Camera Buff
Directed by: Krzysztof
Kieślowski.
Written by: Krzysztof
Kieślowski.
Starring: Jerzy Stuhr (Filip Mosz),
Malgorzata Zabkowska (Irka Mosz), Ewa Pokas (Anna Wlodarczyk), Stefan Czyzewski
(Director), Jerzy Nowak (Stanislaw Osuch), Tadeusz Bradecki (Witek Jachowicz),
Boguslaw Sobczuk (Kedzierski), Krzysztof Zanussi (Himself), Andrzej Jurga (Himself).
The
personal and the political collide in Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Camera Buff – the
film that represented the Polish filmmaker’s international breakthrough. Up
until this point, he had pretty much been a documentary filmmaker, and in the
grand tradition, he decided to make a film about what he knows. The main
character is Filip Mosz (Jerzy Stuhr) – a worker at a factory, who is married
to Irka (Malgorzata Zabkowska), who is pregnant with their first child when the
film opens. Filip has purchased an 8MM camera – the only one in their small
town to have one – so he can document his daughter’s childhood. All he ever
wanted was a steady job, a wife and a family – and now he has that. And,
throughout the course of the movie, he’ll lose it.
It all
starts innocently enough – he is asked by his bosses to document a celebration
at his company – where some performers will come as part of the ceremonies.
Filip films – more than he really should – during this time, making a nuisance
out of himself really, but he is obsessed with capturing the reality of the
situation. His film gets into a festival – he starts meeting more people,
including an attractive woman – Anna (Ewa Pokas) – who works in the industry
has contacts. He’s soon making more films, and expanding his worldview. His
wife and new daughter are now not all he wants, and the become a secondary
concern for him. At the same time, this still is Communist Poland, and there
are ways things are done, and not done – and Filip may not have the freedom to
explore his art the way he wants to – and even if he does, that comes at a cost
as well. If he hurts his community by telling the truth, should he really do
it?
This is a
world that Kieslowski clearly knows well – although, of course, he was a more
accomplished filmmaker than Filip was at the time. Filip is, at first, a simple
man. He doesn’t want much in his life – and is happy with what he has. His
films start off simply as well. His growing obsession is really what costs him
everything – had he simply did what was asked and nothing more, everything
would be fine. But he grows obsessed with documenting things – with capturing
reality in front of his camera. Viewing the world through the eye of a camera
is different than looking at it head on.
There are
moments of humor throughout Camera Buff – Filip isn’t exactly a great filmmaker
at first, and even when he does get some good shots, it’s by accident more than
anything else. Like many of the newly obsessed though, he starts to believe in
himself with a furor that only those who do not fully understand what they’re
doing can feel. He thinks himself a grand artist when he’s really making industrial
films. But there is truth there as well – as by delving into it, he exposes
things. For the first hour or so, the film seems to mainly be a character study
about a man growing obsessed with film – but in the second hour, the politics
comes into play in ways the audience – and Filip himself – did not quite see
coming. What is a filmmaker’s obligation to his art? Does the truth matter
above all even if it means innocent people will be hurt? Can a man be a true
artist, devoted to his craft, and a family man?
It’s to
Kieslowski’s credit that he doesn’t really attempt to answer all these
questions – he instead simply lays out the questions, and asks the audience to
make up their minds. When the movie begins Filip is a simple, yet happy man –
having everything he ever wanted. By the end he is alone, and perhaps miserable
– but he has something he didn’t have at the beginning – a vocation, a passion,
an obsession. The question as to whether that is a fair trade is up to the
viewer to decide.
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