Wajda by Wajda (2016 TV Movie)

Andrzej Wajda: Self

Quotes 

• Andrzej Wajda : What were our inspirations? Italian neorealism. It was close to us, because it showed poor people like us.

• Andrzej Wajda : I should make an introduction and describe the situation in 1945, when Polish cinematography was starting anew - it became state cinematography, and the Soviet regime started. However we were very lucky, very lucky indeed, that Polish cinematography was formed from the forefront of the Polish Army. What did that mean? That filmmakers came with the Polish Army from the Soviet Union. Those were the filmmakers who'd made films before the war - but not the commercial ones. These were the people who were more ambitious. They demanded a great deal of themselves. So what did the army officers with red party cards in their pockets do? They set up a film school. That was quite absurd, considering there were only 3 or 4 directors. If it hadn't been for the school, they'd have been the only ones. So the officers established a school, creating a completion. What's more, there were film clusters founded. They didn't exist in any other socialistic country. It was about forming a group of filmmakers who'd establish community.

• Andrzej Wajda : We were entirely marginalized by Germans during the war, made into laborers. Grey sky, poor districts - we knew that only too well. But what's important, there were also scenes that gave the opportunity to move towards real cinema.

• Andrzej Wajda : The Polish audience knew exactly what I was trying to say. I couldn't express it in words, I did it through images.

• Andrzej Wajda : Our intention was to create the cinema of images. Why? We couldn't say in dialogues what we really thought of the political situation in Poland after 1945. Each ideology is expressed by means of words and censorship was keeping guard over the ideology. That's why it was impossible to convey anything in dialogues. But you could create images that would appeal to viewers' awareness, which would give him some idea about what we were trying to say.

• Andrzej Wajda : Where does the character who shoots the communist belong? In a landfill. The garbage heap of history. That was the censorship's point of view. And the audience thought: what kind of authority kills a boy who fought through the entire war? He entered the canals, fought in the uprising. He survived to get killed by them in a landfill? What kind of authority is that? The reality we live in! Those were the two points of view around the Polish cinematography.

• Andrzej Wajda : I asked him this question, I knew he was in Paris before. I saw James Dean in "Rebel Without a Cause" in Berlin. "Have you seen James Dean?" And he said yes. So I told him he was ready to act, he knew everything he needed to know. That was the actor whose career we followed, he showed a different - That's Cybulski right there - He showed a different was of acting, of interacting with the audience.

• Andrzej Wajda : I got a call from a censor who gave me his number. They wouldn't give you their surnames, just their numbers.

  [chuckles] 

• Andrzej Wajda : [speaking about "Ashes and Diamonds"]  How was it possible to shoot a scene like that in a film which was so very much controlled? When I started making this movie, when we started shooting, there were no state representatives present on the set. There were no editors, we used to call them editors, although they were simply informers who would make calls to tell the authorities we were changing the dialogues, the script. We didn't experience that. We made that film in the atmosphere of complete freedom. I'd have to say that the most memorable scenes - the one with the burning glasses, with Szczuka being shot, Maciek's death at the landfill, the crucified Christ hanging upside down - none of those scenes was present in the screenplay. They were made up on the set. That influenced the viewers of our movies in Poland and abroad. That was a product of free people, we were free while making the film.

• Andrzej Wajda : Back then the audience had a very well trained imagination and could figure out the director's intention. We had a very powerful bond with cinema goers.

• Andrzej Wajda : It was becoming obvious, that the changes brought in with American jazz, which the authorities found to be so afflicting, that those were the changes that were going to stay for good. Young people were going to live that way, because they wanted to live their lives, not the ideological illusion, which was imposed on our country by the Soviet Union.

• Andrzej Wajda : For "Ashes and Diamonds" I was granted 37,000 zlotys. It seemed quite a lot. But a used Simca Aronde with 80,000 km on the clock, cost a 100,000 zlotys. That's how much our work was worth.

• Andrzej Wajda : We didn't work for money. We did it to make the movies that needed to be made. The fate of our country, the events in Poland made it necessary for someone to stand in front of the audience and tell the story about the past which formed us. About the heroes who shouldn't be forgotten. That was the role of Polish cinema. None of us ever wondered about the money.

