on Żuławski:
by Andrzej Wajda
My first encounter with Andrzej Żuławski was preceded by his academic work on my film Kanal, written when he was studying at IDHEC in Paris. It seemed to be the work of an erudite theoretician. When he turned up on the set of Samson, I also discovered a handsome young man, full of enthusiasm for making movies.
The Kanal project was not the only reason Żuławski was known in Warsaw. He had a household name, backed up by the clan of Żuławskis. It wasn't an insignificant factor, not even back in those times. For that reason he aroused common interest and acceptance, and within a short period of time he became my closest advisor on film matters.
It was impossible to find an actor to play Samson. Due to the Holocaust, there were no longer any young Jewish boys who could play the part. It was the screenwriter, Kazimierz Brandys, who suggested we bring over an actor from Paris.
When he arrived, Serge Merlin could only speak French and so Andrzej began his working relationship with me as an interpreter. This was only a temporary function. It was obvious from the very beginning that Andrzej's aim was to become an independent director. Having obtained the theoretical knowledge at the IDHEC, he now gained experience in practical filmmaking, working in various fields and genres. And so he mastered the mystery of making smoke in contained spaces between houses and, the more difficult one, in open spaces. The black and the white ones, those that only soften the background and highlight the image and those that form the image of a battle.
His next step was to master the pyrotechnics involved in filmmaking, which back in those days still made use of TNT. Credit for the grand scale of Polish war movies should be attributed to our assistants - amongst others - who risked their lives to conduct experiments in this field.
My young friend then moved on to the more important tasks of working on screenplays and with actors. Although he had spent most of his life in Paris, he Polish-ised himself completely – at that time, French cinema didn’t have a referential value to us. The only thing he found difficult was not counting in French. Apparently, this fact determines the true nationality of a man.
Andrzej read everything that was available on Napoleon, the Duchy of Warsaw and the Spanish Campaign, becoming an oracle on those areas. He knew and remembered everything, from details about the uniform of the Vistula Legion, to the battle plan for Mantua, which was under Austrian siege. No wonder he wanted to see on screen everything he had read about. He constantly presented his ideas to me. Andrzej was also my source of information on books and movies. I found his comments on what he saw on screen particularly fascinating. Even though he didn't write or publish reviews, I am now convinced that back in those days Andrzej was the most acute expert of cinema in our country. I learned a lot from him, as he mixed a broad cinematographic approach to film as a cultural phenomenon, with practical knowledge of how it was actually made.
It took two years to make Ashes. A year later, Andrzej Żuławski was already an independent filmmaker. He directed two TV series, produced on a large scale. I was truly amazed by those films. One could see many aspects resulting from our cooperation, which Andrzej had implemented. But the end result took was much more exaggerated, reflecting his own ideas. I had no actual involvement in those films. They were made as part of a different production process and Andrzej did not seek my help, which made me proud that our country had a new director. I clean forgot that he still counted in French.
My crew was involved in Andrzej’s feature-length debut, The Third Part of the Night and they succumbed to the charm of this young director, entrusting themselves to him completely. Andrzej’s film was a far cry from the way the occupation was portrayed in our films. We saw the war with our own eyes, he could only see them with the eyes of his soul, to paraphrase Hamlet. The different approach was unavoidable. I remember how shocked I was by this movie and how I took to it at the same time. It was certainly a new and an original voice in our Polish cinema.
I lost sight of my young friend for quite some time as I was busy with my own work. I did, however, read the screenplay of Diabel, his next project. Whilst working on ‘Ashes’ we would read a lot on the period of annexation and the fall of Poland. In particular, we considered Mackiewicz’s portrayal of Poland’s political fall in ‘Europe in flagranti’ a truly captivating subject matter for a film. We discussed it on several occasions. Żuławski chose that specific period for his next movie.
I believe the fall of Poland was a specific political situation in Europe, conjoined with deliberate errors on the part of the elite in power at the time. Andrzej’s film presented the image of destruction as a result of demonic power. I realised that our viewpoints differed significantly. I was unable to be lenient enough to accept Diabel, and the complications surrounding the distribution of the film only deepened the conflict between us. The film shocked Polish audiences, who were not used to watching such strong scenes. The decision to ban the film was a decision based more on moral judgement than political censorship. Andrzej would, however, draw one conclusion from that experience – he felt he needed to target a different audience. In 1976, The Silver Globe also encountered difficulties in Poland and the shooting had to be stopped. I attempted to intervene as the head of the Association of Polish Filmmakers.
Since then I have observed Andrzej’s foreign productions from a distance. This also applies to his novels, in which I even appeared as a fictional character. I was extremely glad when I met him in 1990, at the Cannes gala screening of my film, Korczak. Andrzej was so emotional he was reduced to tears. This meeting reminded me of the juvenile and naive faith we had in cinema, and of our heated arguments on what it should be like. I think of Andrzej often nowadays, as I observe, with sadness, what the cinema feeds on; living off the state, in the background of more important events, pushed away into cinema clubs, with no audience and no future. I wish I could sit with him by a fireplace and, as we discussed for long hours whilst making Ashes, try to consider together at what point we made the fundamental mistake, each of us in our own way, and what we should do to regain the lost faith. What devil to sell our souls to in exchange for the return of our youth and our faith in cinema.
by Malgorzata Braunek
It’s extraordinary to work with Andrzej; he demands two hundred percent devotion. He gets very involved on an emotional level, developing an exclusive relationship with his actors and demanding that we are on the same wavelength as him – that also applies to the entire crew.
Everybody who works with Andrzej, from support services to costume designers, feels comfortable around him. He chats with everyone. He also likes to work with the same people every time. When he went to France he took his composer and cameraman with him.
What was it like to shoot the film? At first we just talked about it, about the characters, working out their psychological traits. There weren’t rehearsals, but before each take we would discuss in detail how the scene should be played. The question Andrzej often asked was, ‘What would such and such person do in this situation?’ He never demonstrated the way an actor should play a role, emphasising instead the emotions rooted deep within the character and drawing out of us the appropriate mental state. He would work as long as it took to achieve what he wanted. There are actors who like it when a director shows them what to do. However, Andrzej believes – as I do – that if you keep repeating the same scene automatically you are not an actor.
Through working with him one discovers a certain depth to a character, below which there are even deeper levels. His films aim to comprehend the nature of evil, to explore the pain hidden within ourselves. Andrzej knows, both from an intellectual and psychological point of view, what is hidden beneath the characters’ surface. Collaborating with him involves the perpetual discovery of new things. I believe that my double-role in Third Part of the Night brought about a change in my personality, which contributed to my creative development. When an actor is entrusted with a role so complex, emotionally intense and psychologically rich, there is the realisation that he will be able to give his all in the films that follow.
Andrzej has an incredible imagination, a strong temperament and sharp intelligence. At the same time, he is a tyrant – in the sense that he wants to get everything he can from an actor. He never says, ‘I know it all, you’re just jerks’. He’s always keen to discuss his point of view and he’s happy to cooperate when somebody is on the same wavelength as him, offering their own ideas. That’s what he enjoys the most about working with actors.
