Krzysztof Kieslowski
Encyclopedia
Krzysztof Kieślowski (ˈkʂɨʂtɔf kʲɛˈɕlɔfskʲi; 27 June 1941 – 13 March 1996) was an Academy Award nominated influential Polish
film
director
and screenwriter
, known internationally for The Double Life of Veronique
and his film cycles The Decalogue
and Three Colors.
and grew up in several small towns, moving wherever his engineer father, a tuberculosis
patient, could find treatment. At sixteen, he briefly attended a firefighter
s' training school, but dropped out after three months. Without any career goals, he then entered the College for Theatre Technicians in Warsaw in 1957 because it was run by a relative. He decided to become a theatre director, but at the time you had to already have at least a bachelor to apply for the theatre school, so he chose to study film as an intermediate step. He was raised Roman Catholic and retained what he called a "personal and private" relationship with God
.
and Andrzej Wajda
among its alumni. He was rejected twice. To avoid compulsory military service during this time, he briefly became an art student, and also went on a drastic diet in an attempt to make himself medically unfit for service. After several months of successfully avoiding the draft, he was accepted to the Łódź Film School on his third attempt.
He attended from 1964 to 1968, during a period in which the government allowed a relatively high degree of artistic freedom at the school. Kieślowski quickly lost his interest in theatre and decided to make documentary film
s. Kieślowski also married his lifelong love, Maria (Marysia) Cautillo, during his final year in school (m. 21 January 1967 to his death), and they had a daughter, Marta (b. 8 January 1972).
Kieślowski retired from film making with a public announcement after the premiere of his last film Red at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival. Just under two years after announcing his retirement, Krzysztof Kieślowski died on 13 March 1996 at age 54 during open-heart surgery following a heart attack, and was interred in Powązki Cemetery
in Warsaw. His grave is located within the prestigious plot 23 and has a sculpture of the thumb and forefingers of two hands forming an oblong space—the classic view as if through a movie camera. The small sculpture is in black marble on a pedestal slightly over a meter tall. The slab with Kieślowski's name and dates lies below. He was survived by his wife Maria and daughter Marta.
meetings with a fictional story about a man under scrutiny by the officials. Though Kieślowski believed the film's message was anti-authoritarian, he was criticized by his colleagues for cooperating with the government in its production.
Kieślowski later said that he abandoned documentary filmmaking due to two experiences: the censorship of Workers '71, which caused him to doubt whether truth could be told literally under an authoritarian regime, and an incident during the filming of Station (1981) in which some of his footage was nearly used as evidence in a criminal case. He decided that fiction not only allowed more artistic freedom, but could portray everyday life more truthfully.
(Blizna), were works of social realism
with large casts: Personnel was about technicians working on a stage production, based on his early college experience, and The Scar showed the upheaval of a small town by a poorly-planned industrial project. These films were shot in a documentary style with many nonprofessional actors; like his earlier films, they portrayed everyday life under the weight of an oppressive system, but without overt commentary. Camera Buff
(Amator, 1979) (which won the grand prize at the Moscow International Film Festival
) and Blind Chance
(Przypadek, 1981) continued along similar lines, but focused more on the ethical choices faced by a single character rather than a community. During this period, Kieślowski was considered part of a loose movement with other Polish directors of the time, including Janusz Kijowski, Andrzej Wajda
, and Agnieszka Holland
, called the Cinema of Moral Anxiety. His links with these directors (Holland in particular) caused some raised eyebrows within the Polish government, and each of his early films was subjected to censorship and enforced re-shooting/re-editing, if not banned outright (Blind Chance was not released domestically until 1987, almost six years after it was completed).
No End
(Bez końca, 1984) was perhaps his most clearly political film, depicting political trials in Poland during martial law, from the unusual point of view of a lawyer's ghost and his widow. It was harshly criticized by both the government and dissidents. Starting with No End, Kieślowski's career was closely associated with two regular collaborators, the screenwriter Krzysztof Piesiewicz
and the composer Zbigniew Preisner
. Piesiewicz was a trial lawyer whom Kieślowski met while researching political trials under martial law for a planned documentary on the subject; Piesiewicz co-wrote the screenplays for all of Kieślowski's subsequent films. Preisner provided the musical score for No End and most of the subsequent films; the score often plays a prominent part in Kieślowski's films and many of Preisner's pieces are referred to within the films themselves. In these cases, they are usually discussed by the films' characters as being the work of the (fictional) Dutch composer Van den Budenmayer. The Decalogue
(1988), a series of ten short films set in a Warsaw tower block, each nominally based on one of the Ten Commandments
, was created for Polish television
with funding from West Germany
; it is now one of the most critically acclaimed film cycles of all time. Co-written by Kieślowski and Piesiewicz, the ten one-hour-long episodes had originally been intended for ten different directors, but Kieślowski found himself unable to relinquish control over the project; in the end, each episode featured a different director of photography. Episodes five and six were released internationally in a longer form as A Short Film About Killing and A Short Film About Love respectively. Kieślowski had also planned to shoot a full-length version of Episode 9 under the title A Short Film About Jealousy, but exhaustion eventually prevented him from making what would have been his thirteenth film in less than a year.
