Andrzej Wajda
Encyclopedia
Andrzej Wajda (ˈandʐɛj ˈvajda; born 6 March 1926) is a Polish
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 film director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...

. Recipient of an honorary Oscar, he is possibly the most prominent member of the unofficial "Polish Film School
Polish Film School
Polish Film School refers to an informal group of Polish film directors and screenplay writers active between 1955 and approximately 1963.The group was under heavy influence of Italian neorealists. It took advantage of the liberal changes in Poland after the 1956 to portray the complexity of...

" (active circa 1955 to 1963). He is known especially for a trilogy of war films: A Generation
A Generation
A Generation is a 1955 Polish film directed by Andrzej Wajda. It is based on the novel Pokolenie by Bohdan Czeszko, who also wrote the script, and it was Wajda's first film and the opening installment of what became his Three War Films trilogy set in the Second World War, completed by Kanal and...

(1954), Kanał (1956) and Ashes and Diamonds
Ashes and Diamonds (film)
Ashes and Diamonds is a 1958 Polish film directed by Andrzej Wajda, based on the 1948 novel by Polish writer Jerzy Andrzejewski...

(1958).

Four of his movies have been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film is one of the Academy Awards of Merit, popularly known as the Oscars, handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...

: The Promised Land
The Promised Land
The Promised Land is a 1975 Polish film directed by Andrzej Wajda, based on a novel by Władysław Reymont. Set in the industrial city of Łódź, The Promised Land tells the story of a Pole, a German, and a Jew struggling to build a factory in the raw world of 19th century capitalism.Wajda presents a...

(1975), The Maids of Wilko
The Maids of Wilko
The Maids of Wilko is a 1979 Polish film directed by Andrzej Wajda. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. "Maids" is used in the sense of "maidens", hence another translation could be The Maidens of Wilko....

(1979), Man of Iron
Man of Iron
Man of Iron is a 1981 film directed by Andrzej Wajda. It depicts the Solidarity labour movement and its first success in persuading the Polish government to recognize the workers' right to an independent union....

(1981), and Katyń
Katyn (film)
Katyń is a 2007 Polish film about the 1940 Katyn massacre, directed by Academy Honorary Award winner Andrzej Wajda. It is based on the book Post Mortem: The Story of Katyn by Andrzej Mularczyk...

(2007).

Career

After Wajda's apprenticeship to director Aleksander Ford
Aleksander Ford
Aleksander Ford born Mosze Lifszyc was a Polish film director; and head of the Polish People's Army Film Crew in the Soviet Union. Ford became director of the nationalized "Film Polski" company at the end of World War II...

, Wajda was given the opportunity to direct his own film. With A Generation
A Generation
A Generation is a 1955 Polish film directed by Andrzej Wajda. It is based on the novel Pokolenie by Bohdan Czeszko, who also wrote the script, and it was Wajda's first film and the opening installment of what became his Three War Films trilogy set in the Second World War, completed by Kanal and...

(1955), the first-time director poured out his disillusionment over jingoism, using as his alter ego a young, James Dean-style antihero played by Zbigniew Cybulski
Zbigniew Cybulski
Zbigniew Cybulski was a Polish actor, one of the best-known and most popular personalities of the post-World War II history of Poland.-Life:...

, 22-year-old Roman Polanski
Roman Polanski
Roman Polanski is a French-Polish film director, producer, writer and actor. Having made films in Poland, Britain, France and the USA, he is considered one of the few "truly international filmmakers."...

 also featured. At the same time Andrzej Wajda began his work as a director in theatre, including such as Michael V. Gazzo
Michael V. Gazzo
Michael Vincenzo Gazzo was an American Broadway playwright who later in life became a film and television actor....

's Hatful of Rain
Hatful of Rain
Hatful of Rain may refer to:*A Hatful of Rain, a 1957 film or the play it is based on*Hatful of Rain , an album by the band Del Amitri*Hatful of Rain , a band from the U.S. state of Oregon...

(1959), Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...

(1960), and Two for the Seesaw
Two for the Seesaw
Two for the Seesaw is a 1962 romance-drama film directed by Robert Wise and starring Robert Mitchum and Shirley MacLaine. It was adapted from the Broadway play written by William Gibson.-Plot:...

(1963) by William Gibson
William Gibson
William Gibson is an American-Canadian science fiction author.William Gibson may also refer to:-Association football:*Will Gibson , Scottish footballer...

. Wajda made two more increasingly accomplished films, which developed further the anti-war theme of A Generation: Kanał (1956) [Silver Palm at Cannes Festival in 1957, ex equo with Bergman's The Seventh Seal
The Seventh Seal
The Seventh Seal is a 1957 Swedish film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. Set during the Black Death, it tells of the journey of a medieval knight and a game of chess he plays with the personification of Death , who has come to take his life. Bergman developed the film from his own play...

and Ashes and Diamonds
Ashes and Diamonds
Ashes and Diamonds is a 1948 novel by the Polish writer Jerzy Andrzejewski. It was adapted into a film by the same title in 1958 by the Polish film director Andrzej Wajda. English translation, entitled Ashes and Diamonds, appeared in 1962...

(1958), again with Cybulski.

