Film programme accompanying the exhibition “Cosmos Calling! Art and Science in the Long Sixties”

The Friend
dir. Marek Nowicki, Jerzy Stawicki
Poland, 1965

The film’s protagonist is a supercomputer that has developed its own intelligence. In order to expand and grow independent of humans, it has taken control over a lonely man, whom it has befriended and plays chess with. The game, frequently appearing in sci-fi cinema, is a motif of man’s struggle with a cold, calculating machine.

The First Pavilion
dir. Janusz Majewski
Poland, 1965

A cross between sci-fi and horror, The First Pavilion tells the story of dangerous experiments in human miniaturisation. Sets were designed by Anatold Radzinowicz, who also worked on The Silent Star. The film was shot at the Semafor Studio as part of a series that also featured two other films based on Stanisław Lem’s short stories, rendered in a vein reminiscent of Edgar Allan Poe’s horror tales. Eugeniusz Rudnik was responsible for special sound effects throughout the series.

Docent H
dir. Janusz Majewski
Poland, 1964

Part of the sci-fi series, this Semafor Studio short deals with the possibility of artificial intelligence, the limits of the control inventors have over their inventions, and the machine’s or cyborg’s emotions and potential soul.

Profesor Zazul
reż. Marek Nowicki, Jerzy Stawicki
Poland, 1965, 22 min

Film screenings in the garden next to the Club/Café Eufemia (the rector’s building of the Academy of the Fine Arts, Krakowskie Przedmieście 5), entrance from Wacław Niżyński passage
entrance free