and in particular Romanian-born producer Marin Karmitz
. These focused on moral and metaphysical issues along similar lines to The Decalogue and Blind Chance but on a more abstract level, with smaller casts, more internal stories, and less interest in communities. Poland appeared in these films mostly through the eyes of European outsiders. The four films were his most commercially successful by some distance.
The first of these was The Double Life of Véronique
(La double vie de Véronique, 1990), which starred Irène Jacob
. The relative commercial success of this film gave Kieślowski the funding for his ambitious final films, the trilogy Three Colors
(Blue
, White
, Red), which explores the virtues symbolized by the French flag. The three films together garnered a host of prestigious international awards, including the Golden Lion
for Best Film at the Venice Film Festival
and the Silver Bear for Best Director at the Berlin Film Festival, in addition to receiving three Academy Award
nominations.
After Kieślowski's death, Harvey Weinstein
(then head of Miramax Films, which distributed the last four Kieślowski films in the US) wrote a eulogy for him in Premiere
magazine. In it he said that Quentin Tarantino
saw The Double Life of Véronique
at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival
and took note of its star, Irène Jacob
. He apparently wrote the part of Bruce Willis
's wife in Pulp Fiction
for her, but she was unavailable for the shoot. She was working on Kieślowski's Three Colors: Red at the time. According to the same article, Tarantino saw Red at Cannes and declared that it would win the Palme d'Or
. Instead his own Pulp Fiction
received the top prize at the festival.
Though he had claimed to be retiring after Three Colors, at the time of his death Kieślowski was working on a new trilogy co-written with Piesiewicz, consisting of Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory and inspired by Dante
's The Divine Comedy
. As was originally intended for the Decalogue, the scripts were ostensibly intended to be given to other directors for filming, but Kieślowski's untimely death means it is unknown whether he might have broken his self-imposed retirement to direct the trilogy himself. The only completed screenplay, Heaven
, was filmed by Tom Tykwer
and released in 2002 at the Toronto International Film Festival
. The other two scripts existed only as thirty-page treatments at the time of Kieślowski's death; Piesiewicz has since completed these screenplays, with Hell — directed by Bosnian director Danis Tanović
and starring Emmanuelle Béart
— released in 2005, whilst Purgatory, which is about a photographer killed in the Bosnian war, remains unproduced. The 2007, Ibo Kurdo and Stanislaw Mucha directed Nadzieja (Hope), also scripted by Piesiewicz, has been incorrectly identified as the third part of the trilogy, but is in fact, an unrelated project. Jerzy Stuhr
, who starred in several Kieślowski films and co-wrote the script for Camera Buff, filmed his own adaptation of an unfilmed Kieślowski script as Big Animal
(Duże zwierzę) in 2000.
Kieślowski said the following in an interview:
Stanley Kubrick
wrote the foreword to Kieślowski & Piesiewicz, Decalogue: The Ten Commandments, London: Faber & Faber, 1991:
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
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
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:...
and screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
, known internationally for The Double Life of Veronique
The Double Life of Véronique
The Double Life of Véronique is a 1991 French- and Polish-language film directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski, co-written by Kieślowski and Krzysztof Piesiewicz, starring Irène Jacob, with original music by Zbigniew Preisner. The film was Kieślowski's first to be produced partly outside Poland.A...
and his film cycles The Decalogue
The Decalogue
The Decalogue is a 1989 Polish television drama series directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski and co-written by Kieślowski with Krzysztof Piesiewicz, with music by Zbigniew Preisner...
and Three Colors.
Early life
Kieślowski was born in WarsawWarsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
and grew up in several small towns, moving wherever his engineer father, a tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
patient, could find treatment. At sixteen, he briefly attended a firefighter
Firefighter
Firefighters are rescuers extensively trained primarily to put out hazardous fires that threaten civilian populations and property, to rescue people from car incidents, collapsed and burning buildings and other such situations...
s' training school, but dropped out after three months. Without any career goals, he then entered the College for Theatre Technicians in Warsaw in 1957 because it was run by a relative. He decided to become a theatre director, but at the time you had to already have at least a bachelor to apply for the theatre school, so he chose to study film as an intermediate step. He was raised Roman Catholic and retained what he called a "personal and private" relationship with God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
.