While capable of turning out mainstream commercial fare (often dismissed as "trivial" by his critics), Wajda was more interested in works of allegory and symbolism, and certain symbols (such as setting fire to a glass of liquor, representing the flame of youthful idealism that was extinguished by the war) recur often in his films, the very characteristic of Wajda's symbolism is film Lotna
Lotna
Lotna is a Polish war film released in 1959 and directed by Andrzej Wajda.-Overview:This highly symbolic movie is both the director's tribute to the long and glorious history of the Polish cavalry, as well as a more ambiguous portrait of the passing of an era...

(1959), full of surrealistic and symbolic scenes and shots but he managed to explore some other field of existence making new wave style Innocent Sorcerers
Innocent Sorcerers
Innocent Sorcerers is a 1960 film directed by Polish film director, Andrzej Wajda.- Cast :* Tadeusz Łomnicki – Bazyli* Krystyna Stypułkowska – Pelagia* Zbigniew Cybulski – Edmund* Wanda Koczeska – Mirka...

(1960) with music by Krzysztof Komeda
Krzysztof Komeda
Krzysztof Komeda was a Polish film music composer and jazz pianist. Perhaps best-known for his work in film scores, Komeda wrote the scores for Roman Polanski’s films Rosemary’s Baby, The Fearless Vampire Killers, Knife in the Water and Cul-de-sac...

, starring Roman Polanski
Roman Polanski
Roman Polanski is a French-Polish film director, producer, writer and actor. Having made films in Poland, Britain, France and the USA, he is considered one of the few "truly international filmmakers."...

 and Jerzy Skolimowski
Jerzy Skolimowski
Jerzy Skolimowski is a Polish film director, screenwriter, dramatist and actor. A graduate of the prestigious National Film School in Łódź, Skolimowski has directed more than twenty films since his 1960 début Oko wykol...

 (who was also a co-script writer) in the episodes. Then Wajda directed Samson
Samson
Samson, Shimshon ; Shamshoun or Sampson is the third to last of the Judges of the ancient Israelites mentioned in the Tanakh ....

(1961), a moving story about Jacob, a Jewish boy, who wants to survive during the Nazi occupation of Poland. In the mid-1960s Wajda showed the world an epic film The Ashes
The Ashes (film)
The Ashes is a 1965 Polish drama film directed by Andrzej Wajda. It was entered into the 1966 Cannes Film Festival.-Cast:* Daniel Olbrychski - Rafal Olbromski* Boguslaw Kierc - Krzysztof Cedro* Piotr Wysocki - Jan Gintult...

(1965) based on the novel by Polish writer Stefan Żeromski
Stefan Zeromski
Stefan Żeromski was a Polish novelist and dramatist. He was called the "conscience of Polish literature". He also wrote under the pen names: Maurycy Zych, Józef Katerla and Stefan Iksmoreż.- Life :...

 and directed some films abroad: Love at Twenty
Love at Twenty
Love at Twenty is a 1962 French-produced omnibus project of Pierre Roustang, consisting of five segments directed by five directors from five different countries...

(1962), Siberian Lady Macbeth
Siberian Lady Macbeth
Siberian Lady Macbeth , also translated as Fury Is a Woman, is a 1962 film directed by Andrzej Wajda, based on the novella Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District by Nikolai Leskov....

(1962) or Gates To Paradise
Gates to Paradise
Gates to Paradise is a 1968 film by Polish director Andrzej Wajda. The film is set in medieval France and is based on a story by Polish writer Jerzy Andrzejewski that seeks to expose the motives behind youthful religious zeal...

(1968).

In 1967, Cybulski was killed in a train accident, whereupon the director articulated his grief with what is considered one of his most personal films, which turned out to be a touching story (using techique "film in film") about film maker's life and work on movie Everything for Sale
Everything for Sale
Everything for Sale is a 1969 Polish drama film written and directed by Andrzej Wajda. The film was selected as the Polish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 42nd Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.-Cast:...

(1968) whis is now established and regarded as one of the few films on that subject along with Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI , was an Italian film director and scriptwriter. Known for a distinct style that blends fantasy and baroque images, he is considered one of the most influential and widely revered filmmakers of the 20th century...

's "
8½ is a 1963 Italian fantasy film directed by Federico Fellini. Co-scripted by Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano, and Brunello Rondi, it stars Marcello Mastroianni as Guido Anselmi, a famous Italian film director...

".
The following year he directed an ironic satire Hunting Flies
Hunting Flies
Hunting Flies is a 1969 Polish comedy film directed by Andrzej Wajda. It was entered into the 1969 Cannes Film Festival.-Cast:* Zygmunt Malanowicz - Wlodek* Malgorzata Braunek - Irena* Ewa Skarzanka - Hanka, Wlodek's wife...

with the script written by Janusz Głowacki and a television film based upon Stanisław Lem's short story "Roly Poly
Roly Poly
Roly Poly is an American chain of sandwich stores. They first opened their doors in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1996. They have over 170 franchises in 27 states.-History:The first Roly Poly Sandwich Shop opened in 1997 in the Buckhead section of Atlanta, Georgia...

".