• Andrzej Wajda : What is the most interesting for me in "Innocent Sorcerers"? The way they behave, expressing their independence. They all act like they please, they don't follow each other. Everything is possible and can happen any minute. That's my group of actors, there's also Roman Polanski. He gets off a Lambretta - the definite object of desire. There's also Komeda, a famous musician who wrote the music for "Innocent Sorcerers". Are they going somewhere or coming back? What will happen next? Those were the questions I asked myself, because I didn't know that. But that's exactly what the film was about. And that's what the State was so afraid of - their inconsistency. They weren't forming ranks, like during the parades on May Day. The officials though that youngsters marching on that day were the future. And the movie opposed that. That's why the authorities were so disapproving of this movie.

• Andrzej Wajda : When there's no God, technology is being cherished. Technology was our future, the world in which we could achieve anything on our own.

• Andrzej Wajda : First there was Roman Polanski's movie, "Knife in the Water". Then Jerzy Skolimowski made "Hands Up!" and Krzysztof Zanussi his "Structure of Crystals". Polish filmmakers started looking for new topics and submerging in a new reality, showing that young people wouldn't come to terms with the situation. They may serve the ideology as much as they're forced to, but they will go on with their lives.

• Andrzej Wajda : The Polish People's Republic was very dull and hopeless, because of its stagnancy. Suddenly, "The Promised Land", where one could achieve anything, where anything goes, each man for himself, was obviously something that caught Polish viewers' attention. The dialogues were crucial, let's take the first one in the film. "I have nothing, you have nothing, and he has nothing either. Therefore, together we have just enough to build a great factory!"

• Andrzej Wajda : I saw a real revolution. Revolution looks always the same: do not sleep, be ready at all times.

• Andrzej Wajda : I waited quite a long time to make a movie about Lech Walesa, the final part of the triptych: "Man of Marble", "Man of Iron", and "Man of Hope" - Lech Walesa. How did he become a leader of the strike and finally of the entire Solidarity movement? The participants of the events of August 1980 in Gdansk, were the witnesses to the decisive moments, when Lech Walesa climbed the gate and declared that victory was ours, and the crowd was cheering. I'd like to add, that was not the only scene I wanted to make this movie for. There is another important scene, another part of Lech's activity. After the martial law was introduced, he was transported by helicopter to Arlamiv at the Soviet border. That meant he could be transported further any minute and captured. At that time, deprived of his advisors, who constituted the good spirit of Lech Walesa, he made some decisions on his own. They proved to be decisions of a real people's leader. The leader of workers. Although his life was in danger, Walesa's position remained the same. That way we all realized we can't permanently live under the martial law. I think Walesa's role was decisive again. He showed us our way to freedom. Patterning itself on Poland, the Berlin Wall fell.

• Andrzej Wajda : Making "Katyn" became possible after the fall of the People's Republic of Poland. After 44 years of lies, when there was only one Soviet 'truth' - that the slaughter in Katyn was carried out by Germans. However, it was Stalin's crime and we had all the evidence needed to prove that as soon as in 1943.

• Andrzej Wajda : At the first show of "Danton", there were only about a dozen people present, including the President of France, Mitterrand. He was interested in the movie, I know - I sat nearby. However after the film, when I approached him, I heard him saying to my producer, although he liked the movie, "those are Mr. Wajda's problems". I must admit it made me wonder. But that was about Solidarity. If we want it to succeed, we're ready for revolution, we must be ready that there'll be victims. Fortunately, in Poland, there appeared the right man - Lech Walesa, who guided us across the Red Sea. He brought freedom to Poland.

• [last lines] 

  Andrzej Wajda : Homework done. We've got a movie.

• Andrzej Wajda : [in reference to "Katyn"]  I dedicated that film to my father, the captain of 72nd Infantry Division in Radom, Jakub Wajda, as well as to my mother, Aniela. My father was a victim in slaughter in Katyn. My mother was a victim of the lie about Katyn.

• Andrzej Wajda : We regained our freedom and had to ask ourselves a difficult question: What is it we're free from?

• Andrzej Wajda : Freedom brings problems, unforeseen complications.

• Andrzej Wajda : That was a movie I had to make. It had to be filmed. Even though as long as there was a Polish People's Republic the truth about Katyn couldn't be revealed. For 44 years the lie about Katyn was in force.

• Andrzej Wajda : Many years ago, I met Jerzy Grotowski and asked him about his plans on developing his ideas on theater. He replied, "Mr. Andrzej, I'll be heading towards the bright. That's the only victory." Well, "Pan Tadeusz" is exactly my turn towards brightness.