Andrzej Wajda
Andrzej Wajda
Andrzej Wajdais a Polish film and theatre director. Recipient of a honorary Oscar and the Palme d'Or, he is possibly the most prominent member of the unofficial "Polish Film School". He is known especially for a trilogy of war films: A Generation, Kanałand Ashes and Diamonds...
NationalityPolish
ProfessionDirector
Date of Birth6 March 1926
CountryPoland
audiences dominated entertainment extent films screens turned
Suddenly, the screens were dominated by American entertainment to the extent of something like 95 percent. As a result, audiences turned away from the kinds of films that we used to make.
europe television film-production
In Europe, there is no television filmmaking legislation that could assist film production because private broadcasters are not interested in supporting Polish film.
cinema film young
Cinemas gained new young audiences who wanted films made for them.
past spirit film
Films made in the spirit of the past continued to be made.
television would-be film
The difficulty with the present state of affairs is that there is no legislation on the sources of funding for the Polish film industry. There is no legislation concerning filmmaking. And, there is no legislation on television that would be beneficial to filmmaking.
giving tickets film
There is no filmmaking legislation because distributors are not interested in sharing their money with the film industry - for instance, by giving a percentage of ticket sales back to filmmakers.
filmmaking polish
However, that old mode of Polish filmmaking virtually disappeared.
except few films financed partly public
In the first years after 1989, films were partly financed from the state's budget as well as by public television. Still, except for a few special cases, most films are made this way.
aware beginning detention happened including knew letters people soviet spring stopped sudden
We knew from the very beginning that this was a Soviet crime. There were letters (from the detention camp) that people received, including from my own father. All of a sudden the letters stopped coming. We were aware that something happened in the spring of 1940. There was no doubt.
abandoned appeared audiences front previous seats
With it adult political audiences abandoned cinemas. In their place appeared a void. That previous political audience migrated to the seats in front of their TV.
beyond casting covered funding indicate leading presenting produce project stages
Eventually, the state's funding covered only the stages leading to presenting a film project to potential funding bodies. It was enough to produce a script, indicate casting and put together a budget to present it all, but nothing beyond that.
committees deciding
Even better, there were established two separate committees deciding on state film funding.
common developed forty historical included preserved time traits worst
In the forty years of the people's republic, some of the worst historical traits were preserved in our people. These included even the common characteristics developed in the economic reality of the time of partitions in the 17th and 18th centuries.
people waiting culture
We expected that people were just waiting for the collapse of the Soviet Union, or at least for its retreat, and they were going to be full of initiative in all areas of life - in culture, in economy and in politics.