The 1970s were the most lucrative artistic period for Wajda,who has made over ten films, some of them became one of his finest works like Landscape After the Battle
Landscape After the Battle
Landscape After the Battle is a 1970 drama film directed by Andrzej Wajda and starring Daniel Olbrychski; telling a story of a Nazi German concentration camp survivor soon after liberation, residing in a DP camp somewhere in Germany. It is based on the writings of Holocaust survivor and Polish...

(1970), Pilate And others
Pilate and Others
Pilate and Others is a 1972 German drama film directed by Andrzej Wajda, based on the 1967 novel The Master and Margarita by the Soviet writer Mikhail Bulgakov, although it focuses on the parts of the novel set in biblical Jerusalem, however events which have occurred in it, are transferred to the...

(1971), The Wedding
The Wedding (1972 film)
Wesele is a motion picture made in 1972 in Poland by Andrzej Wajda as an adaptation of a play by the same title written by Stanisław Wyspiański in 1901. Wajda also directed "Wesele" for the theatre....

(1972) - the film version of Polish most famous poetic drama by Stanisław Wyspiański, The Promised Land
The Promised Land
The Promised Land is a 1975 Polish film directed by Andrzej Wajda, based on a novel by Władysław Reymont. Set in the industrial city of Łódź, The Promised Land tells the story of a Pole, a German, and a Jew struggling to build a factory in the raw world of 19th century capitalism.Wajda presents a...

(1974), Man of Marble
Man of Marble
Man of Marble is a 1976 Polish film directed by Andrzej Wajda. It chronicles the fall from grace of a fictional heroic Polish bricklayer, Mateusz Birkut , who became the Stakhanovite symbol of an over-achieving worker, in Nowa Huta, a new socialist city near Kraków...

(1976) - the film takes place in two time periods, the first film showing the episodes of Stalinism
Stalinism
Stalinism refers to the ideology that Joseph Stalin conceived and implemented in the Soviet Union, and is generally considered a branch of Marxist–Leninist ideology but considered by some historians to be a significant deviation from this philosophy...

 in Poland, The Shadow Line
The Shadow Line
The Shadow-Line is a short novel based at sea by Joseph Conrad; it is one of his later works, being written from February to December 1915. It was first published in 1916 as a serial in New York's Metropolitan Magazine in the English Review and published in book form in 1917 in the UK and America...

(1976), Rough treatment (the other title: Without Anesthesia
Without Anesthesia
Without Anesthesia is the English-language title for the Polish film Bez znieczulenia, released in 1978, directed by Andrzej Wajda. It was entered in the 1979 Cannes Film Festival....

)
(1978), The Orchestra Conductor
The Orchestra Conductor
The Orchestra Conductor is a 1980 Polish drama film directed by Andrzej Wajda. It was entered into the 30th Berlin International Film Festival, where Andrzej Seweryn won the Silver Bear for Best Actor.-Cast:* John Gielgud - John Lasocki...

(1980), starring John Gielgud
John Gielgud
Sir Arthur John Gielgud, OM, CH was an English actor, director, and producer. A descendant of the renowned Terry acting family, he achieved early international acclaim for his youthful, emotionally expressive Hamlet which broke box office records on Broadway in 1937...

; or two, very touching, psychological and existential films based upon novels by Polish famous writer Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz - The Birch Wood (1970) and The Maids of Wilko
The Maids of Wilko
The Maids of Wilko is a 1979 Polish film directed by Andrzej Wajda. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. "Maids" is used in the sense of "maidens", hence another translation could be The Maidens of Wilko....

(1979).

Wajda continued to work in theatre where he has made his best spectacles, including Play Strindberg, Dostoyevsky's The Possessed
The Possessed (play)
The Possessed is a play written by Albert Camus in 1959. The piece is a theatrical adaptation of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's novel by the same name....

and Nastasja Filippovna - the Wajda's version of The Idiot
The Idiot (novel)
The Idiot is a novel written by 19th century Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky. It was first published serially in The Russian Messenger between 1868 and 1869. The Idiot is ranked beside some of Dostoyevsky's other works as one of the most brilliant literary achievements of the "Golden Age" of...

, November Night by Wyspiański, The Immigrants
The Immigrants
HaOlim was a short-lived one-man political faction in Israel.-Background:The faction was formed when Yigal Yasinov broke away from Shinui on 1 February 2006, towards the end of the 16th Knesset...

by Sławomir Mrożek, The Danton Affair or The Dreams of Reason.

Wajda's later commitment to Poland's burgeoning Solidarity movement was manifested with Man of Iron
Man of Iron
Man of Iron is a 1981 film directed by Andrzej Wajda. It depicts the Solidarity labour movement and its first success in persuading the Polish government to recognize the workers' right to an independent union....

(1981), a sort of thematic sequel to The Man of Marble, with Solidarity leader Lech Wałęsa
Lech Wałęsa
Lech Wałęsa is a Polish politician, trade-union organizer, and human-rights activist. A charismatic leader, he co-founded Solidarity , the Soviet bloc's first independent trade union, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983, and served as President of Poland between 1990 and 95.Wałęsa was an electrician...

 appearing as himself in the latter film. The director's involvement in this movement would prompt the Polish government to force Wajda's production company out of business. For the film, Wajda won the Palme d'Or
Palme d'Or
The Palme d'Or is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival and is presented to the director of the best feature film of the official competition. It was introduced in 1955 by the organising committee. From 1939 to 1954, the highest prize was the Grand Prix du Festival International du...

 at the Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...

