Quotes by Andrzej Wajda

About Andrzej Wajda:

Andrzej Wajda is a Polish film and theatre director. Recipient of an honorary Oscar, he is possibly the most prominent member of the unofficial "Polish Film School" (active c. 1955 to 1963). He is known especially for a trilogy of war films: A Generation (1954), Kana? (1956) and Ashes and Diamonds (1958).
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

One might have thought that the most significant change in the film industry that would come about with a transition from the communist economy to capitalism would fundamentally concern the sources of funding.

Andrzej Wajda

On the one hand, we had great filmic spectacles that brought in big audiences, adults as well as primary and secondary school students. On the other hand, there were attempts to create contemporary Polish film.

Andrzej Wajda

In the same period, Polish literature also underwent some significant changes. From social-political literature, which had a great tradition and strong motivation to be that way, Polish literature changed its focus to a psychological rather than a so...

Andrzej Wajda

Also a great part of Polish industry proved to have existed only to support the Soviet military industry, and it became superfluous and incapable of being transformed into anything else. We did not foresee that or the magnitude of these phenomena.

Andrzej Wajda

The difficulty of writing a good theatre play set in new reality was even greater given that the level of similitude to life that is allowed in a film would not work on the stage.

Andrzej Wajda

Previously the same Polish audiences would have been pressured into seeing cinema made for adults, films made by us about those spheres of life that were significant for us and which should be significant for our society.

Andrzej Wajda

We expected that people were just waiting for the collapse of the Soviet Union, or at least for its retreat, and they were going to be full of initiative in all areas of life - in culture, in economy and in politics.

Andrzej Wajda

In the forty years of the people's republic, some of the worst historical traits were preserved in our people. These included even the common characteristics developed in the economic reality of the time of partitions in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Andrzej Wajda

At the same time, television theatre became more visibly active.

Andrzej Wajda

There is no filmmaking legislation because distributors are not interested in sharing their money with the film industry - for instance, by giving a percentage of ticket sales back to filmmakers.

Andrzej Wajda

A novelty in Polish filmmaking was that it was possible to find funds for a big production. However, at the same time, the state budget committed less and less money to filmmaking.

Andrzej Wajda

Why does there exist a global American entertainment industry, but there isn't an equivalent coming from France or Italy? This is the case simply because the English language opens the whole world to the American cinema.

Andrzej Wajda

When a film is created, it is created in a language, which is not only about words, but also the way that very language encodes our perception of the world, our understanding of it.

Andrzej Wajda

The difficulty with the present state of affairs is that there is no legislation on the sources of funding for the Polish film industry. There is no legislation concerning filmmaking. And, there is no legislation on television that would be beneficia...

Andrzej Wajda

Television theatre, as is implied in its name, should rely on adaptations of scripts written for the theatre.

Andrzej Wajda

On the one hand, young theatre directors were coming to television theatre, because they wanted to get closer to the cinema, despite having studied and worked for the theatre.

Andrzej Wajda

Suddenly, the screens were dominated by American entertainment to the extent of something like 95 percent. As a result, audiences turned away from the kinds of films that we used to make.

Andrzej Wajda

Nevertheless, in the theatre, and in the cinema, the contemporary reality of Poland has been represented only to a minuscule degree in the last 12 years.

Andrzej Wajda

Language also encodes our past. We want to know who we are. To know who we are, we have to know who we used to be. Consequently, our literature, written in the past, anchors us in that past.

Andrzej Wajda

It turned out that the country was helpless in the face of a new reality.

Andrzej Wajda

Author Bio

  • NameAndrzej Wajda
  • DescriptionPolish film director
  • BornMarch 6, 1926
  • CountryPoland
  • ProfessionFilm Director; Theatre Director; Screenwriter
  • AwardsCommander Of The Legion Of Honour; Commandeur Des Arts Et Des Lettres?; Grand Merit Cross Of The Order Of Merit Of The Federal Republic Of Germany; Order Of The White Eagle; Medal For Merit To Culture; Praemium Imperiale