"Programs on Conrad" have been taken from a publication "To capture the doubt. On problems with adapting Joseph Conrad's works" - about the writer's associations with film, issued by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute within the framework of the "Year of Joseph Conrad".PROGRAMS ON CONRAD
I. UN SIÈCLE D'ÉCRIVAINS: JOSEPH CONRAD
Documentary film, production: France (France 3). Year of production: 1999. Director: Karel Prokop. Presenter: Bernard Rapp.
Documentary film that is a part of a series of documentaries presenting major literary figures of the 20th century.
II. JOSEPH CONRAD ET LA MÉDITERRANÉE
Documentary film. Production: Francja (iO Production). Year of production: 1996. Directed by: Claudine Lesage, Rémy Revellin. Producer: Dominique Pailler. Text: Claudine Lesage. Narration: Michel Duchaussoy.
The co-director and production designer of the film is Claudine Lesage - university professor, English-language literature scholar, especially interested in the theme of exile. She devoted her doctoral thesis to
Joseph Conrad, emphasizing his relationship with the Mediterranean region. In the film she leads us along the traces: documents and original typescripts which Joseph Conrad left between Marseilles and Hyères. This region played a primary role in the work and life of the writer. The teenage Joseph Conrad arrived there from Poland to realize his great dream about sailing. It is also here that he had his violent and tragic love affair. In order to reach the truth about this period of his life, Lesage examines archives, documents and photographs, reconstructs Conrad"s voyages and interviews the last witnesses. The documentary uncovers the history of his love to a young woman called Thérèse Chodzko and its tragic final. When Conrad boarded a ship that was heading to Antilles, Thérèse committed suicide.
III. BERAU, SUR LES TRACES DE JOSEPH CONRAD
Documentary film. Production: France (iO production/La Sept-Arte, SBC, TVRI). Year of production: 1993. Director: Frédéric Compain. Screenplay: Elisabeth D. Prasetyo, Frédéric Compain. Cinematography: Jean-Jacques Mrejen. Music: John Shappley. Producers: Dominique Pailler, Eliza McDonald. Text: Elizabeth D. Prasetyo. Narration: Michel Piccoli, Frédéric Compain.
In 1897 captain Joseph Conrad moored in Berau, a hidden area in the north-west coast of Borneo. This corner of the world enchanted him and its memory accompanied him till the end of his life, finding its reflection in his works: Almayer's Folly, Lord Jim and Freya of the Seven Isles. A century later, the makers of the film introduce the port Berau - source of writer's inspiration - and its present inhabitants.
IV. A REPETITION FROM CONRAD
aka Powtórka z Conrada. Documentary film. Production: Poland (Apple Film Production, TVP Channel I). Year of production: 1991. Director:
Filip Bajon. Screenplay: Filip Bajon. Cinematography: Krzysztof Tusiewicz. Editing: Paweł Deliś, Waldemar Płocharski. Production management: Leszek Pieszko. Producer:
Dariusz Jabłoński.
The film was awarded the Screenplay Agency Prize at the 7th Media Festival "Man under Threat" in Łódź, 1997.
V. INTERVIEW WITH PHILIP CONRAD
W. Krajek interviews Philip Conrad for TVP in Lublin. It was broadcast on 17 September, 1991. The interview is connected with the visit of Joseph Conrad's grandson in Poland at the International Conrad Conference in Baranów.
VI. JOSEPH CONRAD
aka Kapitan Conrad (Poland). Biographical television series (6 episodes, each ca 54 minutes long). Production: France (FR3-Dovidis-Vamp-RTVE-Poltel). Year of production: 1990. Directed by: Philippe Carr?se (episodes 2 and 3), Jean-Pierre Blanc (episodes 4 and 5), Roman Chalbaud (episode 6). Screenplay: Dominique Parent-Altier. Cinematography: Cezary Jaworski. Production design: Carlos Medina. Music: Federico Ruiz. Production cooperation: Poltel Central Studio of Programmes and Television Films in Warsaw. Cast: Jacques Spiesser (Marlow), Frank Laigneau (Conrad).
A French series whose first episode is a Polish film Captain Conrad which presents the youth years of Joseph Korzeniowski.
"A biographical series on Józef Konrad-Korzeniowski (Frank Laigneau), better known as Joseph Conrad, a world famous English writer of Polish origin. However, before Conrad bound his life to literature, he worked for many years as a sailor. In this profession he reached the rank of a captain. The experience he acquired on the seas across the world was later used in numerous novels and short stories, earning him the opinion of a classic seafaring writer." (www.filmpolski.pl)
VII. CAPTAIN CONRAD
aka Kapitan Conrad. Feature film - television biography. Production: Poland (Zodiak Film Studio, TVP, Dovidis). Year of production: 1990. Director: Andrzej Kostenko. Assistant directors: Hanna Głowacka, Bartłomiej Bertoldi, Monika Figura. Screenplay: Dominique Casna, Michał Komar, Andrzej Kostenko, Edward Żebrowski. Cinematography: Jerzy Stawicki. Music:
Michał Lorenc. Conductor: Tadeusz Karolak, Ryszard Zimek (choir). Instrumentation: Marcin Pospieszalski. Editing: Grażyna Jasińska-Wiśniarowska. Production management: Kajtek Kowalski.
A biographical series on Joseph Conrad-Korzeniowski. The film is the first episode in a cycle of films about Conrad. The other parts were produced by the French.
