity that can’t be recreated. Walking into these spaces, you are moving dust on the floor no human has touched in years.
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Ramisch factory in Łodz, photo: free resources
When David Lynch – director, screenwriter, musician, and artist – first visited Łódź in 2002, he was instantly taken with the city’s unique gritty charm. He explained to the AV Club:
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I was in Łódź, Poland. It’s spelled L-O-D-Z, but it’s pronounced ‘Wootch’. There’s a famous film school there, and it was the textile capital of the world, so there are huge old factories that were built in the 1800s. Incredible. The weather was pretty good when I was there, but they had two days of fog that shut down the airports in Warsaw and a lot of Poland. It has beautiful winter light, low-hanging grey clouds. The architecture and factories and leafless tress – it’s beautiful.
Though his pronunciation isn’t quite perfect, his appreciation for Łódź is certainly well articulated. Lynch first documented the Polish city in a 2003 series of photographs (exhibited in France), and his 2006 film Inland Empire was shot primarily in Łódź. At is often the case with Lynch, it is hard to describe what exactly Inland Empire is about.
Shot in standard definition digital video, the grainy film follows a surreal path as the life of an actress (Laura Dern) begins to meld with that of the nightmarish world of her most recent film. There are also Polish circus artists (portrayed by Łódź’s local circus Cyrk Zalewski), a story about Polish prostitutes and vignettes with talking rabbits…
If it all sounds a bit confusing, don’t worry, the film’s star, Laura Dern, told the BBC:
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The truth is I didn’t know who I was playing – and I still don’t know. I’m looking forward to seeing the film tonight to learn more.
Even if you don’t know what’s going on, the film offers plenty of chances to soak in views of Łódź. Lynch shot in the Rubinstein Suite of the historic Hotel Grand, the renovated Manufaktura complex, Wschodnia Street and the spinning mill on Ogrodowa Street. Film buffs might also catch the appearance by Polish actress Karolina Gruszka, who most recently played Marie Curie in Marie Noëlle’s feature film.
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I fell in love with Łódź. I felt inspired from the first moment I saw it. This city is like a dream.
Inland Empire is thus perhaps best understood as such – Lynch’s dark, twisted, Polish dream.
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Łodz panorama, July 2014, photo Michał Tuliński / Forum
While Łódź often serves as the versatile backdrop for films, the 2012 documentary After the Factory (directed by Philip Lauri) casts the city in a starring role. The film addresses the problem of deindustrialisation through the unlikely comparison of Łódź and Detroit, Michigan.
The project came about after Łódź resident Michał Gruda emailed Lauri and suggested the Detroit filmmaker visit the Polish city. Gruda had seen Lauri’s film The Farmer and the Philosopher about Detroit and noticed parallels with Łódź. While residents of both cities grapple with how to revitalise their hometowns, both also find promise in possibility. Lauri notes:
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What’s next? What comes after the Industrial Age? We’re left to kind of rethink what it means to be a city and what it means to operate. How do we move a city forward? […] When you witness that, it does nothing but underscore the brilliance of those who decide to take it upon themselves to reimagine the way things are done in the city.
Though the heyday of the textile industry may have passed, Łódź is still going strong as a city of film. With its stellar résumé of film school alumni and an ever-growing list of domestic and international film productions, Łódź is open to the world through its diverse depictions in the movies.
We hope that after touring this irrepressible and inspired city on screen, this guide might motivate film lovers to come see Łódź for themselves.
We hope that after touring this irrepressible and inspired city on screen, this guide might motivate film lovers to come see Łódź for themselves.
Written by Alena Aniskiewicz, 21 Jun 2017
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