Krzysztof Zanussi. Portrait of a Friend ebook

“When I think of You – and I have the honor and pleasure of knowing You since time immemorial – I return to the years when I watched Your first films: ‘The Structure of Crystals’, pre-premiere in a small screening room at WFD, ‘Illumination’, already in the cinema, and ‘The Death of a Provincial’, I don’t remember under what circumstances… You opened a NEW WORLD to me then. Through Your characters, their attitudes, dilemmas, and fates. And although You made subsequent films often AGAINST the mainstream understanding of the world and art – that pioneering trio has remained in me permanently, NOT ONLY as a noble archival gem. Thank You.”

Dr. STANISŁAW JANICKI

film critic, film historian

I dedicate this book to:Elżbiecie Grocholskiej-Zanussi, Barbarze Gruszce-Zych, Mai Komorowskiej, Wojciechowi Plewińskiemu, Józefowi Opalskiemu, Jerzemu Jakubowiczowi, Piotrowi Chłoście, Przemysławowi Dudkowi, Zbigniewowi Daraszowi, Elżbiecie Plucie, Maciejowi Nowakowi, Łukaszowi Maciejewskiemu, Annie Kondratowicz-Nowickiej, Marii Klaman, Antoniemu Fryczkowi, Aleksandrowi Miszalskiemu, Stanisławowi Kracikowi, Barbarze Skrabacz-Matusik, Tomaszowi Karasiowi, Wojciechowi Krawczukowi, Wojciechowi Kurtyce, Izabeli Trojanowskiej, Ewie Kasprzyk, Małgorzacie Kożuchowskiej, Piotrowi Fronczewskiemu, Marianowi Dziędzielowi, Henrykowi Talarowi, Jerzemu Fedorowiczowi, Olgierdowi Łukaszewiczowi, Grzegorzowi Mielczarkowi, Radosławowi Piwowarskiemu, Józefowi Musiołowi, Marianowi Hudkowi, Marcinowi Chmielewskiemu, Mariuszowi Gryżewskiemu, Dariuszowi Domajewskiemu

Introduction

Laski, a small town in the municipality of Izabelin near Warsaw, is primarily associated with the Educational and Rehabilitation Center for Blind Children, the figure of Blessed Mother Róża Czacka, the patroness, and Blessed Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński. There is a forest cemetery where Jan Lechoń, Marian Brandys, Halina Mikołajska, Tadeusz Mazowiecki, and others rest…

However, this town has attracted many people from around the world for many years due to the presence of Elżbieta and Krzysztof Zanussi. They arrived here many years ago and became part of the beautiful landscape of this extraordinary land, where peace and harmony always prevail… The proximity of the forest adds a certain mystery to this place. It is an extraordinary home, and its hosts know how to invite everyone who cares about goodness and peace to their table. Welcomed by the Franciscans, you enter here as an expected guest. For me personally, Elżbieta and Krzysztof Zanussi are people open to others, to relationships, and to full dialogue.

I have had the privilege of being a guest in this home on several occasions. The garden and its trees, shrubs, and statues, not only of saints, reflect the atmosphere. The meticulously maintained garden is the work of Mrs. Elżbieta. At the same time, it is a Polish home with traditions, a beautiful history, and even objects that have become the protagonists of the book by Barbara Gruszka-Zych and Grzegorz Lityński.

The hosts’ attitude towards animals is particularly noteworthy. A group of Labradors greets everyone at the doorstep, having their own, as Mrs. Elżbieta says – kingdom.

In the morning, you can hear the birds singing outside the windows. This place is like a theater of nature, a nature reserve, illuminated by the charm of the hosts. And on one day a year, it gathers Krzysztof Zanussi’s friends. I also have the opportunity to share good words in this fairy-tale place on that June day, where the joy of the hosts is always evident. From this place, Krzysztof Zanussi sets out into his cinematic and not only artistic world, to return happily to the home where Mrs. Elżbieta awaits. This story is my recollection of a man and artist who taught me and my generation how to understand art and how to interpret it, always with wisdom, humility, and reflection.

Dariusz Domański

PS Krzysztof Zanussi perceives the world around him as a sum of experiments, creative experiences, but he is also a traditionalist. He has his habits. From every place on the globe where he stays, he sends postcards to friends and even close acquaintances. In today’s world of electronic media and messengers, this is a rarity. In this way, Krzysztof Zanussi preserves the dying art of letter writing. Perhaps hundreds of years from now, researchers of our era will learn that, just as people once wrote on stone, paper, or canvas, in the 21st century, only a few still reached for this form of communication. Thus, this is the trace left behind…

As long as I can remember…

As long as I can remember, as a young boy, a teenager, I loved cinema. I was a true cinephile. I went to all the films that were in the repertoire of Polish cinemas, even those for adults, although it wasn’t easy. But I admit honestly. That’s how it was. I have forgotten many films, but many remain in my youthful memory and imagination. These were the 1970s and 1980s. How it sounds now, in 2025! – it was so recent, wasn’t it?

Through the films of Polish directors, I got to know literature, even school readings, which I didn’t always willingly read – but films were something else, something worth seeing. They helped later in understanding and studying literature.

