Allan Starski

One of the most eminent Polish set designers, awarded an Oscar for 'Schindler’s List'. He co-created the film world in the works of directors such as Andrzej Wajda, Steven Spielberg, Roman Polański, Agnieszka Holland and Krzysztof Kieślowski.

Header picture

Picture size

extra large (default)

Podpis obrazka (umieszczony pod zdjęciem)

Allan Starski, photo: Adam Tuchliński / Forum

Text positon (deprecated)

Center

The melancholic pre-war manor house from The Maids of Wilko, the coarse offices of communist-era Poland from What Will You Do When You Catch Me?, the revolutionary Paris from Danton, the concentration camps from Schindler's List, the ruined Warsaw from The Pianist and finally the idyllic Soplicowo from Pan Tadeusz. Each film has a different gravity and is set in different historical eras, but they all have one thing in common – a suggestively created, almost tangible, deeply memorable film world. Although in each case the whole film was supervised by the director, the screen reality would never have been as complete without the work of set designer Allan Starski.

Born on 1st January 1943, Allan Mieczysław Starski was involved with art from an early age. His mother, Maria Bargielska, was a dancer, and his father, Ludwik Starski, was an author of popular songs and a screenwriter, who before the war became famous as a co-creator of such hits as Paweł i Gaweł and Zapomniana Melodia (Forgotten Melody), and after the war worked, amongst others, on the films Zakazane Piosenki (Forbidden Songs) and Przygoda na Mariensztacie (Adventure in Marienstadt). Thanks to his father, Allan was able to watch cinema in the making already as a child and had the opportunity to meet great personalities of that world, amongst others Roman Mann, an outstanding set designer, known for example for Ashes and Diamonds. In 1969, Starski graduated from the Faculty of Interior Design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw and soon after began working for Zespoły Filmowe. He worked as an interior decorator in Bohdan Poręba’s Prawdzie w Oczy (Truth in the Eyes) in 1970, but made his debut as an independent production set designer three years later, in Ryszard Ber’s Chłopcy (Boys), a film about the residents of an old people’s home.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Starski worked on more than thirty films, maintained in various conventions and set in different eras – from the French Revolution, through the 19th century, the interwar period and World War II, to the present day in the People’s Republic of Poland. A breakthrough in the artist’s career was his cooperation with Andrzej Wajda, which resulted in as many as fourteen joint productions. The first was The Shadow Line (1976), an adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s novel, which required the production designer (working together with Teresa Barska), amongst other things, to build the historic interiors of a 19th century sailing ship in a Warsaw factory. Recalling the production of the film, the artist drew attention to the illusionary power of cinema. One of the scenes in which the main character leaves the harbourmaster’s office in Bangkok, for example, was shot in as many as four locations – Thailand, Bulgaria, Warsaw and Konstancin, although thanks to the magic of the screen (including the set design) the viewer gets the impression of spatial cohesion.

Picture display

standardowy (864px desktop)

Allan Starski on the set of Pan Tadeusz, 1998, photo: Sławomir Kamiński / Agencja Gazeta

Picture image

allan-starski-1998-plan-filmu-pan-tadeusz-fot-slawomir-kaminski-sk6594_017-2.jpg

Wajda’s subsequent works brought further scenographic challenges. For example, for Man of Marble (1976), Starski created the sets of Nowa Huta (in Warsaw!), because he wanted the 1950s sequences to feature red brick houses, rather than the later tower blocks. Another great achievement was the set design for Danton (1982) – in this case, the artist had to adapt many authentic Parisian buildings for the film (shooting took place in Versailles, amongst other places). The last joint work of the artists was Pan Tadeusz (1999), in which Starski had to face Adam Mickiewicz himself and recreate ‘the land of childhood’ in Soplicowo. It is worth noting that of all the filmmakers he has worked with, Starski holds Andrzej Wajda in the highest esteem. Firstly, because the director conveyed his ideas not only with words but also with drawings and sketches, which made communication much easier. Secondly, because he was open to the suggestions and ideas of the members of the ‘stage design department’.

The first major international production Starski collaborated on was Danton, but the Polish production designer’s international career gained momentum in the 1990s. He considers his collaboration with Agnieszka Holland one of the most interesting experiences in his career. It was Starski who created the set design for Europe, Europe (1990), in which monumental fascist architecture was imitated by, amongst other things, the interior of the appropriately adapted... Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw. One of the most difficult tasks the artist had to face was creating the decorations for Holland’s Washington Square (1997), for which it was necessary to create a 19th-century New York square in an extremely dangerous district of the city of Baltimore. Apparently, the residents liked the decoration so much that they asked the crew not to dismantle it.

A milestone in Starski’s career, however, was his work on Schindler's List (1994). The responsibility lying with the artists depicting the Holocaust, the scale of the production with over 100 shooting locations, the gruelling work schedule and Steven Spielberg’s incredible attention to detail made the production design one of the biggest challenges in Starski’s career. The Polish artist’s efforts were rewarded – the American Film Academy honoured him (and interior decorator Ewa Braun) with an Oscar for Best Set Design in 1994. The artist later returned to the subject of war in Roman Polański’s The Pianist (2002), based on the memoirs of Władysław Szpilman. During the film’s production, huge adaptations were made – many scenes were shot in Warsaw, including in the area of Stalowa Street in the Polish capital’s Praga district (where old tenement houses were still standing) and in Krakowskie Przedmieście. The shots depicting the capital city ruined after the uprising are amongst the film’s most recognisable images. Starski met Polański again later, creating a set design depicting 19th-century London in the Czech Republic for Oliver Twist (2006).

The collaboration with Steven Spielberg and the Oscar for Schindler’s List opened the door to Hollywood. Starski took part, amongst others, in the production of the thrillers The Body (2001) by Jonas McCord and Hannibal Rising (2007) by Peter Webber. Perhaps the biggest surprise in his oeuvre, however, is his collaboration on EuroTrip (2004), a youth comedy about a group of Americans visiting the Old Continent. The satirical picture of Europe – degenerated West and poor East, where you can encounter dogs wandering around the streets with bitten human hands in their mouths – was also co-created by the Pole. Another film Starski worked on is The Coldest Game (2019) by Łukasz Kośmicki, a Cold War thriller set mainly in a location well known to the production designer from his earlier films – the Palace of Culture and Science.

Starski once said in an interview:

For me, a set designer is a person who loves cinema. He loves and therefore understands. Thus, he can subordinate his artistic and creative temperament to the cinema, to the needs of the film
‘Starski, Droga do Oskara: Historia Dwóch Pokoleń Filmowych’ (Starski, Road to the Oscar: The History of Two Film Generations) by Stanisław Zawiśliński

During his rich artistic career, the Polish filmmaker repeatedly helped the world’s greatest filmmakers materialise their wishes – sometimes seemingly impossible, sometimes even eccentric. With the help of his co-workers (technicians, interior decorators, prop-makers, assistants) he constructed huge sets in the studio, adapted natural objects for film and like an illusionist transformed Warsaw into fascist Germany and Prague into London. His role is not purely reproductive. When watching the works on which Allan Starski – probably the most famous set designer in the history of Polish cinema – worked, it is worth remembering the words Andrzej Wajda said in the context of The Maids of Wilko: ‘Allan Starski was not only the creator of the set design but outright also the co-creator of what the audience watches on the screen.’

Originally written in Polish by Robert Birkholc, translated to English by Patryk Grabowski, June 2021