a story lives forever
Register
Sign in
Form submission failed!

Stay signed in

Recover your password?
Register
Form submission failed!

Web of Stories Ltd would like to keep you informed about our products and services.

Please tick here if you would like us to keep you informed about our products and services.

I have read and accepted the Terms & Conditions.

Please note: Your email and any private information provided at registration will not be passed on to other individuals or organisations without your specific approval.

Video URL

You must be registered to use this feature. Sign in or register.

NEXT STORY

Ashes and Diamonds: Symbols in the film

RELATED STORIES

Ashes and Diamonds: Zbigniew Cybulski's acting technique
Andrzej Wajda Film-maker
Comments (0) Please sign in or register to add comments

Myślę, że Zbyszek Cybulski dobrze to nie tylko rozumiał, ale miał to w sobie, właśnie taką... taką łatwość przed kamerą (w życiu jest co innego), ale taką intensywność przed kamerą, która stwarzała właśnie to, że on jest jeszcze czymś innym zajęty. Nie dokładnie wiadomo czym, ale coś jeszcze... coś go trapi, coś... coś jest takiego, co jeszcze z nim, że tak powiem, idzie niezależnie od tego, jaką akcję on gra w filmie. Tak że żeśmy się szybko porozumieli co do tego. Zresztą kiedyś miałem możność kiedyś być z nim Paryżu, potem jak już zrobiliśmy film Popiół i diament, i oglądaliśmy takie duże małpy w paryskim Zoologu. I co nam się podobało, cośmy odkryli wtedy, że kiedy ta tajemnica się wydobywa, jaka jest technika, że tak powiem, że ta małpa rzuca się na kraty, demonstruje coś jakby aktor operowy, po czym zamiera na chwilę i robi tak. Albo patrzy tutaj na nas, a tu przelatuje mucha i ona robi 'cyk' i złapała tę muchę. To zrozumieliśmy, że tu jest gdzieś fantastyczne, że pomiędzy właśnie takim szerokim gestem, którym normalny aktor grał cały film, a tym, że gra w ten sposób, to jest albo tak, albo tak. A właśnie życie na ekranie wytwarza tę równoczesność i myślę, że Zbyszek Cybulski to fantastycznie w tym momencie potrafił wykorzystać, tym bardziej, że on nie myślał o bohaterze filmu jakiego grał w Popiele i diamencie inaczej jak o samym sobie. Myślę, że dlatego widownia go tak zaakceptowała. On nie chciał grać w żadnym kostiumie, zagrał w swoim własnym ubraniu, chociaż to ubranie w ogóle nie nadawało się historycznie. Jak wyglądali tacy chłopcy, jak byli ubrani to ja dokładnie wiem. No ale on nie chciał tego kostiumu, który myśmy przygotowali, on był w swoich rzeczach, no i z takim chlebaczkiem zielonym, wojskowym, no i tak wszedł do filmu. Tak że z całym ubraniem, z butami, ze wszystkim, że tak powiem, oddał się filmowi Popiół i diament i to było fantastyczne.

Przy takim postępowaniu aktora, jego zaangażowanie w filmie jest bez porównania większe. I to nie zaangażowanie tylko jako kogoś, kto realizuje to, co jest napisane wcześniej, ale jako współautora też tego, co jest napisane. Ja się spotykałem z aktorami, którzy mi powiedzieli: 'Ale ja tego nie powiem', 'Ja się z tym nie zgadzam' – tego nie ma nigdzie na świecie. No bo aktor jest po to, żeby mówić dialog, który ma napisany. To oznaczało też, że aktorzy grający w tym filmie, moi współpracownicy, my wszyscy razem, zaczęliśmy tłumaczyć te sceny napisane przez Andrzejewskiego na sceny jak najbardziej... na sceny filmowe. No a co to jest scena filmowa? To jest scena, gdzie treść wyrażona jest nie za pomocą dialogu czy za pomocą sytuacji dwóch osób, no jakiejś konwencjonalnej, tylko my poszukujemy czegoś takiego, co jest skrótem, co jest... co jest nadwyraziste.

I think that Zbyszek Cybulski not only understood this very well, but he had in him an ease in front of the camera, in life it was different, but this intensity in front of the camera made it seem that he was occupied with something else. We don't know exactly what it is but something is worrying him, there's something there, something else that seems to be always with him. This was independent of the scene he was playing in a film. We quickly came to an understanding about this, and I also had the chance to be with him in Paris after we'd made 'Ashes and Diamonds' and we went to look at the big apes in the Paris zoo. The thing we liked about that, the thing we discovered was that when this mystery is revealed, the technique so to speak, that this ape would fling itself against the cage and make a gesture like an operatic actor after which it remained immobile and then it did this. Or else it looked at us when a fly went past, and the ape went 'snap' and caught the fly. We understood that this was fantastic, somewhere between the broad gesture used by a normal actor throughout the whole film and the one where he acts in this way, so it's like this or like that. Life on screen creates a simultaneity, and I think that Zbyszek Cybulski was fantastic in being able to exploit this at that moment, especially as he wasn't able to think about the hero whom he was playing in 'Ashes and Diamonds' as anyone other than himself. I think that's why the audience accepted him so well. He didn't want to act in any sort of costume, he wore his own clothes even though historically they were completely wrong. I know exactly how boys like that looked, how they were dressed, but he rejected the costume we had prepared for him, he was in his own things with a small, green army haversack and that's how he came into the film. So he gave himself up completely to the film 'Ashes and Diamonds' clothes, boots and all and that was fantastic. When an actor behaves like that, his involvement with the film is incomparably greater. His involvement in the film wasn't as someone who's fulfilling the things that were written down earlier but as the co-author of the text. I came across actors who'd say, 'No, I won't say that, I don't agree with this.' This doesn't exist anywhere else in the world. After all, an actor is meant to recite the dialogue which he has written down in front of him. It meant that the actors in this film, my co-workers, altogether we began to interpret these scenes written by Andrzejewski into something that were very much film scenes. What is a film scene? It is a scene in which the theme is expressed not with the help of the dialogue or a conventional situation of two people, but we are searching for something that is a short-cut, overemphasised.

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: Paris, Ashes and Diamonds, Zbyszek Cybulski

Duration: 4 minutes, 24 seconds

Date story recorded: August 2003

Date story went live: 24 January 2008