The Museum of Cinematography in Lodz is a museum that has existed
since 1976, and is the only institution of its kind in Poland that
tells about the history of Polish cinema.
The museum is
housed in a 19th century building that belonged to the prominent
German industrialist Karl Scheibler. The Renaissance palace is
located in an old park near a former textile factory. Since the end
of World War II, the building has repeatedly changed its owners and
has also become a set for many films thanks to its eclectic
interiors with fireplace, mosaics, stained glass windows and painted
decorations. The Cinematic Museum moved here in 1986.
The
museum's collection includes about 1000 films on film and
videotapes, as well as a number of technical devices (old
projectors, cameras) showing the development of technologies in this
area. The permanent exhibition of the museum presents devices
related to the development of theater technologies, and there is
also a collection "60 years of Polish animation", which tells about
the development of animated films.
The Cinematography Museum
organizes many exhibitions on the history of cinema as well as
contemporary art. These include scenographic exhibitions of films by
Jerzy Hoffmann "With Fire and Sword" and "An Old Tale", Andrzej
Wajda and Dzhorzd Kavalerowicz. From time to time, the museum hosts
biographical exhibitions dedicated to outstanding theater artists:
Krzysztof Kieslowski, Paul Henry, Roman Polaski and others. These
exhibitions have been shown in dozens of countries on five
continents.
The activity of the museum is a continuation of the Film and Theater
Culture Department established in 1976 in the Museum of the History of
the City of Lodz, the Department of Film and Theater Culture, in 1984
transformed into a branch, and in 1986 into an independent institution.
At that time, the collections were moved to a new seat, which was Karol
Scheibler's palace. It is a 19th-century building, located in the
Źródliska Park and part of the Księży Młyn factory and palace complex.
Apart from the palace, it also occupies the rooms of the adjacent former
coach house and the building of the palace stables. The Museum of
Cinematography is the only museum of this profile in Poland. The founder
and first director of the museum was Dr. Antoni Szram.
The
museum's collection includes about 50,000 exhibits, including about a
thousand films on celluloid tapes and video. The permanent exhibitions
"Secrets of the Film Set" and "The Miracle of Animated Photography"
present equipment related to the technological development of cinema
(historical projectors, cameras, editing tables), posters and film
stills, elements of scenography and arranged film sets or puppets used
in animation. The collection of cameras and camcorders from global
companies such as Agfa, Eastman Kodak, Zeiss-Ikon, Pathé and many others
is impressive. In one of the rooms, the original scenery for the film
The Flying Machine is presented. In its collection, the museum also has
magic lanterns, a mutoscope and the only original Imperial Panorama in
Poland, i.e. a fotoplastikon. An important place of the museum is the
exhibition dedicated to the Polish animation "Palace full of fairy
tales", opened in 2015.
The museum has collections of
screenplays, scripts, correspondence and documents related to the making
of films. The film archives of Aleksander Ford and Zbigniew Rybkowski,
and Andrzej Wajda are significant.
On the ground floor of the
palace there is an exhibition of palace interiors (sideboard room,
dining room, smoking room, ballroom, cloakroom, study, lady's room,
winter garden and a grand staircase). They were a ready set design for
Polish films, such as: Land of Promise, Pavoncello, How far from here,
how close or two episodes of Stawki greater than life (episode IV Cafe
Rose and episode VI Iron Cross). The palace makes a brief appearance in
the David Lynch film Inland Empire.
As a result of the renovation
and adaptation works of the attic, two galleries for exhibitions were
obtained: the white attic and the red attic. The gallery in the basement
rooms deepened by 80 cm is also used for temporary presentations, while
part of the rooms is used for a permanent exhibition, devoted to the
hundred-year history of cinema in Poland.
The Museum of
Cinematography organized exhibitions devoted to the history of cinema
and film, as well as contemporary art. These were e.g. set design
exhibitions for films by Jerzy Hoffman - With Fire and Sword and Stara
Baśń, Jerzy Kawalerowicz - Quo Vadis and Andrzej Wajda - Pan Tadeusz,
exhibitions devoted to photography, film posters or biographical
exhibitions dedicated to outstanding filmmakers:
"Traces and Memory -
Krzysztof Kieślowski",
"Photographs from the city of Lodz - Pola
Negri",
"Cinema Legends"
"Roman Polanski - actor and director",
"George Kawalerowicz. Painter of the Ten Muses",
"Poland. Europe.
World – Agnieszka Holland's Faces”,
"Bergman's Mirror"
"Small
Great Works" - an exhibition presenting the work of Jan Młodożeniec, the
famous creator of film posters
The exhibitions were shown in
dozens of countries on five continents.
The Kinematograf cinema,
presenting niche films - Polish pre-war films, documentaries, animations
and contemporary artistic cinema, operates at the museum.
Since
1990, the Museum has been organizing the Documentary Film Festival Media
Festival "Man in Danger".
On June 1, 2011, in front of the
entrance to the museum, sculptures of cats Filemon and Boniface were
unveiled.
The museum is to document not only the history of films
made and screened, but also those stopped, unfinished