Morgenstern, Janusz

(1922-)

   Janusz "Kuba" Morgenstern has a distinguished career in cinema, television, and television theater. A member of the Polish School generation, he served as an assistant director on Andrzej Wajda's Kanal and as a second director on Ashes and Diamonds. In 1960 he directed his first film, which introduced a new lyrical tone to contemporary films: See You Tomorrow (Do widzenia, do jutra, 1960), starring Zbigniew Cybulski and featuring a jazz score by Krzysztof Komeda. It was followed by Opening Tomorrow (Jutro premiera, 1962), a satirical comedy set in the world of theater; the underappreciated Back to Life Again (Życie raz jeszcze, 1965), which examines the postwar political situation; and Then There Will Be Silence (Potem nastąpi cisza, 1966), a war drama set in 1944.

   After making the psychological drama Jowita (1967) with Daniel Olbrychski and Barbara Kwiatkowska, Morgenstern directed three television series about different aspects of World War II, which form the canon of Polish television film. In the years 1967-1968, he directed nine episodes (out of eighteen) of one of the most popular television series ever made in Poland—the war suspense drama More Than Life at Stake (Stawka większa niz życie, 1968), the story of Hans Kloss (Stanisław Mikulski), a Polish spy in a German uniform. This success was followed by a critically acclaimed series about the Warsaw Uprising, Columbuses (Kolumbowie, five episodes, 1970), and in 1976 by another classic television production, The Polish Ways (Polskie drogi, ten feature-length episodes), a series portraying a vast panorama of Polish characters under the German occupation. In 1972 Morgenstern directed the well-received drama Kill That Love (Trzeba zabić tę miłość), scripted by Janusz Głowacki, which depicts love between two young people who did not get enough points to enter the university. Jadwiga Jankowska-Cieślak, starring as a girl who dreams of becoming a doctor, created one of the most interesting characters in Polish cinema of the 1970s. Morgenstern has been the head of film studio Perspektywa since its beginning in 1978.

   Other films: The Two Ribs of Adam (Dwa zebra Adama, 1963), S.O.S. (TV series, 1974), The Hour "W" (Godzina "W," TV, 1979), Smaller Sky (Mniejsze niebo, 1980), Legend of the White Horse (1986, with Jerzy Domaradzki), Yellow Scarf (Żółty szalik, TV, 2000).

   Historical Dictionary of Polish Cinema by Marek Haltof