• DOI:10.1386/seec.2.1.75_1
• Corpus ID: 145608963

Clandestine human and cinematic passages in the United Europe: The Polish Plumber and Kieślowski's hairdresser

@article{SkrodzkaBates2011ClandestineHA,
  title={Clandestine human and cinematic passages in the United Europe: The Polish Plumber and Kieślowski's hairdresser},
  author={Agnieszka Skrodzka-Bates},
  journal={Studies in Eastern European Cinema},
  year={2011},
  volume={2},
  pages={75 - 90}
}

• Agnieszka Skrodzka-Bates
• Published 1 January 2011
• Sociology
• Studies in Eastern European Cinema

ABSTRACT Using a Cultural Studies approach, this article provides a re-interpretation of Krzysztof Kieślowski's Trzy kolory: Bialy/Trois couleurs: Blanc/Three Colours: White (Kieślowski, 1994) as an early example of the post-Soviet transnational cinema. Paired with the socio-economic analysis of the Polish Plumber controversy that surfaced in France in the summer of 2005 (with specific references to the notorious Polish Plumber poster), the following discussion explores how Kieślowski's text questions the conventional views about the European Union and the relationship between Western European and ex-communist countries. By looking at film within a range of cultural discourses, the argument treats White as a unique exposé of political and symbolic tensions that accompany the process of European integration.