Career
Leaving college and working as a theatrical tailor, Kieślowski applied to the Łódź Film School, the famed Polish film school which also has Roman PolanskiRoman 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 Andrzej Wajda
Andrzej Wajda
Andrzej Wajda is a Polish film director. Recipient of an honorary Oscar, he is possibly the most prominent member of the unofficial "Polish Film School"...
among its alumni. He was rejected twice. To avoid compulsory military service during this time, he briefly became an art student, and also went on a drastic diet in an attempt to make himself medically unfit for service. After several months of successfully avoiding the draft, he was accepted to the Łódź Film School on his third attempt.
He attended from 1964 to 1968, during a period in which the government allowed a relatively high degree of artistic freedom at the school. Kieślowski quickly lost his interest in theatre and decided to make documentary film
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
s. Kieślowski also married his lifelong love, Maria (Marysia) Cautillo, during his final year in school (m. 21 January 1967 to his death), and they had a daughter, Marta (b. 8 January 1972).
Kieślowski retired from film making with a public announcement after the premiere of his last film Red at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival. Just under two years after announcing his retirement, Krzysztof Kieślowski died on 13 March 1996 at age 54 during open-heart surgery following a heart attack, and was interred in Powązki Cemetery
Powazki Cemetery
Powązki Cemetery , also known as the Stare Powązki is a historic cemetery located in the Wola district, western part of Warsaw, Poland. It is the most famous cemetery in the city, and one of the oldest...
in Warsaw. His grave is located within the prestigious plot 23 and has a sculpture of the thumb and forefingers of two hands forming an oblong space—the classic view as if through a movie camera. The small sculpture is in black marble on a pedestal slightly over a meter tall. The slab with Kieślowski's name and dates lies below. He was survived by his wife Maria and daughter Marta.
Documentaries
Kieślowski's early documentaries focused on the everyday lives of city dwellers, workers, and soldiers. Though he was not an overtly political filmmaker, he soon found that attempting to depict Polish life accurately brought him into conflict with the authorities. His television film Workers '71, which showed workers discussing the reasons for the mass strikes of 1970, was only shown in a drastically censored form. After Workers '71, he turned his eye on the authorities themselves in Curriculum Vitae, a film that combined documentary footage of PolitburoPolitburo
Politburo , literally "Political Bureau [of the Central Committee]," is the executive committee for a number of communist political parties.-Marxist-Leninist states:...
meetings with a fictional story about a man under scrutiny by the officials. Though Kieślowski believed the film's message was anti-authoritarian, he was criticized by his colleagues for cooperating with the government in its production.
Kieślowski later said that he abandoned documentary filmmaking due to two experiences: the censorship of Workers '71, which caused him to doubt whether truth could be told literally under an authoritarian regime, and an incident during the filming of Station (1981) in which some of his footage was nearly used as evidence in a criminal case. He decided that fiction not only allowed more artistic freedom, but could portray everyday life more truthfully.
Polish feature films
His first non-documentary feature, Personnel (1975), was made for television and won him first prize at the Mannheim Film Festival. Both Personnel and his next feature, The ScarThe Scar (film)
The Scar is a 1976 Polish film directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski. It was the director's first theatrical feature film.-External links:*...
(Blizna), were works of social realism
Social realism
Social Realism, also known as Socio-Realism, is an artistic movement, expressed in the visual and other realist arts, which depicts social and racial injustice, economic hardship, through unvarnished pictures of life's struggles; often depicting working class activities as heroic...
with large casts: Personnel was about technicians working on a stage production, based on his early college experience, and The Scar showed the upheaval of a small town by a poorly-planned industrial project. These films were shot in a documentary style with many nonprofessional actors; like his earlier films, they portrayed everyday life under the weight of an oppressive system, but without overt commentary. Camera Buff
Camera Buff
Camera Buff is a 1979 Polish film written and directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski about a humble factory worker whose newfound hobby, amateur film, becomes an obsession, and transforms his modest and formerly contented life.- Plot summary :...
(Amator, 1979) (which won the grand prize at the Moscow International Film Festival
Moscow International Film Festival
Moscow International Film Festival , is the film festival first held in Moscow in 1959. From its inception to 1995 it was held every second year in July, alternating with the Karlovy Vary festival. The festival has been held annually since 1995....
