WBZ

Andrzej Dębski`s book "History of cinema in Wroclaw 1896-1918" is a monograph of the cinema metropolis in an era when film and cinema were only developing. In terms of methodological awareness, it is based on the newest establishment of the so called New Film History, which means that it draws on the knowledge of all sorts of contexts surrounding the film life. The author`s analysis includes development of film buildings` architecture, "media breakthrough" understood as a turn from short projections to long projections, an emerging phenomenon of movie stars, public perception of cinema, city authorities` cinema policy, sociology of a viewer of that era, tensions between cinema and theater, the role of cinema in the process of the emancipation of women, its function during the war, the meaning of local movies in the life of urban communities. Cinema is shown as a new form of popular entertainment among Wroclaw`s inhabitants and also as an important factor, or more properly, a determinator of an emerging mass culture. Wroclaw is a lens through which growing importance of cinema in cultural life of the Central European metropolis at the beginning of the XXth Century has been shown.

Andrzej Dębski`s book constitutes a serious research achievement[…].

from the review by Prof. habil. Teresa Kulak

Dr. Andrzej Dębski`s monograph [...] is an extremely valuable, fascinating and in every aspect original work.

from the review by Prof. habil. Andrzej Gwóźdź