Idziak, Sławomir

(1945-)

   One of Poland's leading cinematogra-phers. The 1969 Łódź Film School graduate Sławomir Idziak gained recognition from working with Krzysztof Zanussi since 1970. He photographed the classic Balance Sheet (1975) and all of Zanussi's films made in the 1980s, including the winner of the Venice Film Festival Year of the Quiet Sun (1985) and several films that Zanussi made abroad during that decade. International esteem brought him, in particular, the collaboration with Krzysztof Kieślowski that dates back to the 1973 medium-length film Pedestrian Subway. Idziak photographed some of Kieslowski's best-known films, such as A Short Film about Killing (1988), The Double Life of Veronique (1991), and the first part of the Three Colors Trilogy: Blue (1993). He became known for his predilection for hand-held camera, the bold use of filters (greenish filters in A Short Film about Killing to dehumanize the setting, blue and amber in Blue), and images reflected in glass and shown through glass (mainly in The Double Life of Veronique).

   Lesser known is Idziak's work as a scriptwriter-director. In 1972 he made a television film for children, Paper Bird (Papierowy ptak, 1972), followed by The Flying Lesson (Nauka latania, 1978). He also directed television films such as The Screening (Seans, 1978), Debut (Debiut, 1979), and Good Night Fairy Tales (Bajki na dobranoc, 1980), and later his most ambitious project, the multinational political science fiction film Enak (1992).

   Since 1993 Idziak has continued his successful career outside of Poland. He worked as a cinematographer with Jerzy Domaradzki (Lilian's Story, 1996), John Duigan (The Journey of August King, 1995, and Paranoid, 2000), John Sayles (Men with Guns, 1997), and Andrew Niccol (Gattaca, 1997). Recent years have brought him praise for Taylor Hackford's Proof of Life (2000) and Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down (2002), for which he received several honors, including Oscar and BAFTA nominations. His latest Polish recognitions include awards at the Camerimage Film Festival in 2004 and the special Polish Film Award "Eagle" in 2002.

   Historical Dictionary of Polish Cinema by Marek Haltof