Two kinds of cinema, two different creators, appealed to my cinematic taste. One was the cinema of Andrzej Wajda, based on excellent literary texts, such as “The Wedding” by S. Wyspiański or “The Promised Land” by W. Reymont. On the other end was the cinema of Krzysztof Zanussi, his television, not cinematic, “Passing Grade” and “The Structure of Crystals.” This was Zanussi’s world, not entirely understandable to me at the time, but the layers of psychology, philosophy, and metaphysics in cinema I came to know through this creator. And I began to understand them later. Because it was easier to understand the history contained in Wyspiański’s drama than to touch the essence of human existence described in Zanussi’s works. One had to grow up more to appreciate Zanussi, to mature. He himself gave lessons to great artists, inspired them, even Professor Aleksander Bardini, who in 1974 spoke with respect about working with Zanussi.

Both Wajda and Zanussi shaped my deep love for the tenth muse, which, however, did not survive, despite so many excellent films by both artists that I watched later. I turned my steps more towards theater, which seemed more real, authentic to me. Because I could observe live the reactions of actors, audiences, and how the director “manipulated” them. However, that time in cinema was my first entry into the world of acting and directing, into the world of values that then constituted a paradigm of high culture for me.

Dariusz Domański

ABOUT KRZYSZTOF ZANUSSIMUCH HAS BEEN SAID…

Much has been said and written about Krzysztof Zanussi. The director himself is also the author of several books in which he shared his biography and worldview. Many people have analyzed his cinematic achievements, both critics and film scholars from Poland and abroad. In recent years, the person who has dedicated the most attention to Zanussi is Barbara Gruszka-Zych, a journalist and poet. Basia, who conducted a beautiful interview with Krzysztof Zanussi and his wife Elżbieta Grocholska-Zanussi, presenting their extraordinary life. Recently, an album co-authored by her and Grzegorz Lityński (with comments from the protagonist) was released, discussing the objects surrounding the director, not only in his home in Laski. Therefore, one might ask, why this new book, or rather a sketch about the director, and whether it will bring any new perspective on the artist? I think it will, these are my personal observations and notes, as well as voices of young people whom Zanussi, as a director of current topics in our lives, started to interest at the threshold of their adult life.

I met Krzysztof Zanussi in the 1980s. Over thirty years have passed since then, and much has happened not only in the life of the director. I won’t say that our relationship was as close as, for example, with Janek Nowicki, Franek Pieczka, Mańek Dziędziel, or Piotrek Fronczewski. But still, Mr. Krzysztof became one of my closest directors, with whom I was able to become friends. Now, such a director is also Radek Piwowarski, whose positive energy and sense of humor allow one to interpret his extraordinary artistic and human personality.

Krzysztof Zanussi is a very open, warm-hearted person. You can rely on him, on his kind words and heart. Zanussi is a person of impeccable manners, an erudite, a thinker in the Enlightenment sense, a bit of a Romantic and at the same time a Positivist, (he could fit in all these epochs). An artist, a citizen of the world, a man, as I once said – “with a dove’s heart”. In this miniature, I will touch upon the phenomenon of working with young people, “I will” undertake an analysis of his film work – but I will primarily reach back in memory to our many meetings in various places, although most often at his house in Laski near Warsaw, on the occasion of birthday celebrations among friends, where I will never forget the taste of the asparagus from the birthday table for the rest of my life.

The first meeting with Krzysztof Zanussi took place in Warsaw’s Żoliborz. I arrived from Krakow for a scheduled interview with the director. It was August – the year 1988. Żoliborz reminded me of the Church of St. Stanislaus Kostka and Father Jerzy Popiełuszko, who was murdered by the security services of the People’s Republic of Poland.

I wondered whether to talk to Mr. Krzysztof about Father Jerzy, maybe because he also made films featuring extraordinary priests such as St. John Paul II, St. Maximilian Kolbe, Brother Albert. When I arrived at the house on Kaniowska Street, Mr. Krzysztof’s mother opened the door. Mrs. Wanda Zanussi, an older elegant lady, emanated that pre-war charm. She asked me to come in, led me to Mr. Krzysztof’s room, his living room, and before she left, she offered me tea. After a few seconds, Mr. Krzysztof appeared, then nearly fifty years old, with a dark beard, wearing glasses, as befitted an intellectual. Of course, in a blazer and tie. I never saw him dressed otherwise, wherever he was – always in a suit or a jacket, shirt, and tie. Just like Janek Nowicki always wore a hat, Krzysztof Zanussi dressed formally. I wondered what question to ask first? This was meant to be an interview for the monthly magazine “Góry,” and it was to focus on the director’s interest in mountains. Few people know that Zanussi tried his hand at mountaineering, as the theme of mountains often appeared in his films. I’m thinking of “Constans,” “Spirala,” and “Góry o zmierzchu.” I also knew that Mr. Krzysztof was a jury member at mountain film festivals held in various European countries. That’s when I learned about his connections with mountaineers, including Wanda Rutkiewicz and the Surdel brothers.