Thanks to the search activities of the Polish National Film Archive – Audiovisual Institute (FINA), the original recordings of music to the film Janko Muzykant (1930), written by Leon Schiller and Grzegorz Fitelberg, have been found in a private collection in Italy! This is one of the most sensational discoveries concerning pre-war Polish cinema in recent years.
The story, based on the famous novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz, was directed by the world-famous director Ryszard Ordyński. Janko Muzykant was one of the first full-length sound films produced in Poland. The film was shot in Poland, mainly in and around Warsaw, and then the sound was added in a studio in Berlin. The music for the film, composed by Leon Schiller and Grzegorz Fitelberg, was recorded on gramophone records. In Ordyński's film, the songs were sung by the heroes for the first time in the history of Polish film. After the war, the soundtrack was lost, and the score has not survived. The film is known to this day only in an incomplete version, without sound. Since the film was created at the turn of silent and sound cinema, dialogues and plot elements were displayed on title cards, so the picture could be successfully shown as silent.
In the FINA studios, works are underway on the digital restoration of the film Janko Muzykant and the restoration of its lost soundtrack. The film’s premiere is scheduled for April 2021. It will take place during the Silent Cinema Festival, organized by FINA at the Iluzjon Cinema in Warsaw. The world premiere of the film after its reconstruction will take place in May 2021 at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco.
More information at: https://fina.gov.pl/