. In 1983 he directed Danton
Danton (1983 film)
Danton is a 1983 French language film depicting the last months of Georges Danton, one of the leaders of the French Revolution. It is an adaptation of the Polish play The Danton Case by Stanislawa Przybyszewska....

, starring Gérard Depardieu
Gérard Depardieu
Gérard Xavier Marcel Depardieu is a French actor and filmmaker. He is a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur, Chevalier of the Ordre national du Mérite and has twice won the César Award for Best Actor...

 in the title role, a film set in 1794 (Year Two) dealing with the Post-Revolutionary Terror. Wajda showed how easy revolution can change into terror and starts to "eat its own children". For this film Wajda was honoured by receiving the very prestigious Louis Delluc Award, he also gained a couple of Cesar Awards. In the 1980s he also made some important films like A Love in Germany (1983) featuring Hanna Schygulla
Hanna Schygulla
Hanna Schygulla is a German actress and chanson singer. She is generally considered the most prominent German actress of the New German Cinema.-Life and career:Schygulla was born in Königshütte, Upper Silesia,...

, The Chronicle of Amorous Incidents (1986) an adaptation of Tadeusz Konwicki
Tadeusz Konwicki
Tadeusz Konwicki is a Polish writer and film director, a member of the Polish Language Council.-Life:Konwicki was born in 1926 in Nowa Wilejka near Wilno, where he spent his early childhood. He spent his adolescence in Wilno, attending a local gymnasium...

's novel and The Possessed
The Possessed (play)
The Possessed is a play written by Albert Camus in 1959. The piece is a theatrical adaptation of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's novel by the same name....

(1988) based on Dostoyevsky's novel, in which it is shown how terrorism begins. In theatre he prepared a very famous interpretation of Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment
Crime and Punishment
Crime and Punishment is a novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky. It was first published in the literary journal The Russian Messenger in twelve monthly installments during 1866. It was later published in a single volume. This is the second of Dostoyevsky's full-length novels following his...

(1984) and other unique spectacles such as Antygone, his sequential Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...

versions or an old Jewish play The Dybbuk.

Since 1989

In 1990 Andrzej Wajda was honoured as the third director, after Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI , was an Italian film director and scriptwriter. Known for a distinct style that blends fantasy and baroque images, he is considered one of the most influential and widely revered filmmakers of the 20th century...

 and Ingmar Bergman
Ingmar Bergman
Ernst Ingmar Bergman was a Swedish director, writer and producer for film, stage and television. Described by Woody Allen as "probably the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera", he is recognized as one of the most accomplished and...

 by - European Film Award for his lifetime achievement. In the early 1990s, he was elected a senator and also appointed artistic director of Warsaw's Teatr Powszechny. He continued to make films set during World War II, including Korczak (1990), a story about a Jewish-Polish doctor who takes care of orphan children, in The Crowned-Eagle Ring (1993) and Holy Week
Holy Week
Holy Week in Christianity is the last week of Lent and the week before Easter...

(1995) specifically on Jewish-Polish relations. In 1994 Wajda presented his own film version of Dostoyevsky's novel The Idiot in the movie Nastasja
Nastasja
Nastasja is a Polish/Japanese film released in 1994, directed by Andrzej Wajda.The film is an adaptation on the last chapter of Fyodor Dostoyevski's novel The Idiot, in which Prince Mishkin and Rogozin return to the past in a conversation over the dead body of Nastasja...

,starring Japanese actor Tamasoburo Bando in double role of Prince Mishkin and Nasstasya, the film was beautifully photographed by Pawel Edelman
Pawel Edelman
Pawel Edelman is a Polish cinematographer who was born in Łódź on 26 June 1958. He was named Best European Cinematographer in 2002 at the European Film Awards for his work on The Pianist, for which he also won the César Award for Best Cinematography. He was nominated for an Academy Award and a...

, who became one of Wajda's great co-workers since that time. In 1996 the director went in a different direction with Miss Nobody
Miss Nobody
Miss Nobody is a 1926 silent film drama produced and distributed by First National Pictures and directed by Lambert Hillyer. The film is based on a short story by Tiffany Wells called "Shebo"; the likely feminine pronunciation of hobo. The stars of the film were Anna Q. Nilsson and Walter Pidgeon,...

, a coming-of-age drama that explored the darker and more spiritual aspects of a relationship between three high-school girls. In 1999 Wajda presented a great epic film Pan Tadeusz
Pan Tadeusz
Pan Tadeusz, the full title in English: Sir Thaddeus, or the Last Lithuanian Foray: A Nobleman's Tale from the Years of 1811 and 1812 in Twelve Books of Verse is an epic poem by the Polish poet, writer and philosopher Adam Mickiewicz...

, based on the art of the Polish nineteenth-century romantic poet Adam Mickiewicz
Adam Mickiewicz
Adam Bernard Mickiewicz ) was a Polish poet, publisher and political writer of the Romantic period. One of the primary representatives of the Polish Romanticism era, a national poet of Poland, he is seen as one of Poland's Three Bards and the greatest poet in all of Polish literature...

