Sasami Kawaii Anime Looks at Directors

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Favourite Films and Directors

I like to think of myself as a bit of a film snob. While it is true that I enjoy most Hollywood stuff my true passion lies in real works of art.

What follows is some information about my favourite directors.

Krysztof Kieslowski (1941-1996)

Krzysztof Kieslowski was born in Warsaw on June 27, 1941. Between the years 1957-1962 he was at the vocational school for the theatrical technology. He studied directing at the Lodz Film School from 1964 to 1968. His graduation film was a documentary From the City of Lodz (Z miasta Lodzi).

His TV debut was the documentary The Photograph (Fotografia) in 1969. For some time he worked for documentary studios, WFD (Wytwornia Filmow Dokumentalnych). In 1974 he joined the Tor film production unit (Zespol FIlmowy "Tor"), of which he became a deputy director in 1984. (Currently the director of Tor is Krzysztof Zanussi.)

In his early years he made a number of documentaries, the most famous of which was Workers '71 (Robotnicy '71), about the Szczecin strikes in 1971. His documentary First Love (Pierwsza milosc) has won the Golden Dragon Prize at the International Festival of Short Films in Cracow in 1974.

His first feature film, Personnel (Personel), was made for television in 1975, and also has won 1st prize at Mannheim Festival in Germany. In the following years Kieslowski worked for the television, making documentaries and features. He also directed a number theatrical performances, including his own play Biography (Zyciorys) at the Stary Theater in Cracow (1978).

Kieslowski's first feature for the cinema came in 1976 with The Scar (Blizna). This film has won first prize at the Moscow Film Festival and established Kieslowski as a leading figure in the Polish cinematic school of 'moral anxiety'. His next feature, Blind Chance (Przypadek), was made during the rise of the Solidarity movement, but was banned after the declaration of martial law in December of 1981, and stayed on the shelves until 1987.

In 1984 Kieslowski made No End (Bez konca), the first feature film he co-scripted with lawyer, Krzysztof Piesiewicz. Their next project was Decalogue (Dekalog), 1988. In 1990 they wrote together The Double Life of Veronica (La Double Vie de Veronique), filmed in France and Poland. Their last effort is the trilogy Three Colours (Trois Couleurs), released in 1993 and 1994.

In numerous statements over the past two years Kieslowski said that he decided to quit the filmmaking. A recent interview by his co-writer, Krzysztof Piesiewicz, confirmed however, that currently they are working on a new film project.

Kieslowski is a member of the Polish Filmmaker Association; where he was a deputy chairman from 1979 to 1981. In the Fall of 1990 he was awarded a Fellowship of the British Film Institute. He is also a member of the European Film Academy.

For his films Kieslowski has been awarded numerous awards at the film festivals around the world, for example in Cracow (1974, 1975, 1977, 1979), in Mannheim (1975), Gdansk (1975, 1976, 1979, 1988), Moscow (1979), Cannes (1988, 1991), Venice (1989, 1993), Berlin (1980, 1994), San Sebastian (1988), Chicago (1980), Lyon (1979), and Sao Paulo (1988).

Kieslowski has lectured on directing and script writing at the universitites in Katowice (1979-1982), West Berlin (1984), Helsinki (1988) and Switzerland (1985, 1988, 1992).

He was married, had one daughter.

Works that I have seen:

The Decalogue

A touching work, 10 one hour films made for TV each documenting one of the Ten Commandments. The first as I see it, is most poignant, about a father who looses his son and refers to First Commandment, of not having other gods. A father tells his son,
that after we die, we are remembered by what we did. This father is a strong mathematical type, an atheist by choice (most
atheists in communist Poland were so by Stalinistic upbringing). He works out exactly how thick the ice on their pond will
be and when his son skates on it and tragedy befalls him - signalled by a bottle of ink spilling over his book, he turns to God
in complete sorrow.
In each Decalogue piece we have a mysterious figure of a man who watches over the proceedings. At one moment this man
shakes his head at a soon to be murderer, in another scene he weeps. This is most likely the figure of Christ, watching over the sins of man. No this is not a religious 10 hour piece, it's the story of life. A young woman confronts her father whether he is her real
father or not, the answer lies in a letter she recently finds, a letter from her mother now long dead.

The Double Life of Veronique

Two young women identical in appearance and life live in two far away countries, completely unaware of each other's existance. Unknowingly when the one dies the other experiences deep loneliness and a loss.

Three Colours Films : Red, Blue, White

Based on the three colours of the French flag, the Three Colours Trilogy is a French-Polish co-production, as is the case with
Veronique. The films are most beautiful. The first (White) contains humour that only East Europeans can grasp.

Together with Krysztof Kieslowski, one can always mention two other names, namely Krysztof Piesiewicz and Zbigniew Preisner
(music for Photographic Fairies, Veronique, Decalogue, Three Colours and Agnieszka Holland's well made film : The Secret Garden).
Preisner's most beautiful work lies in his Requiem for a Friend, which I am a happy owner on CD. This CD is set with Gorecki
like lamenting music but with much more hope.

Other Great Directors:

Akira Kurosawa (The Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, Dersu Urzula, others....)

Hayao Miyazaki (mentioned elsewhere)

Stanley Kubrick (Barry Lyndon, 2001 Space Odyssey, 2010, others...)

Andrzej Wajda (The Man from Marble, The Man from Steel, The Promised Earth)

Agnieszka Holland (The Secret Garden, Europa-Europa)

Hiroshi Teshigahara (Woman in the Dunes, In the Realm of the Senses)

Other films of Note: Pride and Prejudice, The Mirror (Andrei Tarkhovsky), Caligula, The Piano and Amadeus.

A great album of beautiful music, Preisner's
Requiem for my Friend (for Kieslowski).

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