) and Blind Chance
Blind Chance
Blind Chance is a Polish film directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski. Made in 1981, the film was suppressed by the Polish authorities for several years, until its delayed release in 1987...
(Przypadek, 1981) continued along similar lines, but focused more on the ethical choices faced by a single character rather than a community. During this period, Kieślowski was considered part of a loose movement with other Polish directors of the time, including Janusz Kijowski, Andrzej Wajda
Andrzej Wajda
Andrzej Wajda is a Polish film director. Recipient of an honorary Oscar, he is possibly the most prominent member of the unofficial "Polish Film School"...
, and Agnieszka Holland
Agnieszka Holland
Agnieszka Holland is a Polish film and TV director and screenwriter. Best recognized for her highly political contributions to Polish cinema, Holland is one of Poland's most prominent filmmakers.-Personal life:...
, called the Cinema of Moral Anxiety. His links with these directors (Holland in particular) caused some raised eyebrows within the Polish government, and each of his early films was subjected to censorship and enforced re-shooting/re-editing, if not banned outright (Blind Chance was not released domestically until 1987, almost six years after it was completed).
No End
No End (film)
No End is a 1985 film by Krzysztof Kieślowski ultimately concerning the state of Martial law in Poland after the banning of the trade union Solidarity in 1981....
(Bez końca, 1984) was perhaps his most clearly political film, depicting political trials in Poland during martial law, from the unusual point of view of a lawyer's ghost and his widow. It was harshly criticized by both the government and dissidents. Starting with No End, Kieślowski's career was closely associated with two regular collaborators, the screenwriter Krzysztof Piesiewicz
Krzysztof Piesiewicz
Krzysztof Marek Piesiewicz is a Polish lawyer, screenwriter, and politician, who is currently a member of the Polish Parliament and head of the Ruch Społeczny or Social Movement Party....
and the composer Zbigniew Preisner
Zbigniew Preisner
Zbigniew Preisner is a Polish film score composer, best known for his work with film director Krzysztof Kieślowski.-Life:Zbigniew Preisner studied history and philosophy in Kraków. Never having received formal music lessons, he taught himself music by listening and transcribing parts from records....
. Piesiewicz was a trial lawyer whom Kieślowski met while researching political trials under martial law for a planned documentary on the subject; Piesiewicz co-wrote the screenplays for all of Kieślowski's subsequent films. Preisner provided the musical score for No End and most of the subsequent films; the score often plays a prominent part in Kieślowski's films and many of Preisner's pieces are referred to within the films themselves. In these cases, they are usually discussed by the films' characters as being the work of the (fictional) Dutch composer Van den Budenmayer. The Decalogue
The Decalogue
The Decalogue is a 1989 Polish television drama series directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski and co-written by Kieślowski with Krzysztof Piesiewicz, with music by Zbigniew Preisner...
(1988), a series of ten short films set in a Warsaw tower block, each nominally based on one of the Ten Commandments
Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments, also known as the Decalogue , are a set of biblical principles relating to ethics and worship, which play a fundamental role in Judaism and most forms of Christianity. They include instructions to worship only God and to keep the Sabbath, and prohibitions against idolatry,...
, was created for Polish television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
with funding from West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
; it is now one of the most critically acclaimed film cycles of all time. Co-written by Kieślowski and Piesiewicz, the ten one-hour-long episodes had originally been intended for ten different directors, but Kieślowski found himself unable to relinquish control over the project; in the end, each episode featured a different director of photography. Episodes five and six were released internationally in a longer form as A Short Film About Killing and A Short Film About Love respectively. Kieślowski had also planned to shoot a full-length version of Episode 9 under the title A Short Film About Jealousy, but exhaustion eventually prevented him from making what would have been his thirteenth film in less than a year.
Foreign productions
Kieślowski's last four films were foreign co-productions, made mainly with money from FranceFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and in particular Romanian-born producer Marin Karmitz
Marin Karmitz
Marin Karmitz is a French jewish businessman whose career has spanned the French film industry, including director, producer, film distributor, and operator of a chain of cinemas....
. These focused on moral and metaphysical issues along similar lines to The Decalogue and Blind Chance but on a more abstract level, with smaller casts, more internal stories, and less interest in communities. Poland appeared in these films mostly through the eyes of European outsiders. The four films were his most commercially successful by some distance.
