Andrzej WajdaBirth Place: Suwalki, Poland Date of Birth: March 6, 1926 Heritage: Polish Famous for: Director of 'Danton' (1983) Contact Andrzej Wajda |
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Director of Danton Background: Famous Polish film director Andrzej Wajda first gained recognition with his trilogy of war films: “A Generation” (1955), “Kanal” (1957) and “Ashes and Diamonds” (1958). He continued to produce masterpieces such as “Love at Twenty” (1962), “The Ashes” (1965), “Gates to Paradise” (1968), “Hunting Flies” (1969), “Landscape After Battle” (1970), “The Wedding” (1973), “The Promised Land” (1974), “Man of Marble” (1977), “Without Anesthesia” (1978), “The Maids of Wilko” (1979), “The Conductor” (1980), “Man of Iron” (1981), “The Possessed” (1988), “Miss Nobody” (1996), “The Revenge” (2002) and “Katyn” (2007), with “The Promised Land,” “The Maids of Wilko,” “Man of Iron” and “Katyn” were nominated for the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film. Wajda is also best known for directing the biopic “Danton” (1983), where he took home a BAFTA Award, a Cesar Award, a London Critics Circle Film Award, a Polish Film Festival Award and the Prix Louis Dellu Award. Wajda's more recent movie, “Sweet Rush” (2009), earned the Alfred Bauer Award at the 2009 Berlin International Film Festival and a Golden Berlin Bear nomination at the same festival. In showbiz since 1950s, Wajda was saluted with an honorary Oscar in 2000 thanks to his many contributions to the cinematic industry. He subsequently donated the award to the Muzeum of Jagiellonian University in Krakow. The same year, he also received the Life Achievement Award from Polish Film Awards. In February 2006, he was presented with Honorary Golden Berlin Bear for lifetime achievement at the Berlin International Film Festival. Wajda has also received the Crystal Iris at the 1999 Brussels International Film Festival, the Career Golden Lion at the 1998 Venice Film Festival, the Silver Berlin Bear for his lifetime contribution to the art of cinema at the 1996 Berlin International Film Festival, the Life Achievement Award from the 1990 European Film Awards, the Academy Fellowship at the 1982 BAFTA Awards, Special Award at the 1981 New York Film Critics Circle, the Luchino Visconti Award at the 1978 David di Donatello Awards, a 1973 Bambi Award and a Jussi Award for Foreign Film. Wajda has established Manggha Museum of Japanese Art and Technology in Krakow. He has also set up and leads his own film school, “Andrzej Wajda Master School of Film Directing.”
Childhood and Family: Andrzej Wajda was born on March 6, 1926, in Suwalki, Poland, to Jakub Wajda, a captain in the Polish infantry, and Aniela Wajda, a school teacher. Young Andrzej had a happy upbringing until his father was killed during WW II in the Katyn Forest massacre in 1939. Along with his mother and his brother, the war survivor Andrzej then moved to Krakow in 1946. There he studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts, and was particularly adored the work of French artist and Post-Impressionist painter Paul Cezanne. He next attended High Film School in Lodz for four years from 1950 to 1954. There he studied film directing under directors Jerzy Toeplitz and Aleksander Ford. Andrzej has been married several times. He and third wife Beata Tyszkiewicz (born on August 14, 1938) have two children, including one actress Karolina Wajda (born in 1967). His present wife is actress and costume designer Krystyna Zachwatowicz (born on May 16, 1930).
