Behind or In Front of the Camera?
Versatility or specialisation? In other words: should filmmakers - this concerns mainly directors and actors - develop in one direction only and enhance their skills or should they do the opposite – explore new ways of expression and stand on both sides of the camera? Anyone who is in favour of the latter could remind us the genius of Charlie Chaplin – director, screenwriter, actor and composer in one person. Alfred Hitchcock appeared in each of his own films, but these appearances could hardly be called even episodes. Orson Welles, on the other hand, used to cast himself in leading roles. Woody Allen, Clint Eastwood, Robert Redford or Mel Gibson appear on both sides of the lens; Roman Polański willingly acts - both in the colleagues' productions – Wajda's Revenge or Tornatore's Pure Formality – and in his own, such as The Fearless Vampire Killers or The Tenant.
At the beginning of her article in the May Kino (Stuhr – Amateur Professional) Grażyna Stachówna reminds a few of the many cases of actors who decided to try their skill with the camera. This situaton – Stachówna argues – no longer surprises anyone but the Poles; in Polish reality, such attempts happen relatively rarely and are being perceived as unusual. Stachówna has found six actors-turned-directors in the history of the post-war Polish cinema. The list is opened by Jan Koecher, whose Career (1955) was a spy movie filmed in the aesthetic of social realism. Gustaw Holoubek has directed Mazepa, Bogusław Linda has made Koniec, Seszele and Sezon na leszcza, Marek Bukowski has so far created two pictures – Blok.pl and Sukces (Success). Also Krystyna Janda (Pestka - The Pip) and Marek Kondrat (Prawo ojca) have worked as film directors.
The list is relatively short, due to obligatory art school specialisation of the Polish People’s Republic era: a diploma issued by the directing department was the only key to filmmaking. Stachówna suggests that many people still perceive acting as playing a game of sorts, an occupation for someone not gifted enough to control the crew.
On the other hand, as Stachówna points out, none of the films mentioned above seem to have been a masterpiece. I strongly agree with this statement. I'm afraid that cases like that of The Pip are far too common – the director invites a group of well-known actor friends to work on the film, and, as a result, the only positive asset of the finished movie is the cast, but only as far as the poster goes - it is difficult to talk about interesting roles.
The exception, according to Stachówna, is the work of Jerzy Stuhr, who has by now created five motion pictures. For years he has been known as one of the most outstanding Polish actors. As a director he is an outsider, not associated with any generation of artists and rarely influenced by fashionable artistic trends. Stachówna admires his efforts and underlines that Stuhr works because of an inner need, an authentic urge to explain the contemporary world to the viewers. Even if Stuhr's films are slightly exaggerated, this does not mean a lack of respect for the viewer's intellect; on the contrary - Stuhr belongs to the small group of filmmakers who do not treat the recipients of their work condescendingly. Idealist, Don Quixote, ironist – that's how Stuhr is described in the article. Stachówna enumerates five basic themes present in his work: the condition of the educated classes in Poland, the search for love, respect for oneself, forming relationships with others, the problems of the young generation. In each of the motion pictures one of these becomes dominant.
My favourite Stuhr film is the first one, List of Lovers, an adaptation of a not very filmic prose of Jerzy Pilch. Perhaps I am not – and I wasn’t a few years ago either – an ideal viewer of this film, which depicts an educated Polish 50-year-old, who takes finding a notebook with old contacts as an invitation to a sentimental journey into the past. The place where the action of List of Lovers took place was not unimportant to me either: as a fresh graduate of the Polish Studies at the University in Kraków I recognized faces and places on the screen.
I did not react that enthusiastically to Stuhr's next films – the award-winning Love Stories did not somehow meet my expectations and A Week in the Life of a Man irritated me with its overt didacticism. In case of the Big Animal I was annoyed by the constant buzz about Kieślowski, the author of the original screenplay. I also had my reservations concerning Stuhr's latest film, Tomorrow's Weather. I could not quite grasp why none of the three children of the main character was relatively normal; did all of them have to symbolize contemporary pathologies? Now, however, it seems to me that the cynical, corrupt politician, a reality show star and an Internet-addicted girl, abused by her boyfriend suit the film reality.
Jerzy Stuhr is undoubtedly a moralist, although - as Stachówna notices - a moralist with a sense of humour, troubled by the phenomena of everyday life. One can dislike his films, but their consistence is admirable.
If one was to pick an original artist from the Polish actors-turned-directors, Stuhr would be the obvious choice. His work brings hope that one day we might encounter a Polish Woody Allen. Before that happens, we will meet the chatterbox donkey in the second part of Shrek and probably will confirm our view that Jerzy Stuhr, who has displayed considerable talent as a film director, is a genius of dubbing.
Katarzyna Wajda
Translated by Marta Malina Moraczewska
Discussed journals: Kino