The first of these was The Double Life of Véronique
The Double Life of Véronique
The Double Life of Véronique is a 1991 French- and Polish-language film directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski, co-written by Kieślowski and Krzysztof Piesiewicz, starring Irène Jacob, with original music by Zbigniew Preisner. The film was Kieślowski's first to be produced partly outside Poland.A...
(La double vie de Véronique, 1990), which starred Irène Jacob
Irène Jacob
Irène Marie Jacob is a French-born Swiss actress considered one of the preeminent French actresses of her generation. Jacob gained international recognition and acclaim through her work with Polish film director Krzysztof Kieślowski, who cast her in the lead role of The Double Life of Véronique...
. The relative commercial success of this film gave Kieślowski the funding for his ambitious final films, the trilogy Three Colors
Three Colors
The Three Colours Trilogy is the collective title of three films – a trilogy – directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski, two made in French and one primarily in Polish: Trois couleurs: Bleu , Trzy kolory: Biały , and Trois couleurs: Rouge...
(Blue
Three Colors: Blue
Three Colors: Blue is a 1993 French drama film written, produced, and directed by the acclaimed Polish director Krzysztof Kieślowski. Blue is the first of three films that comprise The Three Colors Trilogy, themed on the French Revolutionary ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity; it is...
, White
Three Colors: White
Three Colors: White is a 1994 Polish mystery comedy-drama film co-written, produced, and directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski...
, Red), which explores the virtues symbolized by the French flag. The three films together garnered a host of prestigious international awards, including the Golden Lion
Golden Lion
Il Leone d’Oro is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in 1949 by the organizing committee and is now regarded as one of the film industry's most distinguished prizes...
for Best Film at the Venice Film Festival
Venice Film Festival
The Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the...
and the Silver Bear for Best Director at the Berlin Film Festival, in addition to receiving three Academy Award
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...
nominations.
Casting
Kieślowski often used the same actors in key roles in his films, including:- Artur BarciśArtur BarciśArtur Barciś is a Polish actor. He appeared in the television series Aby do świtu... in 1992. and Kieślowski's "Dekalog"-References:...
in No EndNo End (film)No End is a 1985 film by Krzysztof Kieślowski ultimately concerning the state of Martial law in Poland after the banning of the trade union Solidarity in 1981....
, The DecalogueThe DecalogueThe Decalogue is a 1989 Polish television drama series directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski and co-written by Kieślowski with Krzysztof Piesiewicz, with music by Zbigniew Preisner...
, A Short Film About LoveA Short Film About LoveA Short Film About Love is an expanded film version of the sixth episode of director Krzysztof Kieślowski's 1988 Polish language ten-part television series, The Decalogue...
, and A Short Film About KillingA Short Film About KillingA Short Film About Killing is a 1988 film directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski expanded from the fifth episode in the Polish television series Dekalog... - Aleksander BardiniAleksander BardiniAleksander Bardini was a Polish theatre and opera director, actor, notable professor at the State Theatre School in Warsaw...
in No End, The Decalogue, The Double Life of VéroniqueThe Double Life of VéroniqueThe Double Life of Véronique is a 1991 French- and Polish-language film directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski, co-written by Kieślowski and Krzysztof Piesiewicz, starring Irène Jacob, with original music by Zbigniew Preisner. The film was Kieślowski's first to be produced partly outside Poland.A...
, and Three Colors: WhiteThree Colors: WhiteThree Colors: White is a 1994 Polish mystery comedy-drama film co-written, produced, and directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski... - Irène JacobIrène JacobIrène Marie Jacob is a French-born Swiss actress considered one of the preeminent French actresses of her generation. Jacob gained international recognition and acclaim through her work with Polish film director Krzysztof Kieślowski, who cast her in the lead role of The Double Life of Véronique...
in The Double Life of Véronique and Three Colors: Red - Boguslaw LindaBoguslaw LindaBogusław Linda is a Polish actor known from films such as Psy and Tato. He appeared in Andrzej Wajda's Man of Iron and Danton and in Krzysztof Kieslowski's Blind Chance and the seventh episode of Kieslowski's Dekalog....
in Blind ChanceBlind ChanceBlind Chance is a Polish film directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski. Made in 1981, the film was suppressed by the Polish authorities for several years, until its delayed release in 1987...
and The Decalogue - Maria Pakulnis in No End and The Decalogue
- Jerzy StuhrJerzy StuhrJerzy Stuhr is one of the most popular, influential and versatile Polish actors. He also works as a screenwriter, film director and drama professor...
in The ScarThe Scar (film)The Scar is a 1976 Polish film directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski. It was the director's first theatrical feature film.-External links:*...
