Born: November 22, 1940 in Lwow , USSR occupied Poland (presently Lviv, Ukraine)
Personal Quotes. "I came from the French cinematic school of real thinking; and I believe that, with few exceptions, acting is a female occupation", "I make the films about what is torturing me, and a woman serves here as a medium", �I only want to film stories which have something excessive about them.�
Early days. Andrzej Zulawski was born on the territory of what was then the U.S.S.R. to a Polish family with remarkable traditions in arts and literature. After World War II, his father's, Miroslaw�s, diplomatic career brought the family to France (1945-1949), Czechoslovakia (1949-1952), and finally to Poland. He studied film direction at IDHEC in Paris (1957-1959) and philosophy at both Warsaw University (1961) and Universit� de Paris (1962-1964).
Work. In the 1960s, he was an assistant of the famous Polish film director Andrzej Wajda. In 1967, Zulawski directed two short films, Piesn Triumfujacej Milosci and Pavoncello, for Polish TV. His feature debut Trzecia czesc nocy (1972) was an adaptation of his father's novel. His second feature Diabel (1972) was prohibited in Poland, and in 1972 Zulawski went to France. After the success (a Cesar to Romy Schneider) and critical acclaim of his French debut L�Important c'est d'aimer, caused the powers in charge of Poland's cultural affairs to re-evaluate their assessment of Żuławski, and the director was invited to return as the creator of a project of his own choosing. In 1975, he returned to Poland where he spent two years in making Na srebrnym globie (On the Silver Globe ) based on two volumes the famous trilogy of his great uncle, sci-fi writer, Jerzy Zulawski. In spring 1977, however, the project came to a sudden halt with the appointment of the hardline ideologue Janusz Wilhelmi as the Vice-Minister of Culture. Perceiving the Selenites' battle against the Szerns as a thinly-veiled allegory of the Polish people's struggle with totalitarianism, Wilhelmi shut down the filming, which was 80% complete and ordered all materials destroyed. Andrzej Żuławski, who wrote that he was in despair over the loss and waste of so much artistic effort, went back to France, but the reels of unfinished film, instead of being destroyed, were preserved, along with costumes and props, by the Polish film studio and archives and by members of the film's cast and crew. Wilhelmi died a few months later, in a March 1978 plane crash, but a passage of another eight years was required, as glasnost and perestroika began to thaw the Cold War-dominated Eastern Europe, for Żuławski to be able to return again to Poland and edit the still-unfinished remnants into a 166-minute rough approximation of what the finished film might have been. Adopting the title of the trilogy's first volume, On the Silver Globe premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May 1988, with some critics proclaiming it a ruined masterpiece. In the meantime Zulawski moved again to France where became known for his highly artistic, controversial, and very violent films. Zulawski is well known for his ability to discover and "rediscover" actresses. Romy Schneider, Isabelle Adjani (a Cesar for Possession 1981) and Sophie Marceau played their best parts in his films. Since then he has lived and worked mostly in France, making art films. Being a maverick who always defied mainstream commercialism, Zulawski enjoyed success mostly with the European art-house audiences. He briefly returned to Poland where he made Szamanka (1996).His wild, imaginative, and controversial pictures have received 16 awards at various international film festivals. He also wrote the novels Il �tait Un Verger, Lity B�r (a.k.a: La For�t Forteresse), W Oczach Tygrysa, and Ogr�d Milosci.
Family life. He was married to a Polish actress Malgorzata Braunek, they had a son Xawery (presently a film director. Later they divorced. He has been in a relation for fifteen years with French actress Sophie Marceau; they have a son, Vincent, born in 1995.
Partial filmography. The Third Part Of The Night (1971), The Devil (1972), The Important Thing Is To Love (1975), Possession (1981), The Public Woman (1984), Mad Love (1985), On the Silver Globe (1987), My Nights Are More Beautiful Than Your Days (1989), Boris Godunov (1989), The Blue Note (1991), Szamanka (1996), Fidelity (2000).
This article uses, among others, parts of the Wikipedia article "Andrzej Zulawski" licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. :
Wikipedia
Other sources:
Le Monde (in French)
Fans' site: includes filmography, awards etc
Esotica Erotica Psychotica: a film review
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