Career: Andrzej Wajda began making short films/documentaries while attending film school in Lodz. They were included “The Bad Boy” (1950), “The Pottery at Ilza” (1951) and “While You're Asleep” (1952). He co wrote diploma film “Three Stories” in 1953 and served as assistant to director Aleksander Ford in “Five Boys From Barska Street,” the following year. After directing the documentary “I Walk in the Sun” (1955), Wajda made his feature film directorial debut with the based on novel “A Generation” (1955), the story of youths during the German occupation of Poland in the WW II. The war film starred Tadeusz Lomnicki as a young anti-hero named Stach Mazur, as well as Roman Polańsk and Urszula Modrzyńska as Dorota and Mundek, respectively. His sophomore effort, “Kanal/They Love Life,” the first film ever made about about the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, was shown at the Venice Film Festival in August 1957 and received the Jury Special Prize and a Golden Palm nomination at the 1957 Cannes Film Festival. The success of the film cemented Wajda's position as first director in Poland. However, Wajda did not garner international attention until the release of “Ashes and Diamonds” (1958), adapted from Jerzy Andrzejewski's 1948 novel of the same name that dealt with the unavowed civil war of the 1940s between elements of the anti-Communist Home Army and the security forces founded by the Communist Party-controlled government. He was handed FIPRESCI Prize at the 1959 at Venice Film Festival and a BAFTA nomination for Best Film from any Source (Poland) for his work in the film. “A Generation,” “Kanal” and “Ashes and Diamonds” have become known as Wajda's Three War Films trilogy set in the WW II. In 1959, Wajda made his debut as stage director with “A Hatful of Rain.” The same year, he also directed and wrote the drama film “Lotna.” He continued to helm the drama/music “Innocent Sorcerers” (1960, starred Tadeusz Lomnicki), “Siberian Lady Macbeth” (1961), based on Nikolai Leskov's novel “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District,” the dark coming of age drama “Samson” (1961) and the anthology “Love at Twenty” (1962), which brought him a Golden Berlin Bear nomination at the 1962 Berlin International Film Festival, an honor he shared with other directors François Truffaut, Renzo Rossellini, Shintarô Ishihara and Marcel Ophüls. The historical romance “The Ashes” (1965), adapted from the novel “Popioly” by Stefan Zeromski and starring Daniel Olbrychski, was entered into the 1966 Cannes Film Festival and ended up receiving a Golden Palm nomination. Throughout the reminder of the decade, he sat on the director's chair for “Gates to Paradise” (1968, earned a Golden Berlin Bear nomination), “Everything for Sale” (1969), a personal film he made after the death of Cybulski in a train crash in 1967, and the comedy “Hunting Flies” (1969, received a Golden Palm nomination). He also helmed a 35 minute comedy/ sci-fi for TV called “Layer Cake” (1968). The 1970s marked a banner decade for Wajda with a string of acclaimed film projects under his wings. He received a Golden Palm nomination at the 1970 Cannes Film Festival for “Landscape After Battle” (1970), a drama adapted from the writings of Holocaust survivor and author Tadeusz Borowski and starring Daniel Olbrychski, Golden Prize at the 1971 Moscow International Film Festival for “The Birch Wood” (1970) and Silver Seashell at the 1973 San Sebastián International Film Festival for “The Wedding” (1973), an adaptation of a play by the same name penned by Stanisław Wyspiański in 1901. His profile raised even higher with “The Promised Land” (1974), which he directed and also scripted based on a novel by by Władysław Reymont. Telling about a German, a Pole, and a Jew attempting to establish a factory in the crude world of 19th century capitalism, the drama was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film (Poland) and won several awards at the Polish Film Festival, including Golden Lion for Wajda. He also picked up Golden Prize at the 1975 Moscow International Film Festival and Golden Spike at the 1976 Valladolid International Film Festival for his work in the film. Following “The Shadow Line,” which won him Silver Lion at the 1976 Polish Film Festival, and “Dead Class” (TV) (both 1976), Wajda directed Jerzy Radziwilowicz and Krystyna Janda in the drama “Man of Marble” (1977) and took home Critics Award at the 1977 Polish Film Festival and FIPRESCI Prize at the 1978 Cannes Film Festival for his efforts. It was followed by “Without Anesthesia” (1978), which was entered into the Cannes Film Festival in 1979. The drama brought Wajda Golden Lion at the 1978 Polish Film Festival and Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at Cannes. He closed out the 1970s with the acclaimed drama/romance “The Maids of Wilko” (1979), which received an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film as well as Best Production Design and Special Jury Prize (Wajda) at the 1979 Polish