, Camera BuffCamera BuffCamera Buff is a 1979 Polish film written and directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski about a humble factory worker whose newfound hobby, amateur film, becomes an obsession, and transforms his modest and formerly contented life.- Plot summary :...
, Blind Chance, The Decalogue, and Three Colors: White - Grażyna Szapołowska in No End, The Decalogue, and A Short Film About LoveA Short Film About LoveA Short Film About Love is an expanded film version of the sixth episode of director Krzysztof Kieślowski's 1988 Polish language ten-part television series, The Decalogue...
- Zbigniew ZamachowskiZbigniew ZamachowskiZbigniew Zamachowski is a Polish actor.Zamachowski graduated the actor's faculty in "PWSFTViT" in Łódź. He began his acting career in 1981 and in 1989 had a co-starring role in Part Ten of director Krzysztof Kieślowski's film series, The Decalogue...
in The Decalogue, and Three Colors: WhiteThree Colors: WhiteThree Colors: White is a 1994 Polish mystery comedy-drama film co-written, produced, and directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski...
Legacy
Kieślowski remains one of Europe's most influential directors, his works included in the study of film classes at universities throughout the world. The 1993 book Kieślowski on Kieślowski describes his life and work in his own words, based on interviews by Danusia Stok. He is also the subject of a biographical film, Krzysztof Kieślowski: I'm So-So (1995), directed by Krzysztof Wierzbicki.After Kieślowski's death, Harvey Weinstein
Harvey Weinstein
Harvey Weinstein, CBE is an American film producer and movie studio chairman. He is best known as co-founder of Miramax Films. He and his brother Bob have been co-chairmen of The Weinstein Company, their film production company, since 2005...
(then head of Miramax Films, which distributed the last four Kieślowski films in the US) wrote a eulogy for him in Premiere
Premiere (magazine)
Premiere was an American and New York City-based film magazine published by Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., published between the years 1987 and 2007. The original version of the magazine, Première , was started in France in 1976 and is still being published there.-History:The magazine originally...
magazine. In it he said that Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and actor. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with films employing nonlinear storylines and the aestheticization of violence...
saw The Double Life of Véronique
The Double Life of Véronique
The Double Life of Véronique is a 1991 French- and Polish-language film directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski, co-written by Kieślowski and Krzysztof Piesiewicz, starring Irène Jacob, with original music by Zbigniew Preisner. The film was Kieślowski's first to be produced partly outside Poland.A...
at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival
1991 Cannes Film Festival
- Jury :*Roman Polanski *Férid Boughedir *Whoopi Goldberg *Margaret Menegoz *Natalia Negoda *Alan Parker *Jean-Paul Rappeneau *Hans Dieter Seidel *Vittorio Storaro...
and took note of its star, Irène Jacob
Irène Jacob
Irène Marie Jacob is a French-born Swiss actress considered one of the preeminent French actresses of her generation. Jacob gained international recognition and acclaim through her work with Polish film director Krzysztof Kieślowski, who cast her in the lead role of The Double Life of Véronique...
. He apparently wrote the part of Bruce Willis
Bruce Willis
Walter Bruce Willis , better known as Bruce Willis, is an American actor, producer, and musician. His career began in television in the 1980s and has continued both in television and film since, including comedic, dramatic, and action roles...
's wife in Pulp Fiction
Pulp Fiction (film)
Pulp Fiction is a 1994 American crime film directed by Quentin Tarantino, who co-wrote its screenplay with Roger Avary. The film is known for its rich, eclectic dialogue, ironic mix of humor and violence, nonlinear storyline, and host of cinematic allusions and pop culture references...
for her, but she was unavailable for the shoot. She was working on Kieślowski's Three Colors: Red at the time. According to the same article, Tarantino saw Red at Cannes and declared that it would win 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...
. Instead his own Pulp Fiction
Pulp Fiction (film)
Pulp Fiction is a 1994 American crime film directed by Quentin Tarantino, who co-wrote its screenplay with Roger Avary. The film is known for its rich, eclectic dialogue, ironic mix of humor and violence, nonlinear storyline, and host of cinematic allusions and pop culture references...
received the top prize at the festival.
Though he had claimed to be retiring after Three Colors, at the time of his death Kieślowski was working on a new trilogy co-written with Piesiewicz, consisting of Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory and inspired by Dante
Dante Alighieri
Durante degli Alighieri, mononymously referred to as Dante , was an Italian poet, prose writer, literary theorist, moral philosopher, and political thinker. He is best known for the monumental epic poem La commedia, later named La divina commedia ...