.

A year later, at the 2000 Academy Awards
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...

, Wajda was presented with an honorary Oscar for his contribution to world cinema; he subsequently donated the award to Kraków's Jagiellonian University.

In 2002 Wajda directed the comedy Revenge
Revenge
Revenge is a harmful action against a person or group in response to a grievance, be it real or perceived. It is also called payback, retribution, retaliation or vengeance; it may be characterized, justly or unjustly, as a form of justice.-Function in society:Some societies believe that the...

, a film version of his 1980s theatre production, with Roman Polanski
Roman Polanski
Roman Polanski is a French-Polish film director, producer, writer and actor. Having made films in Poland, Britain, France and the USA, he is considered one of the few "truly international filmmakers."...

 in one of the main roles. In February 2006, Wajda received an honorary Golden Bear
Golden Bear
According to legend, the Golden Bear was a large golden Ursus arctos. Members of the Ursus arctos species can reach masses of . The Grizzly Bear and the Kodiak Bear are North American subspecies of the Brown Bear....

 for lifetime achievement at the Berlin International Film Festival
Berlin International Film Festival
The Berlin International Film Festival , also called the Berlinale, is one of the world's leading film festivals and most reputable media events. It is held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in West Berlin in 1951, the festival has been celebrated annually in February since 1978...

.
In 2007 Katyń
Katyn (film)
Katyń is a 2007 Polish film about the 1940 Katyn massacre, directed by Academy Honorary Award winner Andrzej Wajda. It is based on the book Post Mortem: The Story of Katyn by Andrzej Mularczyk...

was released, a well received film about the Katyn massacre
Katyn massacre
The Katyn massacre, also known as the Katyn Forest massacre , was a mass execution of Polish nationals carried out by the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs , the Soviet secret police, in April and May 1940. The massacre was prompted by Lavrentiy Beria's proposal to execute all members of...

, in which Wajda's father was murdered but the director also shows the dramatic situation of those who await for their relatives (mothers, wives and children). The film was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film
Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film is one of the Academy Awards of Merit, popularly known as the Oscars, handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...

 Oscar in 2008.
Wajda followed it with Tatarak (Sweet Rush - 2009) with Krystyna Janda as a main character. It is partly based upon Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz short novel, there is also very important fragment taken from Janda's private life. Sweet Rush turns to be a sort of deep, calm and melancholic meditation about death and love. The film is dedicated to Edward Kłosiński, Janda's husband, a cinematographer and a long-time Andrzej Wajda's friend and co-worker who died of cancer the same year. For this film Andrzej Wajda was awarded by Alfred Bauer Prize at The Berlin Film Festival in 2009, recently he also got critics prize - Prix FIPRESCI during European Film Awards Ceremony. Currently Wajda is working on his latest film which would be the biography of Lech Wałęsa
Lech Wałęsa
Lech Wałęsa is a Polish politician, trade-union organizer, and human-rights activist. A charismatic leader, he co-founded Solidarity , the Soviet bloc's first independent trade union, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983, and served as President of Poland between 1990 and 95.Wałęsa was an electrician...

 and the script has been written by Janusz Głowacki.

Andrzej Wajda has founded The Japanese Centre of Art and Technology "Manggha" in Krakow/Cracow (1994) and has also founded (2002) (along with great Polish film maker Wojciech Marczewski
Wojciech Marczewski
Wojciech Marczewski is a Polish film director and screenwriter. He directed twelve films between 1968 and 2001.His 1981 film Dreszcze won the Silver Bear - Special Jury Prize at the 32nd Berlin International Film Festival...

) and leads his own film school http://www.wajdaschool.pl in which students take part in different film courses led by famous European film makers.

Analysis

A major figure of world and European cinema after World War II, Wajda made his reputation as a sensitive and uncompromising chronicler of his country's political and social evolution. Once dubbed a symbol for a besieged country, Wajda is known for drawing from Poland's history to suit his tragic sensibility—crafting an oeuvre of work that devastates even as it informs.

Andrzej Wajda's films have a strong visual side, he sometimes made his own versions of Polish and European paintings and he also thinks by the images. He tries to give the right mood and atmosphere of times in which he sets the action and he refers to the paintings of that time as well. He has worked with Polish cinematographers such as Jerzy Lipman, Jerzy Wójcik, Witold Sobociński
Witold Sobocinski
Witold Sobocinski is a Polish cinematographer, academic teacher as well as former jazz musician...

, Edward Kłosiński, Zygmunt Samosiuk, Sławomir Idziak or Paweł Edelman, he also cooperated with Igor Luther or Robby Muller
Robby Müller
Robby Müller is a cinematographer whose name is most often associated with film director Wim Wenders.-Life and work:...

.

Life

Andrzej Wajda is the son of a Polish cavalry officer murdered by the Soviets in 1940 in what came to be known as the Katyn massacre
Katyn massacre
The Katyn massacre, also known as the Katyn Forest massacre , was a mass execution of Polish nationals carried out by the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs , the Soviet secret police, in April and May 1940. The massacre was prompted by Lavrentiy Beria's proposal to execute all members of...

. After the war, he studied to be a painter at Kraków's Academy of Fine Arts before entering the Łódź Film School.

