Andrzej Wajda is regarded as the leading representative of the Polish film industry; his achievements are recognised both in Poland and worldwide. He was a film and theatre director, scriptwriter and scenographer – one of the most outstanding artists in the history of world cinema.
Many of his films, such as ‘The Ashes’, ‘The Birch Wood’, ‘The Maids of Wilko’, ‘Landscape After the Battle’, ‘The Wedding’, ‘The Promised Land’, ‘A Chronicle of Amorous Accidents’, or ‘The Crowned-Eagle Ring’ have gone down in the history of Polish cinema. The Artist also referred to the most burning social or political issues in films such as ‘Man of Marble’ or ‘Man of Iron’.
In 1981, he won the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival; in 1982, he received a César Award, and in 1990, he was granted a Felix Award. From 1997, he was a member of the Immortal Circle of the French Academy of Fine Arts. In 1998, he was honoured with the Golden Lion for lifetime achievements in Venice.
In 2000, Andrzej Wajda became the first filmmaker in the history of Poland who received an Academy Award – the most important film award in the world – for lifetime achievements. On that occasion, he said memorable words: ‘I will talk in Polish, because I want to say what I think, and I always think in Polish. I accept this honorable award as a token of recognition not only for me, but for the entire Polish cinema’.
In 2003, Wajda received a Honorary Citizenship of Wroclaw. The director had much affinity for Wroclaw – it was here, in the Wroclaw Film Factory, that one of his most famous films ‘Innocent Sorcerers’ was made. Today it is not only a classic work of Polish and international cinema. It is compulsory reading for film school students and the last and best known part of Wajda’s war trilogy (after ‘A Generation’ and ‘Sewer’). The main reason? Zbyszek Cybulski in his amazing role of Maciek Chełmicki – a guerrilla who sees nor room for himself in the new People’s Republic of Poland after the war. This film started a fashion for dark eyeglasses and the imitation of the demeanour of Polish James Dean. A less obvious, but also important reason is the fact that the postwar Wroclaw, still a strongly destroyed city at that time, is shown in the film. Wajda’s earlier film ‘A Generation’ (1954) and TV series ‘As years go by, as days go by’ (1980) were also shot in the Wroclaw film factory.
In 2003, Andrzej Wajda granted the Ossolińscy National Institute scripts of his two films: ‘The Revenge’ and ‘Pan Tadeusz’ with handwritten notes and drawings that he had made while working on those films. The scripts were leathered and put by the director in a beautiful wooden box.
In June this year, Andrzej Wajda visited Wroclaw with his wife Krystyna Zachwatowicz for the first time. He arrived at the ceremony of the 15th anniversary of existence of the College of Eastern Europe, where he presented his film ‘A Courier from Warsaw. 60 Years Later.’ Shortly before the opening of the Museum of Contemporary Art, he also visited the Four Domes Pavilion, which really enchanted him.
