This is nothing less than an advertising feature designed to entice people to come to Lubin, in Silesia, to work as a Copper Mine. The most noticeable element of this film is the garish color stock used. It is the East Bloc analogue of Kodacolor except that colors seem to be saturated with a white creaminess. Its the difference between an orange icicle and an orange Creamsicle®.
It seems as though Kieslowski was in the employ of a mining company and the commercial is rather in the docu style. So there are several references to this in later Kiesowsli films which have to be considered autobiographical elements. First and foremost is the idea of making a Faustian bargain in order to film. Them there is the relationship (unseen and unknown) of what control the Copper Mine management, or one manager, had on the final film which is analogues to the amateur filmmaker's relationship to the factory manager in CAMERA BUFF. The color stock seems to be amateur equiptment and I suspect the camera was the very same 16mm camera shown in CAMERA BLUFF.It also resembles the 'project' proposed by the Warsaw TV company but in an inverted way. And later in CURRICULUM VITAE part of the accused's story is that out of idealism he volunteered to be a miner in Silesia but found the work so exhausting that he quit after a year and felt that he'd deserted. And here was Kieslowski painting pretty pictures to attract and ensnare the unwary to this strenuous and dangerous work.
Suffice to say that even those who commissioned the film were so self consciously pessimistic about the project that they didn't even have the name of the town being touted in the title, but merely identified it by its (very) general location. But hey, listen, a job's a job. Nothing to feel guilty about, is there?
It seems as though Kieslowski was in the employ of a mining company and the commercial is rather in the docu style. So there are several references to this in later Kiesowsli films which have to be considered autobiographical elements. First and foremost is the idea of making a Faustian bargain in order to film. Them there is the relationship (unseen and unknown) of what control the Copper Mine management, or one manager, had on the final film which is analogues to the amateur filmmaker's relationship to the factory manager in CAMERA BUFF. The color stock seems to be amateur equiptment and I suspect the camera was the very same 16mm camera shown in CAMERA BLUFF.It also resembles the 'project' proposed by the Warsaw TV company but in an inverted way. And later in CURRICULUM VITAE part of the accused's story is that out of idealism he volunteered to be a miner in Silesia but found the work so exhausting that he quit after a year and felt that he'd deserted. And here was Kieslowski painting pretty pictures to attract and ensnare the unwary to this strenuous and dangerous work.
Suffice to say that even those who commissioned the film were so self consciously pessimistic about the project that they didn't even have the name of the town being touted in the title, but merely identified it by its (very) general location. But hey, listen, a job's a job. Nothing to feel guilty about, is there?
