Zanussi, Krzysztof

(1939-)

   Zanussi's unusual road to filmmaking is clearly reflected in his films. After years of studying physics and philosophy while making amateur films, he enrolled in the Łódź Film School. He attracted international attention with his medium-length diploma film, Death of a Provincial (Śmierć prowincjała, 1966), and a series of short television films such as Face to Face (Twarzą w twarz, 1968), Pass Mark (Zaliczenie, 1968), and Mountains at Dusk (Góry o zmierzchu, 1970). These films contain a number of thematic features characteristic of his later films: the mystery of death, the conflict between the individual and society, existential problems, and moral choices. Zanussi's "Bergmanesque themes" and his austere, noncommittal style became his trademark.

   The leading representative of Third Polish Cinema, Zanussi (also the writer or cowriter of all of his scripts) created his reputation as an auteur interested in specific characters known as "zannusoids"—young intellectuals questioning the corrupt world. Several members of the Polish intelligentsia identified with the protagonist of the philosophical essay Illumination (Iluminacja, 1973), which concerned ten years in the life of a young physicist, and later praised the parable on politics presented in Camouflage (Barwy ochronne, 1977), an allegory for the corrupt nature of the Communist system. Zanussi started to function as a representative of "intellectual cinema," a cosmopolitan Pole at home everywhere. He made his films with a small circle of collaborators, including composer Wojciech Kilar, the author of music for all of Zanussi's films; cinematographers Sławomir Idziak, Witold Sobociński, and Edward Kłosiński; coscreenwriter Edward Żebrowski; and actors Maja Komorowska and Zbigniew Zapasiewicz.

   Zanussi's breakthrough film, The Structure of Crystals (Struktura kryształu, 1969), was followed by the psychological drama Family Life (Życie rodzinne, 1971), starring his favorite actress, Komorowska. She also appeared in his other films, such as the classic Polish television production Next Door (Za ścianą, 1971), and in one of Zanussi's finest films, Balance Sheet (aka A Woman's Decision, Bilans kwartalny, 1975), a story about a woman involved in a short-lived extramarital affair. In his two films released in 1980, Zanussi also deals with the issues of corruption, moral compromise, and moral choices. His Contract (Kontrakt) satirizes both the Communist nouveaux riches and the corrupt Polish intelligentsia. The Constant Factor (Constans) introduces a young idealist protagonist who wants to live honestly, which proves difficult in a depraved Communist reality.

   The Catamount Killing, made in 1974, began a series of films that Zanussi made abroad periodically. Two of them, Imperative (1982) and Paradigm (1985), stand out from the rest and are on the level of Za-nussi's Polish productions like Spiral (Spirala, 1978), starring Jan Nowicki. The latter continues Zanussi's earlier meditations on the intimacy of death. The theme of death returns also in one of Zanussi's recent films, Life as a Fatal Sexually Transmitted Disease (Życie jako choroba śmiertelna przenoszona drogą płciową, 2000), the winner of the Moscow Film Festival with Zapasiewicz's memorable performance.

   Zanussi's Year of the Quiet Sun (Rok spokojnego słońca, 1985), the winner of the 1984 Venice Film Festival, portrays an impossible love between lonely middle-aged people, an American soldier and a Polish war widow. This now classic Polish film portrays the mood of despair and inhospitable chilly landscapes in postwar Poland and is devoid of the optimism present in a number of Polish films on the same subject. The 1990s were very productive for Zanussi. In 1992 he directed a multinational production, The Silent Touch (Dotknięcie ręki, 1992), about a young musicologist from Kraków (Lothaire Bluteau) who brings an old, eccentric Western composer (Max von Sydow) back to life with his instinctive metaphysical knowledge. Zanussi also made a successful series of television films, including Weekend Stories (Opowieści weekendowe, seven one-hour episodes, 1995-1996), and films ranging from a hagiography of the saint Maksymilian Kolbe—Life for Life (Życie za życie, 1990)—to an almost nostalgic political satire, In Full Gallop (Cwał, 1996). The latter, the winner of the Festival of Polish Films, is a semiauto-biographical film set in the Stalinist period that introduces an aging female protagonist (Komorowska) who is proud, yet willing to compromise—a Catholic at heart and a Communist on the surface.

   Although Zanussi's films made in recent years do not provoke the same disputes and controversies as his earlier works, he still plays a very important role in Polish cultural life. Not only is he a film director and scriptwriter, but he is also a stage and opera director, film professor at the Katowice Film and Television School, teacher at several universities in Poland and abroad, columnist, head of the film studio Tor since 1979, and a member of several international professional organizations. His most recently released film, Persona Non Grata (2005), with Zapasiewicz, Jerzy Stuhr, Nikita Mikhalkov, and Andrzej Chyra, was very well received at the Festival of Polish Films and received four Polish Film Awards "Eagles."

   Other films: Ways in the Night (Wege in der Nacht, TV, 1979), From a Far Country: Pope John Paul II (1981), The Temptation (Versuchung, TV, 1982), The Unapproachable (Die Unerreichbare, TV, 1982), Bluebeard (Blaubart, TV, 1984), Wherever You Are (Gdzieśkolwiek jest, jeśliś jest.. . , 1988), Inventory (Stan posiadania (1989), Long Conversation with a Bird (Das Lange Despracht mit dem Vogel, 1990), The Brother of Our God (Brat naszego Boga, 1997), Supplement (Suplement, 2002).

   Historical Dictionary of Polish Cinema by Marek Haltof