Wajda has been married four times. His third wife was popular actress Beata Tyszkiewicz
Beata Tyszkiewicz
Beata Maria Helena Tyszkiewiczówna-Kalenicka is a Polish actress.-Biography:Beata Tyszkiewicz is one of Poland’s quintessentially cinematic beauties, having worked exclusively on the big screen...

 with whom he has a daughter Karolina (born 1967). His fourth and current wife is theatre costume designer, and actress Krystyna Zachwatowicz
Krystyna Zachwatowicz
Krystyna Zachwatowicz-Wajda , born Krystyna Zachwatowicz, is a Polish scenographer, costume designer and actress. She is a daughter of architect and restorer Jan Zachwatowicz and Maria Chodźko h. Kościesza, and wife of film director Andrzej Wajda. Member of the Polish Film Academy. She is a...

.

Filmography

  • The Bad Boy (Zły chłopiec, 1951)- short film
  • The Pottery at Ilza (Ceramika ilzecka, 1951) -short film
  • While you are sleeping (Kiedy ty śpisz, 1953) -short film
  • A Generation
    A Generation
    A Generation is a 1955 Polish film directed by Andrzej Wajda. It is based on the novel Pokolenie by Bohdan Czeszko, who also wrote the script, and it was Wajda's first film and the opening installment of what became his Three War Films trilogy set in the Second World War, completed by Kanal and...

    (Pokolenie, 1954)
  • Towards the Sun (Idę do słońca, documentary on Xawery Dunikowski
    Xawery Dunikowski
    Xawery Dunikowski was a Polish sculptor and artist, notable for surviving Auschwitz concentration camp, and best known for his Neo-Romantic sculptures and Auschwitz-inspired art.- Biography :...

    , 1955)
  • Kanal (1956)
  • Ashes and Diamonds
    Ashes and Diamonds (film)
    Ashes and Diamonds is a 1958 Polish film directed by Andrzej Wajda, based on the 1948 novel by Polish writer Jerzy Andrzejewski...

    (Popiół i diament 1958)
  • Lotna
    Lotna
    Lotna is a Polish war film released in 1959 and directed by Andrzej Wajda.-Overview:This highly symbolic movie is both the director's tribute to the long and glorious history of the Polish cavalry, as well as a more ambiguous portrait of the passing of an era...

    (1959)
  • Innocent Sorcerers
    Innocent Sorcerers
    Innocent Sorcerers is a 1960 film directed by Polish film director, Andrzej Wajda.- Cast :* Tadeusz Łomnicki – Bazyli* Krystyna Stypułkowska – Pelagia* Zbigniew Cybulski – Edmund* Wanda Koczeska – Mirka...

    (Niewinni czarodzieje, 1960)
  • Siberian Lady Macbeth
    Siberian Lady Macbeth
    Siberian Lady Macbeth , also translated as Fury Is a Woman, is a 1962 film directed by Andrzej Wajda, based on the novella Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District by Nikolai Leskov....

    (Powiatowa lady Makbet, 1961)
  • Samson
    Samson (1961 film)
    Samson is a 1961 film made by Academy Award-winning Polish director Andrzej Wajda that uses art house aesthetics to tell a story about the Holocaust. Wajda's World War II film alludes to the Old Testament story of Samson, who had supernatural physical strength...

    (1961)
  • Love at Twenty
    Love at Twenty
    Love at Twenty is a 1962 French-produced omnibus project of Pierre Roustang, consisting of five segments directed by five directors from five different countries...

    (L'amour à vingt ans, 1962)
  • The Ashes
    The Ashes (film)
    The Ashes is a 1965 Polish drama film directed by Andrzej Wajda. It was entered into the 1966 Cannes Film Festival.-Cast:* Daniel Olbrychski - Rafal Olbromski* Boguslaw Kierc - Krzysztof Cedro* Piotr Wysocki - Jan Gintult...

    (Popioly, 1965)
  • Everything for Sale
    Everything for Sale
    Everything for Sale is a 1969 Polish drama film written and directed by Andrzej Wajda. The film was selected as the Polish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 42nd Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.-Cast:...

    (Wszystko na sprzedaż, 1968)
  • Roly Poly (Przekładaniec, 1968)
  • Gates to Paradise (Bramy Raju, 1968)
  • Hunting Flies (Polowanie na muchy, 1969)
  • The Birch Wood (Brzezina, 1970)
  • Landscape After the Battle
    Landscape After the Battle
    Landscape After the Battle is a 1970 drama film directed by Andrzej Wajda and starring Daniel Olbrychski; telling a story of a Nazi German concentration camp survivor soon after liberation, residing in a DP camp somewhere in Germany. It is based on the writings of Holocaust survivor and Polish...

    (Krajobraz po bitwie, 1970)
  • Pilate and Others (Pilatus und andere, 1972)
  • The Wedding
    The Wedding (1972 film)
    Wesele is a motion picture made in 1972 in Poland by Andrzej Wajda as an adaptation of a play by the same title written by Stanisław Wyspiański in 1901. Wajda also directed "Wesele" for the theatre....

