Morgenstern also directed the war television series Polskie drogi (Polish Roads) from 1977 (screenplay by Jerzy Janicki).
Morgenstern told his interlocutors from the daily Gazeta Wyborcza about the reasons for which he decided to create this series: " ‘You made a series about AK, but we would also like to point out the participation of the People’s Army’. I agreed because I wanted to direct as much as possible. Working on film sets was my passion”.
“In Polskie drogi I didn’t want to repeat myself – it’s best to analyze this series jointly with Kolumbowie. Only together do these stories give a full picture of the occupation. Many fragments of ‘Polskie drogi’ are sort of maintained in the spirit of Kolumbowie. The hero played by Karol Strasburger could have been an AK soldier, but fate decided otherwise - he became a member of the People’s Guard”.
Because of the political conditions the films of this kind could only tell half-truths about the war and post-war realities. There was no way of going around this even though the director and the screenwriters were very proficient. Creators who raised the said subjects had to compromise. Nevertheless Janusz Morgenstern’s movies had numerous and faithful audiences.
It was however Stawka większa niż życie (More than Life at Stake), which became a great success. This war series about captain Kloss, which Morgenstern realized together with Andrzej Konic, wasn’t meant to be very accurate historically.
The unprecedented success of this series was based on the masterful, unusually intuitive use of myths and stereotypes, and on referring to the hidden complexes of Poles.
Kloss’ popularity is one of the most interesting phenomena of mass culture in communist Poland; how on earth did a nation that suffered so much from the Nazis and from the Soviets decide to make an idol out of a Soviet agent in a Nazi uniform? (Wojciech Orliński, Film 7/1999).
Equally as important as the exciting action consisting of the adventures of the agent was the tongue-in-the-cheek style that characterized the series from the very beginning. This television product, which was a mixture of a war film and a thriller referencing the style of the television Kobra Theatre, proved to be a bull’s-eye. Today the abovementioned comic style is even more apparent and it is the reason for which Kloss remains entertaining as a superman of a past era.
Alongside the war trend, which was complemented by movies about the moral and political choices of the post-war period, a contemporary trend was developing in Morgenstern’s creativity. He created for instance Jowita (1967), a movie based on a novel by Stanisław Dygat, and above all the film Trzeba zabić tę miłość (This Love Ought to Be Killed; 1972). He also directed the crime series S.O.S. (1974).
Jowita may not be one of the director’s best movies, but this film is noteworthy as its script was based on a popular novel by Dygat (Disneyland). Trzeba zabić tę miłość with a screenplay by Janusz Głowacki is exceptionally memorable. This inexpensive movie showed the love of two young people in a condensed way. The Polish society of the times constituted the background of this psychological drama.
It was Morgenstern, who started the critical movement in 1972, which was later called cinema of moral uneasiness. One of the strongest movies of those times was Trzeba zabić tę miłość (the script was written by Janusz Głowacki). For the main part Morgenstern chose an unknown, young, female anti-star with a boyish haircut – Jadwiga Jankowska-Cieślak. The film showed core events and it raised the temperature of the portrayed reality. This movie removed the protective layers from its portrayal of reality and condensed this portrayal in the style of Forman, Coppola or Scorsese – wrote Tadeusz Sobolewski (Gazeta Wyborcza; 16.11.2007).
The next contemporary drama, which was artistically similar, was realized by Morgenstern as late as in 1980. The movie entitled Mniejsze niebo (The Smaller Sky) was based on a novel by John Wain. The action of the film, which addressed the issue of the meaning of human life, was transposed to Poland. Mniejsze niebo tells about the need for freedom and about the restrictions, which are imposed on men by functioning in society. Morgenstern’s drama with its moral dilemmas appeared in a bad period for Poland. “Mniejsze niebo” came out in the politically hectic year of 1980 and because of this the film passed almost unnoticed.
For many years Morgenstern didn’t make any movies at all. As late as in 2000 he made the movie Żółty szalik (Yellow Scarf), which told about the helplessness of a person addicted to alcohol. This picture was made in the framework of the series “Święta polskie” (“Polish Holidays”) which was realized by the Perspektywa film studio. Morgenstern was head of this studio at that time.