Film Festival. Also during the 1970s, Wajda helmed many popular theater productions, including his adaptations of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's “The Possessed” and “The Idiot,” “November Night,” “The Danton affair,” “The Immigrants” and Friedrich Dürrenmatt's “Play Strindberg.” Opening the 1980s, Wajda directed John Gielgud in the drama “The Conductor” (1980) and it premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival on February 27, 1980, where the film was nominated for Golden Berlin Bear. It went on to win FIPRESCI Prize and OCIC Award at the 1980 San Sebastián International Film Festival. After “Man of Marble,” Wajda again showed his support toward Poland's rising Solidarity movement in the great history movie “Man of Iron” (1981). It was nominated for a 1982 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film as well as won the ALFS Award for Foreign Language Film of the Year at the 1982 London Critics Circle Film Awards, where Wajda also netted an honor for Director of the Year, and the CEC Award for Best Foreign Film at the 1982 Cinema Writers Circle Awards (Spain). At the 1981 Cannes Film Festival, “Man of Iron” was handed the Palme d'Or and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury. Wajda gained further recognition with “Danton” (1983), a feature film adaptation of the Polish play “The Danton Case” by Stanislawa Przybyszewska. Starring the French great Gerard Depardieu as one of the leaders of the French Revolistions, Georges Danton, the controversial biopic brought Wajda a BAFTA for Best Foreign Language Film (shared with Margaret Ménégoz and Barbara Pec-Slesicka), a Cesar for Best Director (not to mention a nomination for Best Film), the ALFS Award for Director of the Year at the London Critics Circle Film Awards, the Critics Award at the 1984 Polish Film Festival and the 1982 Prix Louis Delluc. After “Danton,” Wajda made “A Love in Germany” (1983), adapted from Rolf Hochhuth's novel of the same title, “Chronicle of Amorous Accidents” (1986) and the French language “The Possessed” (1988, starred Isabelle Huppert), an adaptation of Dostoyevsky's novel that earned Wajda a Golden Berlin Bear nomination at the 1988 Berlin International Film Festival. He also contributed to the TV miniseries “The French as Seen by... “ (1988) and directed the stage production of Dostoyevsky's “Crime and Punishment” as well as other plays like “Dybuk or Antygone.” In 1989, Wajda was elected Senator in Polish government (Solidarity Party representative). Wajda returned to film with “Korczak” (1990), a biopic of Polish Jewish humanitarian Janusz Korczak, which was screened out of competition at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival. It was followed by work in “Schuld und Sühne” (1992, TV), “The Ring with a Crowned Eagle” (1992), “Natasha” (1994), a drama based on the final chapter of Dosetevski's “The Idiot,” “Holy Week” (1995), the lesbian-themed “Miss Nobody” (1996, nominated for a Golden Berlin Bear at the 1997 Berlin International Film Festival) and “Pan Tadeusz: The Last Foray in Lithuania” (1999), which was picked up as Poland's official entry for the Best Foreign-Language Academy Award. In the new millennium, Wajda helmed “Wyrok na Franciszka Klosa” (2000, TV), the documentary “The Lesson of Polish Cinema” (2002) and “Noc czerwcowa” (2002, TV). Still in 2002, he adapted Aleksander Fredro's perennially popular stage comedy “Zemsta/The Revenge” into the big screen, with Roman Polański and Janusz Gajos starring as Papkin and Raptusiewicz, respectively. The film version received eight nominations, including an Eagle nomination for Best Director at the 2003 Polish Film Awards and a Golden Dolphin nomination at the 2004 Festróia - Tróia International Film Festival for Wajda. After helming “Solidarnosc, Solidarnosc” segment “Man of Hope” (2005), Wajda was put back on the spotlight with the 2007 Polish film “Katyn,” about the 1940 Katyn massacre. Based on Andrzej Mularczyk's book “Post Mortem: The Story of Katyn,” the drama was nominated for a 2008 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year, and won a Golden Globe (Italy) for Best European Film. It also netted many awards at the Polish Film Awards, including Best Film (Wajda), Best Costume Design and Best Best Cinematography, the Audience Award at the 2008 Ljubljana International Film Festival, the Prix d'Excellence at the 2008 European Film Awards, the Audience Award at the 2008 Washington DC Filmfest, a People's Choice Award for Best Feature Film at the 2008 Denver International Film Festival and a Czech Lion nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. Recently, Wajda helmed “Tatarak/Sweet Rush” (2009), partially based on a short story by Polish writer Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz. The film won the acclaimed director the Alfred Bauer Award at the 2009 Berlin International Film Festival and a Golden Berlin Bear nomination at the same festival.
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