Born: May 5, 1938, Lodz, Poland
Early days. He was the son of Maria (nee Postnikoff) and Stanislaw Skolimowski, an architect. As a small child he witnessed the brutalities of war, even having been rescued from the rubble of a bombed-out house in Warsaw. His father, a member of the Polish underground, was executed by the Nazis. His mother hid a Jewish family in the house. In 1948, Skolimowski found himself in Czechoslovakia when his mother became the cultural attache of the Polish embassy in Prague. His fellow pupils at school in Podebrady, a spa town near Prague, included future film-makers Milos Forman and Ivan Passer, as well as Vaclav Havel, who grew up to be a playwright, then the country's president. In 1959 Skolimowski graduated in ethnology, literature and history from Warsaw University. Skolimowski's interest in jazz and association with composer Krzysztof Komeda brought him into contact with actor Zbigniew Cybulski and directors Andrzej Munk and Roman Polanski. Skolimowski then enrolled in the Lodz Film Academy and graduated in directing in 1962.
Writer and actor. In his early twenties Skolimowski was already a writer, having published several books of poems, short stories and a play. Soon he met Andrzej Wajda, the leading director of the then dominant 'Polish school' . In response to a challenge by Wajda, he produced a script which became a basis for the film, Innocent Sorcerers (1960), directed by Wajda. He also appeared as Colonel Chaikov, a ruthless yet composed KGB colonel, in White Nights (1985) and Uncle Stepan, a Russian expatriate in Eastern Promises (2007), among other roles.
Director. In the 1960s, Skolimowski's name was mentioned in the same breath as Jean-Luc Godard's. He has directed more than twenty films since his 1960 debut Oko wykol (The Menacing Eye). He lived in Los Angeles where he painted and occasionally acted. More recently, he began dividing his time between the US and Poland and returned to film making. Skolimowski then collaborated with Polanski, writing the dialogue for the script of Knife in the Water (1962). Then he completed Rysopis (1964), Walkover(1965), and Barrier (1966). After Barrier he left Poland to make Le Depart in 1967 in Belgium in French. Le Depart won the Golden Bear at the 17th Berlin International Film Festival. Then he returned to Poland to make Hands Up (completed 1967, released 1981). In 1968 he contributed a story to a Czech-produced portmanteau film, Dialog 20-40-60 (1968) with his wife Joanna Szczerbic. In 1970 he made Deep End (1970) that was Skolimowski's second non-Polish feature to be based on his own original screenplay. His next feature was Arthur Conan Doyle's The Adventures of Gerard (1970). Shout was produced in 1978 . His 1982 feature Moonlighting - which starred Jeremy Irons and told the powerful story of illegal Polish workers marooned in London - so thrilled the New York Times that the paper called it one of the "best films ever made about exile". In 1984 he made Success Is the Best Revenge. The Lightship, Skolimowski's first US production, received the best film award at the Venice Film Festival. Next came Torrents of Spring (1989) a big budget European co-production starring Timothy Hutton, Nastassja Kinski and Valeria Golino, and Ferdydurke (1991). In 2008 he produced Four Nights with Anna (Cztery noce z Anna) and is working now (2010) on Essential Killing.
Personal. Good friends with the directors: Roman Polanski and Andrzej Wajda.
This article uses, among others, material from the Wikipedia article "Jerzy Skolimowski" licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. :
Wikipedia (also includes filmography)
Other sources:
Interview in The Guardian
Quinzaine des realisateurs (in English)
