Janusz Majewski died on January 10, 2024. The legendary Polish director has titles in almost every film genre in his extensive filmography. His achievements also include discovering the talent of Marek Kondrat. It is a well-known fact that Majewski was friends with Roman Polanski, but not everyone knows that later film legends slept in the same bed during their studies.
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Janusz Majewski was supposed to be an architect, but he became a legend of Polish cinema. During his studies, he was friends with Polanski
Janusz Majewski He was born on August 5, 1931 in Lviv. At first, he dreamed of studying photography, but something (or rather someone) prevented him. – My parents wanted me to pursue a career in cinematography, and I am not at all surprised, because at that time in Poland they made four or five films a year, and I made them. He stated this years later in an interview with TVP.
Majewski began studying architecture at the Krakow University of Technology, graduating in 1955. However, this was not the end of his higher education – later he studied at the Faculty of Cinematography and Directing at the Lodz Film School. He made his debut with the short film Rondo (1958) starring Slavomir Mrožek and Stefan Šlachtić.
During his studies, he met another legend of Polish cinema, i.e Roman Polanski. – We met in Krakow, but only at school. We even lived in the same room for a while. He rented a large pre-war apartment in Odza – Majhewski reported in the above-mentioned interview.
The men even slept in one bed, with a rolled-up sheet in the middle, jokingly, “just in case.”
– There was also a wardrobe in the room. Romek, anticipating that I would soon return from classes, climbed up to jump on me as I entered and sink his teeth into my neck like a vampire. He scared me for the first time, because he did it at least ten times, we laughed about it. It was such a joke – Majewski quotes “Gazeta Wyborcza”..
Majewski also revealed that the award-winning director faced complexes in his youth.
– (…) For many years he looked like a boy, and at school he looked like a junior high school student, or even younger. This was the source of his terrible complexes. Therefore, he devoted all his life energy to prove that he was not a little boy at all, but a grown man, and even more so with extraordinary talents. We joked that we could take him, put him against the wall and drill a hole with his energy, he said in the aforementioned interview with TVP.
He also revealed that Polanski was very fond of “shine in all company”. – Sometimes this led to funny situations. Once in a cafe, he started talking about flying a jet plane, as if he had once been a pilot. A gentleman sitting on the side interrupted and gave a remark – the recently deceased director continued the story about Polanski.
– Romek answered that he was wrong and he knew it for sure. It turned out that the man was actually a pilot. His will to overcome all obstacles paid off and was the best proof of what he had achieved, he added.
Cinema of Janusz Majewski
Janusz Majewski's love for cinema began with literature and… a fairy tale Disney. – (…) I took the projector and the inspiration came because I was greatly impressed by the movie “Snow White”. It was the first great animated film and not just a short cartoon, said the director in an interview with Adam Czyszowsky from Telewizja Polska.
As for his style, Majewski calls himself a “formalist”. – I am interested in the possibilities of image and sound offered with editing. But what is shown is also important – He explained on OnetHe explained that he considered it necessary to “make such a performance for the audience”.
– I was not interested in the role of the film as a means of conveying ideas or actions in the field of politics or social issues – he said in an interview with Cisovsky. Perhaps that's why film critic Joanna Wojnicka described his work as “an escapist trend in Polish cinematography.” Although “escape” is often used to praise someone else's art, Voynitzka admired Mayevsky as an effective adapter of literary works.
“Majewski is a director familiar with literary conventions and often (but not always) offers the audience a film game that includes a partial revelation of the literary and, therefore, artificial (in this case also conventional) way of existence of the cinematic world he has created. he wrote.
Another Polish film scholar, Piotr Kletowski, believes that Majewski's hyperrealist cinema may be similar Cinema of moral anxietywhose representatives were, among others, Andrzej Wajda and Krzysztof Kieslowski.
Of course, the variety of genres is characteristic of Majewski.
– I have never allowed myself to be pigeon holed. “Lokis” can be classified as a horror film, but in fact I meant more – something is hidden under the form of a thriller. In this case, it was the suffering of a hero driven to illness. It is the same in “Black Mercedes”. It should be a crime story, but it turns out that the film is about love – the director told Pavel Piotrovich from Onet.
Mayevsky was not only interested in entertaining the audience. – I was looking for themes that would provide me with the material that I call film performance. This is what people will look at, which will cause specific reactions and leave a certain reflection, the value with which they will leave the cinema and it will be long-lasting and not fleeting – he explained in an interview with TVP.
– All feature films, regardless of their quality, are about people. They show people in different light, in different situations, different sides of the soul – sometimes more insightfully, sometimes superficially, but still a reflection of authentic life – he said in Oneti.
Although cinema was Majewski's greatest passion, it was not his only one. The director is the author of several books, including titles such as “Maleńka”, “Exhibitionist. Stories not only erotic” and “Mała matura”.
Majewski also collected unusual sticks and for some time tried to learn to play instruments. – These are painful topics, because I did not endure and did not master the trumpet, mainly because it is a terribly difficult instrument, and any attempt to practice is disturbing for those around me, – he told Cisovsky.
– (…) When I tried in a rural area in Masuria and went out into the field, the local dogs screamed when they heard my call (…) – he added. Apparently, playing the piano was not very good.
“CK Deserters” and other great works of the director
Mayevsky made his debut in 1966 with an award-winning comedy “Subtenant”. However, it is considered a breakthrough in his career “Enchanted Areas” (1975).
– This film, in a sense, was the point where I acquired the skills that allowed me to do what I did. Not to mention the fact of the co-production and the meeting with the excellent cinematographer Mirek Ondrichek, who was a master of his profession – Majewski talked about it years later in an interview with Telewizja Polska.
Drama is also considered a career achievement Marek Kondrat, who later starred in many more of Majewski's films. In the end, the two men had not only a professional relationship, but also a personal friendship.
One of Majewski's most famous films is “CK Dezerterzy” based on the novel by Kazimierz Sejda. The director admitted that he hoped that the comedy would become a hit, but he had no doubts that it would be such a hit.
– It was very well received for many reasons, also because it inadvertently became a parody of the army of the time, associated with the National Salvation Army Council, the so-called with WRON. People perceived it as a satire on the Polish army, but it was not intentional – he explained in an interview with Czysowski.
Other famous titles of Majewski are “Jealousy and Medicine”, “The Lesson of a Dead Language” and the TV series “Królowa Bona”. Mazzewski's last film, i.e “Black Mercedes” with Maria Debska, Artur Zmijewski and Andrzej Severin, but did not repeat the success of most of his titles.
“A failed marriage of crime and romance in a retro set design during the occupation, interesting issues were confined to the background. Old fashioned, sexist cinema, no holds barred”, “This movie was probably made so that Majewski could meet his friends. On the set”, “Funny Severin, and the rest Filled with clichés and nonsense. A crime story with absolutely no imagination. Atmospheric only occasionally,” read critics' opinions on Filmweb.
According to the director himself, in general, it is much easier to make a film today than it was before.
– I would say that it is easier when it comes to crafting. In the past, the lights themselves were often clocked, and there was no reel of film that was a currency commodity. Therefore, we had to do it very sparingly – two, maximum three. And then there was another nervous moment when we were waiting for its development in the laboratory – he explained to Piotrovich.
Janusz Majewski died
Janusz Majewski He died on January 10, 2024 at the age of 92. His departure was announced by the Association of Polish Cinematographers.
“It is with great sadness that we inform you that Janusz Majewski died tonight. One of the most famous, respected and popular Polish film directors. Master of genre cinema, screenwriter, writer, academic lecturer” – reads the note published on the association's website. social media.