I saw Illumination by Krzysztof Zanussi recently. It is a film about science: its ethics, politics, successes and failures, and the ambitious young physicist who is trying to find his way. Anyone who is interested in science would enjoy this film, and what is interesting is that even though this is a film from 1974, the issues and scientific accomplishments it covers are particularly relevant and current.
The film opens with a videorecording of prof. Władysław Tatarkiewicz explaining the primacy of purity of heart in illumination of the mind allowing for the direct perception of truth.
Illumination is St Augustine’s theory that moments of clarity and understanding come about in a Platonic revelation of the real world that is more a result of a purity of heart than intellectual effort. It is described not as an ecstatic moment that is free of thought but an exponential expansion of thought.
Zbigniew Zapasiewicz and Piotr Garlicki
Barwy ochronne is the 1976 film by Krzysztof Zanussi that I can’t seem to find the official English translation of the title, I would translate it as “Protective hues” or wait, I found it, “Camouflage”. The film was awarded the grand prix for the best picture at the Gdańsk film festival in 1977, but it is also not out of date today, still relevant to human dilemma. What has changed, perhaps, is the environment. Perhaps today the young academics would be offered a squash racket instead of the tennis racket, and a membership to an expensive health club in the city instead of the tennis court in the forest. The linguistics conference would be taking place in a metropolitan setting instead of the little lakeside resort in 1970s Poland. Lastly, perhaps today the plot would have more of a corporate corruption of the academia angle to it, but the fishbowl that is academia and the conflict between truth and convenience is just as relevant today.
[Photomedia Forum posts by T.Neugebauer from Jan-Mar, 2007]