    (Wesele, 1973)
  • The Promised Land
    The Promised Land
    The Promised Land is a 1975 Polish film directed by Andrzej Wajda, based on a novel by Władysław Reymont. Set in the industrial city of Łódź, The Promised Land tells the story of a Pole, a German, and a Jew struggling to build a factory in the raw world of 19th century capitalism.Wajda presents a...

    (Ziemia obiecana, 1974)
  • The Shadow Line
    The Shadow Line
    The Shadow-Line is a short novel based at sea by Joseph Conrad; it is one of his later works, being written from February to December 1915. It was first published in 1916 as a serial in New York's Metropolitan Magazine in the English Review and published in book form in 1917 in the UK and America...

    (Smuga cienia, 1976)
  • Man of Marble
    Man of Marble
    Man of Marble is a 1976 Polish film directed by Andrzej Wajda. It chronicles the fall from grace of a fictional heroic Polish bricklayer, Mateusz Birkut , who became the Stakhanovite symbol of an over-achieving worker, in Nowa Huta, a new socialist city near Kraków...

    (Człowiek z marmuru, 1977)
  • Without Anesthesia
    Without Anesthesia
    Without Anesthesia is the English-language title for the Polish film Bez znieczulenia, released in 1978, directed by Andrzej Wajda. It was entered in the 1979 Cannes Film Festival....

    aka Rough Treatment (Bez znieczulenia, 1978)
  • The Maids of Wilko
    The Maids of Wilko
    The Maids of Wilko is a 1979 Polish film directed by Andrzej Wajda. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. "Maids" is used in the sense of "maidens", hence another translation could be The Maidens of Wilko....

    (Panny z Wilka, 1979)
  • As years go by, as days go by ("Z biegiem lat, z biegiem dni", 1980 television serial.)
  • The Orchestra Conductor
    The Orchestra Conductor
    The Orchestra Conductor is a 1980 Polish drama film directed by Andrzej Wajda. It was entered into the 30th Berlin International Film Festival, where Andrzej Seweryn won the Silver Bear for Best Actor.-Cast:* John Gielgud - John Lasocki...

    (Dyrygent, 1980)
  • Man of Iron
    Man of Iron
    Man of Iron is a 1981 film directed by Andrzej Wajda. It depicts the Solidarity labour movement and its first success in persuading the Polish government to recognize the workers' right to an independent union....

    (Człowiek z żelaza, 1981)
  • Danton
    Danton (1983 film)
    Danton is a 1983 French language film depicting the last months of Georges Danton, one of the leaders of the French Revolution. It is an adaptation of the Polish play The Danton Case by Stanislawa Przybyszewska....

    (1983)
  • A Love in Germany (Eine Liebe in Deutschland, 1983)
  • A Chronicle of Amorous Accidents (Kronika wypadków miłosnych, 1985)
  • The French as seen by...
    The French as seen by...
    The French as seen by... was the title and subject of a series of five short films by notable directors. It was initiated and sponsored by the newspaper Le Figaro, as part of the 1988 celebration of the tenth anniversary of its magazine section...

    (Proust contre la déchéance, 1988)
  • The Possessed (Les possédes, 1988)
  • Korczak (1990)
  • The Crowned-Eagle Ring (Pierścionek z orłem w koronie, 1992)
  • Nastasja
    Nastasja
    Nastasja is a Polish/Japanese film released in 1994, directed by Andrzej Wajda.The film is an adaptation on the last chapter of Fyodor Dostoyevski's novel The Idiot, in which Prince Mishkin and Rogozin return to the past in a conversation over the dead body of Nastasja...

    (1994)
  • The Holy Gral (Wielki Tydzień, 1995)
  • Miss Nobody (Panna Nikt, 1996)
  • Pan Tadeusz
    Pan Tadeusz (film)
    Pan Tadeusz: The Last Foray in Lithuania is a 1999 Polish film directed by Andrzej Wajda. It is based on the eponymous epic poem by Polish poet, writer and philosopher Adam Mickiewicz . In his film, Andrzej Wajda weaves the tangled passions of men and women into a handsome, expansive tapestry of...

    (1999)
  • Bigda idzie (tv theatre "Bigda idzie!"; 1999)
  • The Condemnation of Franciszek Klos (Wyrok na Franciszka Kłosa, 2000)
  • June night ("Noc czerwcowa" -tv theatre, 2001)
  • Broken Silence (Przerwane milczenie, 2002)
  • The Revenge
    The Revenge (film)
    The Revenge is the English title for Zemsta, a film released in 2002, directed by Andrzej Wajda. This film is an adaptation of a perennially popular stage farce of the same name by the Polish dramatist and poet Aleksander Fredro....

    (Zemsta, 2002)
  • Man of Hope (Czlowiek z nadziei) (2005)
  • Katyń
    Katyn (film)
    Katyń is a 2007 Polish film about the 1940 Katyn massacre, directed by Academy Honorary Award winner Andrzej Wajda. It is based on the book Post Mortem: The Story of Katyn by Andrzej Mularczyk...