's The Divine Comedy
The Divine Comedy
The Divine Comedy is an epic poem written by Dante Alighieri between 1308 and his death in 1321. It is widely considered the preeminent work of Italian literature, and is seen as one of the greatest works of world literature...
. As was originally intended for the Decalogue, the scripts were ostensibly intended to be given to other directors for filming, but Kieślowski's untimely death means it is unknown whether he might have broken his self-imposed retirement to direct the trilogy himself. The only completed screenplay, Heaven
Heaven (2002 film)
Heaven is a 2002 Film directed by Tom Tykwer, starring Cate Blanchett and Giovanni Ribisi. Co-screenwriter Krzysztof Kieślowski intended for it to be the first part of a trilogy , but died before he could complete the project...
, was filmed by Tom Tykwer
Tom Tykwer
Tom Tykwer is a German film director, screenwriter, and composer. He is best known internationally for directing Run Lola Run , Heaven , Perfume: The Story of a Murderer , and The International ....
and released in 2002 at the Toronto International Film Festival
Toronto International Film Festival
The Toronto International Film Festival is a publicly-attended film festival held each September in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In 2010, 339 films from 59 countries were screened at 32 screens in downtown Toronto venues...
. The other two scripts existed only as thirty-page treatments at the time of Kieślowski's death; Piesiewicz has since completed these screenplays, with Hell — directed by Bosnian director Danis Tanović
Danis Tanovic
Danis Tanović is a Bosnian film director and screenwriter.Tanović is best known for having directed and written the script for the 2001 Bosnian movie No Man's Land which won an Academy Award. He was a member of the jury at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival.-Biography:Danis Tanović was born in the...
and starring Emmanuelle Béart
Emmanuelle Béart
Emmanuelle Béart is a French film actress, who has appeared in over 50 film and television productions since 1972. Béart won a César Award for Best Supporting Actress in the film Manon des Sources . She has been nominated a further seven times for Most Promising Actress and Best Actress.- Early...
— released in 2005, whilst Purgatory, which is about a photographer killed in the Bosnian war, remains unproduced. The 2007, Ibo Kurdo and Stanislaw Mucha directed Nadzieja (Hope), also scripted by Piesiewicz, has been incorrectly identified as the third part of the trilogy, but is in fact, an unrelated project. Jerzy Stuhr
Jerzy Stuhr
Jerzy Stuhr is one of the most popular, influential and versatile Polish actors. He also works as a screenwriter, film director and drama professor...
, who starred in several Kieślowski films and co-wrote the script for Camera Buff, filmed his own adaptation of an unfilmed Kieślowski script as Big Animal
Big Animal
Big Animal is a 2000 Polish film directed by Jerzy Stuhr from a screenplay by Krzysztof Kieslowski, based on a short story by Kazimierz Orłoś.-Plot:...
(Duże zwierzę) in 2000.
Kieślowski said the following in an interview:
Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick was an American film director, writer, producer, and photographer who lived in England during most of the last four decades of his career...
wrote the foreword to Kieślowski & Piesiewicz, Decalogue: The Ten Commandments, London: Faber & Faber, 1991:
Documentaries/short subjects
- The Face (Twarz 1966), as actor
- The OfficeThe Office (film)The Office is a 1966 short film by Polish director Krzysztof Kieślowski, produced while he was a student at the Łódź Film School. The film is included as an extra on the Region 1 and 2 releases of Kieslowski's feature film No End....
(Urząd 1966) - TramwayTramway (film)Tramway is a 1966 short silent film by Polish director Krzysztof Kieślowski, produced while he was a student at the Łódź Film School. The film is included as an extra feature on the American and Artificial Eye Region 2 DVD releases of Kieslowski's A Short Film About Love.The film shows a boy who...
(Tramwaj 1966) - Concert of RequestsConcert of RequestsConcert of Requests is a 1967 short film by Polish director Krzysztof Kieślowski and starring Jerzy Fedorowicz, produced while Kieślowski was a student at the Łódź Film School...