In 2009 the director completed his final film Mniejsze zło (Lesser Evil). He wrote this film’s script together with Janusz Anderman, the author of the novel Cały czas, on which the said movie was based (the premiere took place in October 2009, Ed.). This time Morgenstern managed to make a comedy with a contemporary hero embedded in history, whose character resembled that of Piszczyk from Andrzej Munk’s comedy. In the background the director placed a whole gallery of other, interesting, skillfully and intentionally exaggerated characters, who could have well inhabited the Polish reality of the turn of the 70s and 80s. All of this amounted to a bitter but funny portrayal of a fragment of Polish history. The movie ends at the abovementioned period and doesn’t show what became of the hero after 1989. The director wants us to believe that the main character underwent a change and rid himself of cynicism. The hero’s literary prototype however unalterably remained a cynic and a dodger also in the years that came after ’89.
In 2010 Morgenstern appeared in the movie Uwikłanie (Entaglement) which was directed by Jacek Bromski. The creator of Jowita played the part of the heroine’s father.
Important awards:
"Golden Screen” (1971), "Polish Television Star” statuette received on occasion of the 50th anniversary of Polish Television “ for television films and theatre of television spectacles” (2002). In 2008 Janusz Morgenstern received an “Eagle”, otherwise known as Polish Film Award, for his entire film output. He is one of the artists who had the opportunity to leave their handprints on the Promenade of Stars in Gdańsk (2006).
Filmography
Film etudes:
1950 - Wczasy akademickie (Academic Holiday), dir. Jerzy Kaden, collaboration on directing;
1954 – Rzodkiewki (Radishes) director and screenwriter.
Feature films:
1960 - Do widzenia, do jutra... (See You Tomorrow)
1960 - Przygoda w terenie (A Field Adventure)
1961 - Ambulans (Ambulance)
1961 - Jutro premiera (Tomorrow’s Premiere)
1963 - Dwa żebra Adama (Adam’s Two Ribs)
1964 - Życie raz jeszcze (Life Once More)
1965 - Potem nastąpi cisza (Later There Will Be Silence)
1967 - Jowita
1967-1968 Stawka większa niż życie (More than Life at Stake) – television series
1970 - Kolumbowie (Columbuses) – television series
1972 - Dama pikowa (The Queen of Spades), part of the series "Klasyka światowa" ("Wold Classics”)
1972 - Trzeba zabić tę miłość (This Love Ought to Be Killed)
1974 - S.O.S. – television series
1976-1977 - Polskie drogi (Polish Roads) – television series
1979 - Godzina 'W' (The Hour ‘W’)
1980 - Mniejsze niebo (The Smaller Sky)
1986 - The Legend of the White Horse / Biały smok
2000 - Żółty szalik (Yellow Scarf) part of the series Święta polskie (Polish Holidays)
2009 - Mniejsze zło (Lesser Evil)
Theatre of television spectacles:
2001 - Trąd w pałacu sprawiedliwości (Corruption in the Palace of Justice), Ugo Betti;
1999 - Herbatka u Stalina (Taking Tea with Stalin), Ronald Harwood;
1998 - Równy podział (Equally Divided), Ronald Harwood;
1998 - Cztery pory roku (The Four Seasons), Israel Horovitz;
1995 - Madame Modjeska, Richard Hellesen;
1981 - Gdy miasto śpi...(When the City is Asleep…), Aleksander Czchaidze;
1965 - Wróg jest wszędzie (The Enemy Is Everywhere), (1, series 1) part of Stawka większa niż życie (More than Life at Stake) screenplay by Zbigniew Safjan and Andrzej Szypulski (credited as Andrzej Zbych)
1963 - Cała prawda (The Whole Truth) Philip Mackie;
1962 - Znowu 'łut szczęścia' (A Bit of Luck Again) Janusz Jaxa (pseudonym).
Additionally Janusz Morgenstern was assistant director on the movie Opowieść atlantycka (Atlantic Tale; 1955) by Wanda Jakubowska. He collaborated as 2nd director on such films as Andrzej Wajda’s Kanał (Sewer; 1956) and Lotna (Swift; 1959) and Jerzy Kawalerowicz’s Prawdziwy koniec wielkiej wojny (The Real End of the Great War; 1957).
Janusz Morgenstern is the hero of Antoni Krauze’s documentary Ćwiczenia z niepamięci (Exercises in Not Remebering; 2004). It is worth mentioning that Morgenstern was the artistic director of the Perspektywa film studio. He was a recognized producer, he received amongst others a Golden Lions award at the Polish Feature Film Festival in Gdynia in 2005 for the film Komornik (Collector), which was directed by Feliks Falk.
Author: Ewa Nawój & Jan Strękowski, June 2008; updated: September 2011.
Translated by: Marek Kępa