    (2007)
  • Sweet Rush (Tatarak) (2009)


Awards

Man of Iron
Man of Iron
Man of Iron is a 1981 film directed by Andrzej Wajda. It depicts the Solidarity labour movement and its first success in persuading the Polish government to recognize the workers' right to an independent union....

won the Palme d'Or
Palme d'Or
The Palme d'Or is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival and is presented to the director of the best feature film of the official competition. It was introduced in 1955 by the organising committee. From 1939 to 1954, the highest prize was the Grand Prix du Festival International du...

 at the 1981 Cannes Film Festival
1981 Cannes Film Festival
- Jury :*Jacques Deray *Ellen Burstyn *Jean-Claude Carrière *Robert Chazal *Attilio D'Onofrio *Christian Defaye *Carlos Diegues *Antonio Gala...

. Four of Wajda's works (The Promised Land
The Promised Land
The Promised Land is a 1975 Polish film directed by Andrzej Wajda, based on a novel by Władysław Reymont. Set in the industrial city of Łódź, The Promised Land tells the story of a Pole, a German, and a Jew struggling to build a factory in the raw world of 19th century capitalism.Wajda presents a...

, The Maids of Wilko
The Maids of Wilko
The Maids of Wilko is a 1979 Polish film directed by Andrzej Wajda. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. "Maids" is used in the sense of "maidens", hence another translation could be The Maidens of Wilko....

, Man of Iron
Man of Iron
Man of Iron is a 1981 film directed by Andrzej Wajda. It depicts the Solidarity labour movement and its first success in persuading the Polish government to recognize the workers' right to an independent union....

, and Katyń
Katyn (film)
Katyń is a 2007 Polish film about the 1940 Katyn massacre, directed by Academy Honorary Award winner Andrzej Wajda. It is based on the book Post Mortem: The Story of Katyn by Andrzej Mularczyk...

 )
have been nominated for an Academy Award for best foreign language film. In 2000, Wajda received an honorary Oscar from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the arts and sciences of motion pictures...

, as another Pole who received the Award after Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...

, Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Anthony Stokowski was a British-born, naturalised American orchestral conductor, well known for his free-hand performing style that spurned the traditional baton and for obtaining a characteristically sumptuous sound from many of the great orchestras he conducted.In America, Stokowski...

, Bronisław Kaper, Zbigniew Rybczyński
Zbigniew Rybczynski
Zbigniew Rybczyński is a Polish filmmaker who has won numerous prestigious industry awards both in the United States and internationally. He was also a teacher of cinematography, and digital cinematography. Currently he is a researcher of blue and greenscreen compositing technology at Ultimatte...

, Janusz Kamiński
Janusz Kaminski
Janusz Zygmunt Kamiński is a Polish cinematographer and film director. He has photographed all of Steven Spielberg's films since 1993's Schindler's List.-Life and career:...

, Allan Starski, Ewa Braun, Roman Polanski
Roman Polanski
Roman Polanski is a French-Polish film director, producer, writer and actor. Having made films in Poland, Britain, France and the USA, he is considered one of the few "truly international filmmakers."...

 or Jan A. P. Kaczmarek
Jan A. P. Kaczmarek
Jan Andrzej Paweł Kaczmarek is a Polish composer who has lived and worked in the United States since 1989. He has written the scores for more than 50 feature films and documentaries, including Finding Neverland , for which score he won an Academy Award and National Board of Review award...

.

The Orchestra Conductor
The Orchestra Conductor
The Orchestra Conductor is a 1980 Polish drama film directed by Andrzej Wajda. It was entered into the 30th Berlin International Film Festival, where Andrzej Seweryn won the Silver Bear for Best Actor.-Cast:* John Gielgud - John Lasocki...

was entered into the 30th Berlin International Film Festival
30th Berlin International Film Festival
The 30th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from February 18 to February 29, 1980.-Jury:* Ingrid Thulin * Betsy Blair* Mathieu Carrière* Alberto Isaac* Peter Kern* Károly Makk* Alexander Mitta* Alexandre Trauner...

, where Andrzej Seweryn
Andrzej Seweryn
Andrzej Seweryn is a Polish and French actor and director. One of the most successful Polish theatre actors, he starred in over 50 films, mostly in Poland, France and Germany. He is also one of only three non-French actors to be hired by the Paris-based Comédie-Française.- Biography :Andrzej...

 won the Silver Bear for Best Actor
Silver Bear for Best Actor
The Silver Bear for Best Actor is the Berlin International Film Festival's award for achievement in performance by an actor.- Awards :- External links :*...

. In 1988, his film Les Possédés was nominated for the Golden Bear
Golden Bear
According to legend, the Golden Bear was a large golden Ursus arctos. Members of the Ursus arctos species can reach masses of . The Grizzly Bear and the Kodiak Bear are North American subspecies of the Brown Bear....

 at the 38th Berlin International Film Festival
38th Berlin International Film Festival
The 38th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from February 12 to 23, 1988.-Jury:* Guglielmo Biraghi * Ellen Burstyn* Heiner Carow* Eberhard Junkersdorf* Tom Luddy* Heinz Rathsack* Daniel Schmid* Andrei Smirnov...

.

See also

  • Cinema of Poland
    Cinema of Poland
    The history of cinema in Poland is almost as long as history of cinematography, and it has universal achievements, even though Polish movies tend to be less commercially available than movies from several other European nations....

  • List of Polish-language films
  • Museum of Communism, Poland

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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