(Koncert życzeń 1967) - The Photograph (Zdjęcie 1968)
- From the City of Łódź (Z miasta Łodzi 1968)
- I Was a Soldier (Byłem żołnierzem 1970)
- Factory (Fabryka 1970)
- Workers '71: Nothing About Us Without Us (Robotnicy '71: Nic o nas bez nas 1971)
- Before the Rally (Przed rajdem 1971)
- Between Wrocław and Zielona Góra (Między Wrocławiem a Zieloną Górą 1972)
- The Principles of Safety and Hygiene in a Copper Mine (Podstawy BHP w kopalni miedzi 1972)
- Gospodarze (1972)
- Refrain (Refren 1972)
- The Bricklayer (Murarz 1973)
- First Love (Pierwsza miłość 1974)
- X-Ray (Przeswietlenie 1974)
- Pedestrian Subway (Przejście podziemne 1974)
- Curriculum Vitae (Życiorys 1975)
- Hospital (Szpital 1976)
- Slate (Klaps 1976)
- From a Night Porter's Point of ViewFrom a Night Porter's Point of ViewFrom a Night Porter's Point of View is a 1977 documentary film by Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Kieślowski. It won the Grand Prix at the nineteenth Kraków Film Festival in 1979...
(Z punktu widzenia nocnego portiera 1977) - I Don't Know (Nie wiem 1977)
- Seven Women of Different Ages (Siedem kobiet w roznym wieku 1978)
- Railway Station (Dworzec 1980)
- Talking Heads (Gadające glowy 1980)
- Seven Days a Week (Siedem dni tygodniu 1988)
Features and TV fiction
- Personnel (Personel TV drama 1975)
- The ScarThe Scar (film)The Scar is a 1976 Polish film directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski. It was the director's first theatrical feature film.-External links:*...
(Blizna 1976) - The Calm (Spokój TV drama 1978)
- Camera BuffCamera BuffCamera Buff is a 1979 Polish film written and directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski about a humble factory worker whose newfound hobby, amateur film, becomes an obsession, and transforms his modest and formerly contented life.- Plot summary :...
(Amator 1979) - Short Working DayKrótki dzień pracyKrótki dzień pracy is a Polish movie directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski. The film tells the story of the workers protests in June '76 in Radom, as seen from the perspective of the local Secretary of the Communist Party...
(Krótki dzień pracy 1981) - Blind ChanceBlind ChanceBlind Chance is a Polish film directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski. Made in 1981, the film was suppressed by the Polish authorities for several years, until its delayed release in 1987...
(Przypadek 1981) - No EndNo End (film)No End is a 1985 film by Krzysztof Kieślowski ultimately concerning the state of Martial law in Poland after the banning of the trade union Solidarity in 1981....
(Bez końca 1984) - The DecalogueThe DecalogueThe Decalogue is a 1989 Polish television drama series directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski and co-written by Kieślowski with Krzysztof Piesiewicz, with music by Zbigniew Preisner...
(Dekalog 1988) - A Short Film About KillingA Short Film About KillingA Short Film About Killing is a 1988 film directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski expanded from the fifth episode in the Polish television series Dekalog...
(Krótki film o zabijaniu 1988) - A Short Film About LoveA Short Film About LoveA Short Film About Love is an expanded film version of the sixth episode of director Krzysztof Kieślowski's 1988 Polish language ten-part television series, The Decalogue...
(Krótki film o miłości 1988) - The Double Life of VéroniqueThe Double Life of VéroniqueThe Double Life of Véronique is a 1991 French- and Polish-language film directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski, co-written by Kieślowski and Krzysztof Piesiewicz, starring Irène Jacob, with original music by Zbigniew Preisner. The film was Kieślowski's first to be produced partly outside Poland.A...
(La Double vie de Véronique/Podwójne życie Weroniki 1991) - Three Colors: BlueThree Colors: BlueThree Colors: Blue is a 1993 French drama film written, produced, and directed by the acclaimed Polish director Krzysztof Kieślowski. Blue is the first of three films that comprise The Three Colors Trilogy, themed on the French Revolutionary ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity; it is...
(Trois couleurs: Bleu/Trzy kolory: Niebieski 1993) - Three Colors: WhiteThree Colors: WhiteThree Colors: White is a 1994 Polish mystery comedy-drama film co-written, produced, and directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski...
(Trois couleurs: Blanc/Trzy kolory: Biały 1994) - Three Colors: Red (Trois couleurs: Rouge/Trzy kolory: Czerwony 1994)
External links
- Senses of Cinema: Krzysztof Kieślowski
- Kieślowski's "Three Colours" Trilogy at the Galilean Library
- Transcript from 1994 seminar by Kieślowski on "Directing actors"
- Interview with Agnieska Holland on her friend and colleague Kieślowski
- Profile on Krzysztof Kieślowski
- Monografia: "Nic prócz humoru, czarnego, różowego, okrutnego..."
- Kieślowski's World The Wonderful And Mysterious World Of Krzysztof Kieślowski