After the death of his father - the poet Apollon Korzeniowski - the teenage Conrad (Kamil Gewartowski) recalls his childhood. He reaches back to the time when he was a four-year-old (Mikołaj Radwan), that is to 1862. His family lived in Warsaw at that time. The father, Apollon Korzeniwski, having exposed himself to the tsarist authorities with his independence-related activities, is sentences for exile in deep Russia. The whole family leaves the country for Vologda, where the living conditions are very harsh. Apollon starts to organize the local exiles into a committee that would represent them in front of the authorities. In result of this, the Korzeniowski family is transferred to Chernihiv.
VIII. I, WHO HAVE THE DOUBLE LIFE, OR THE DILLEMMA OF JOSEPH CONRAD)
aka Ja, który mam podwójne życie, czyli dylemat Josepha Conrada. Documentary film, staged, biographical. Production: Poland (Poltel Central Studio of Programmes and Television Films in Warsaw). Year of production: 1987. Directed by: Lucyna Smolińska, Mieczysław Sroka. Assistant directors: Paweł Unrug, Krzysztof Rogala. Screenplay: Lucyna Smolińska, Mieczysław Sroka. Cinematography: Andrzej Żydaczewski, Andrzej Popławski. Music: Andrzej Fronczak. Music performed by: Łódź Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Zdzisław Szostak. Editing: Bożena Szostkowska, Iwona Rudnicka. Production management: Marek Gołębiowski, Zbigniew Kamiński. Narrators: Czesław Seniuch, Bogdan Augustyn, Marek Kondrat, Krzysztof Kumor.
A tri-partite, staged biographical film on the life and work of Joseph Conrad- Korzeniowski (Henryk Bista). An attempt at finding an answer to question of the relationship between Joseph Conrad and Poland, the reasons of his leaving the country and deciding to write in English. The authors draw on numerous archive materials, among others from museums in Lvov, Warsaw, Cracow, and fragments of literary texts.
IX. HEART OF DARKNESS AND MODERNISM
Production: Great Britain (BBC Open University Productions). Year of production: 1983. Production: David Hoyl. Presented by: Dennis Walder.
The film is a part of series The Nineteenth Century Novel and its Legacy. The picture contains a film interview with the younger son of Joseph Conrad - John Conrad.
X. TRACING CONRAD
aka Śladami Conrada. Television documentary. Cinematography and commentary: Andrzej Braun.
It is a documentary film from the series Gdzie są taśmy z tamtych lat ("Where are the tapes from these years") by a known scholar of Conrad - Andrzej Braun (author of a monumental, over 600 pages long reportage from a journey to Indonesia: "Śladami Conrada" [Tracing Conrad], Czytelnik, Warsaw 1972). It was broadcast on 16 July, 1989 in TVP Channel I.
"...the documentary by Andrzej Braun was edited from photographic materials and facsimiles, which the author could gather during his several months long journey to the corners of the Malay Archipelago. These islands (...) are the setting of as much as six novels and eight stories by Conrad." (Maria Brzostowiecka, "Tracing Conrad", "Ekran", 1975, No. 46: 11)
XI. OMNIBUS: JOSEPH CONRAD
Television show. Production: Great Britain (BBC TV). Year of production: 1974. Director: Colin Nears. Screenplay: Colin Nears, Norman Sherry . Based on: Amy Foster, 1901 (pub. 1903).
A story of the Polish-born novelist writing in English who explored in his works the human weakness and moral instability. Conrad (Patrick Stewart) tells in front of a camera about his life and his ideas, imitating a television interview. The interview is enriched with film material realized on the basis of the novel Amy Foster - a story of a boy from Eastern Europe, who survived from a marine disaster and found himself among alien - also because of the language - shores of Kent.
XII. A MEETING WITH CONRAD
aka Spotkanie z Conradem. Television drama. Production: Poland. Year of production: 1973. Realization: J. Rudnicki. Screenplay: Władysław Wojciechowski.
"Building a television screenplay on Conrad, Władysław Wojciechowski used his biography and excerpts from his works. Even if no complete whole emerged from this, much can be learned from this television drama. Its illuminating factor deserves to be praised." (M. Kosińska, "Życie Warszawy" 1973, No. 179: 6)
XIII. STORIES ABOUT CONRAD
aka Opowieści o Conradzie. Documentary film. Production: Poland (Tele-Ar). Year of production: 1965. Realization: Tomasz Pieczyński. Cinematography: J. Nasierowski.
XIV. THE CALL OF THE SEA
aka Blue Waters. Production: Great Britain (Concanen Films). Year of production: 1942. Narration: Frank Laskier (Seaman Frank).
This 34-minute film is comprised of three episodes. Only the first one regards the life of Joseph Conrad.
XV. EVENINGS WITH CONRAD
aka Wieczory z Conradem. Television drama. Directed by: W. Wodecki, J. Burski. Screenplay: W. Wodecki, J. Burski.
A four-part, Conrad-related theatrical staging cycle realized for the Szczecin Television. Part IV - Wspomnienia i listy Conrada ("Recollections and letters of Conrad") - is a "performance based on letters to Conrad and about Conrad, testimonies of Conrad's contemporaries and books that were written about him. The protagonist will be the novelist himself". (J. Szymańska's interview with W. Wodecki and J. Burski, "Ekran", 1968, No. 4: 15)