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Cinematography in Poland after 1968

RELATED STORIES

Man of Marble comes into being after 12 years
Andrzej Wajda Film-maker
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However, the Seventies ushered in a new era, comrade Gierek appeared along with his new team. Most importantly, he had new secretaries who themselves came from Nowa Huta. That's when they'd been activists, when they'd begun, when they'd started out. The Minister of Culture and Arts and the Deputy Prime Minister after the fall of Gomułka was Józef Tejchma. I tried to appeal to his conscience saying that perhaps it was worth making a film about those times so that they could feel a part of, so to speak, history. These new secretaries were entering into political life with a history. And their history was the Fifties. I have to say that I succeeded and as soon as the decision was made to say 'yes', I didn't wait any longer. Of course, the screenplay that had been written 12 years earlier needed to be amended because I wanted to make a contemporary film, whereas that one was already a history within a history. That was pointless. The young woman looked quite different, a different type of person was graduating from film school. Poland by then was a different place because Gierek had come to power and the appearance, so to speak, the appearance of coming closer to the West and the worker-hero couldn't... the first screenplay ended with him reaching the conclusion that he, the former worker-hero, needs to begin from the beginning and so he goes to school and tries to graduate from secondary school so that he can begin his life from scratch.

No ale nastały nowe czasy w latach siedemdziesiątych, pojawił się towarzysz Gierek razem ze swoją nową ekipą. No i co jest najważniejsze – razem z młodymi sekretarzami, którzy właśnie wywodzili się z tej Nowej Huty. Wtedy byli działaczami wtedy, że tak powiem, zaczynali, wtedy startowali. No, Ministrem Kultury i Sztuki i wicepremierem, co nie było bez znaczenia po upadku Gomułki, został Józef Tejchma. I ja spróbowałem odwołać się jakby do jego sumienia, że może warto by zrobić film o tamtych czasach, żeby dać... żeby oni poczuli się jako część, że tak powiem, historii, że z czymś oni... że ci młodzi sekretarze wkraczają w to polityczne życie z jakąś przeszłością. A ich przeszłość to są lata pięćdziesiąte. No muszę powiedzieć, że udało mi się to zrobić. I jak tylko zapadła decyzja, że tak –  to już długo nie czekałem. Oczywiście scenariusz napisany dwanaście lat wcześniej musiał ulec zmianie, dlatego że ja chciałem zrobić film współczesny, a tamto to już by była historia w historii. No to było bez sensu. Młoda dziewczyna już wyglądała zupełnie inaczej, zupełnie kto inny już wychodził ze Szkoły Filmowej i w tym czasie zupełnie inaczej wyglądała Polska, bo to już nastał Gierek, już pozory, że tak powiem, nastąpiły. Pozory takie, no... zbliżenia do Zachodu i przodownik pracy nie mógł... tam pierwszy scenariusz kończył się, że on dochodzi do wniosku, ten dawny przodownik pracy, że trzeba zacząć wszystko od początku, no i siedzi w szkole i próbuje, że on zrobi teraz maturę, no i zacznie, że tak powiem, swoje życie od nowa.

Polish film director Andrzej Wajda (1926-2016) was a towering presence in Polish cinema for six decades. His films, showing the horror of the German occupation of Poland, won awards at Cannes and established his reputation as both story-teller and commentator on Poland's turbulent history. As well as his impressive career in TV and film, he also served on the national Senate from 1989-91.

Listeners: Jacek Petrycki

Cinematographer Jacek Petrycki was born in Poznań, Poland in 1948. He has worked extensively in Poland and throughout the world. His credits include, for Agniezka Holland, Provincial Actors (1979), Europe, Europe (1990), Shot in the Heart (2001) and Julie Walking Home (2002), for Krysztof Kieslowski numerous short films including Camera Buff (1980) and No End (1985). Other credits include Journey to the Sun (1998), directed by Jesim Ustaoglu, which won the Golden Camera 300 award at the International Film Camera Festival, Shooters (2000) and The Valley (1999), both directed by Dan Reed, Unforgiving (1993) and Betrayed (1995) by Clive Gordon both of which won the BAFTA for best factual photography. Jacek Petrycki is also a teacher and a filmmaker.

Tags: Man of Marble, Nowa Huta, Edward Gierek, Władysław Gomułka, Józef Tejchma

Duration: 2 minutes, 14 seconds

Date story recorded: August 2003

Date story went live: 24 January 2008