The Most Important Films of Jerzy Kawalerowicz

Jerzy Kawalerowicz na planie filmu "Faraon", reż. Jerzy Kawalerowicz, 1965, fot. Jacek Stachlewski/Studio Filmowe "Kadr"/Filmoteka Narodowa/fofoteka.fn.org.pl, default, Jerzy Kawalerowicz on the set of 'Pharoah', 1965, photo: Jacek Stachlewski / Studio Filmowe "Kadr" / Filmoteka Narodowa / fofoteka.fn.org.pl, center, #000000

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In honour of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Polish film director Jerzy Kawalerowicz, Culture.pl takes a look back at his most iconic films.

'The Real End of the Great War' (1957)

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Lucyna Winnicka in 'The Real End of the Great War', directed by Jerzy Kawalerowicz, 1957, photo: Andrzej Gronau / Studio Filmowe Kadr / www.fototeka.fn.org.pl

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The Real End of the Great War is a 1957 film by Jerzy Kawalerowicz, based on a short story by Jerzy Zawieyski. At this time, the director was still looking for his own style, exploring and finding his voice. Kawalerowicz created an expressive film, much different from his later, formally ascetic works.

The film speaks about trauma that is impossible to process, and the painful marks that war has left on the mind of a former concentration camp prisoner.

Unlike Andrzej Wajda or Andrzej Munk at that time, Kawalerowicz neither explores national myths nor establishes a diagnosis of Polish society. Instead, the director focuses on intimate singular experience. In The Real End, the most tragic result of havoc wreaked by the war is the decay of a relationship between a husband and a wife.

'Night Train' (1959)

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Still from the film 'Night Train' directed by Jerzy Kawalerowicz, photo: Polfilm / East News

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Night Train is a 1959 film with a star-studded cast including Polish actors Leon Niemczyk, Lucyna Winnicka and the 'Polish James Dean', Zbigniew Cybulski.

Jerzy (Niemczyk) meets Marta (Winnicka) on a train running from the Hel peninsula to Warsaw. Most of the seats in the train are occupied, which forces the two to travel in one compartment. Both Jerzy and Marta would prefer to travel alone but, given no choice, begin to converse. A whole gallery of supporting characters ride the titular train: an unpleasant conductor, Staszek (Cybulski), who is in love with Marta, an old lawyer with his coquettish wife, a flirtatious train manager and a priest. When the travellers learn that the culprit of an infamous murder is probably on the train, the search for the guilty party begins.

The film received numerous national and international awards including 'Best Foreign Actress' for Lucyna Winnicka for her role as Marta at the 1959 Venice Film Festival.

'Mother Joan of the Angels' (1960)

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Still from 'Mother Joan of the Angels' directed by Jerzy Kawalerowicz, photo: YouTube

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Mother Joan of the Angels is an adaptation of a short story by Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz of the same title, delving into the European them of the 'devils of Loudun'. The film’s screenplay by Kawalerowicz and Tadeusz Konwicki transformed a great story into a cinematic masterpiece.

When prioress Mother Joan and other nuns are seemingly possessed by demons in a monastery in eastern Poland in the18th century, the authorities send Father Suryn into the monastery to perform an exorcism. Set in the Polish provinces, it strays from the social and political aspects of the romance between a priest and a nun and instead looks at the human, existential aspects set against the ideological boundaries of society and the authorities.

More than a film Satan and demonic possession, Mother Joan of the Angles is an exploration of human nature suspended between spirituality and carnality. Thanks to cinematography from Jerzy Wójcik, the story is conveyed in an unsurpassed play of black and white, and shadows and light.

The film won the Jury Prize at the Cannes International Film Festival in 1961.

'Pharaoh' (1965)

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Still from 'Pharaoh' directed by Jerzy Kawalerowicz

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Pharaoh, directed by Jerzy Kawalerowicz in 1965 (distributed in 1966), is an adaptation of the eponymous novel by Polish novelist Bolesław Prus. Pharaoh, alongside The Doll, was one of his most popular pieces of work, and his only historical novel, and was widely read amogst the Polish public at the end of the 19th century.

The film tells the story of Pharaoh Ramses XIII, his trials and tribulations as ruler of Egypt, but also simply as a man in love. Pharaoh filmed in Europe, Asia and Africa, but most of the scenes filmed in Pharaoh's palace were shot in... Łódź. Also notable: the Warsaw River Shipyard built an entire Egyptian ship according to drawings from 4,000 years ago! The scenography was indeed impressive for the time.

In 1967, the film was nominated for an Academy Award in the 'Best Foreign Language Film' category. Although it did not win, the film made waves. In Poland, Pharaoh sold over 7 million tickets, becoming one of the highest-grossing Polish films of all time. The film is also among the 21 digitally restored classic Polish films chosen for the renowned series Martin Scorsese Presents: Masterpieces of Polish Cinema.

'Austeria' (1982)

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Still from 'Austeria' directed by Jerzy Kawalerowicz, 1982, photo: Filmoteka Narodowa-Instytut Audiowizualny / www.fototeka.fn.org.pl

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The 1982 (1983) film Austeria is based on a 1966 novel of the same name by Julian Stryjkowski, who collaborated with Kawalerowicz on the screenplay. The plot takes plays at the very beginning of World War I in Galicia, which was, at the time, part of the Austro-Hungarian partition.

When the war breaks out, locals begin to flee the advancing Russian Army. A number of refugees take shelter in Tag's inn for the night (the word austeria meaning inn in a Polish dialect). Soon, a group of Hasidic Jews from the neighboring village arrive, followed by an Austrian baroness and a Hungarian hussar. Next comes a man with his dead girlfriend in his arms, a Catholic priest – as the night goes on more characters arrive. What fates await them?

Franciszek Pieczka and Wojciech Pszoniak's roles were particularly memorable.

'Quo Vadis?' (2001)

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Still from 'Quo Vadis', directed by Jerzy Kawalerowicz, 2001, photo: promotional materials

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Kadr z filmu "Quo vadis" w reżyserii Jerzego Kawalerowicza, 2001, fot. materiały promocyjne dystrybutora

This film is not the best testament to the brilliance of Jerzy Kawalerowicz, but was an absolute box office hit, so we feel it's worth mentioning. Based on the novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz from 1896, director Kawalerowicz’s renowned Quo Vadis is one several adaptations of the book that brought its author the Nobel Prize in 1905. The novel is a classic, which is still read by Polish students in schools around the country.

The plot unfolds in ancient Rome, during the times of Emperor Nero. Roman patrician Marcus Vinicius falls in love with a Chrisitan girl, Lygia. Their union is set against the backdrop of persecutions against Christians during Nero's troubled reign.

The famous novel has been brought to the big screen several times. Jerzy Kawalerowicz’s adaptation from 2001 is the first realised by a Polish director. When it came out, it was broke records at the Polish box office. It was also Poland's submission to the 74th Academy Awards for the Academy Awards, but, in the end, was not nominated.

Portraits of Jerzy Kawalerowicz – Image Gallery

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Jerzy Kawalerowicz was born on 19th January 1922 in the town of Gwoździec (now Hvizdets', Ukraine) and passed away on 27th December 2007.

^{Sources: works on Culture.pl, articles by Bartosz Staszczyszyn, compiled by NR, 18 Jan 2022}

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