To mark the first anniversary of the death of Andrzej WAJDA (9 October 2016), CINEMATEK will be screening 21 of his feature films as part of the ‘Classics & Anthologie’ cycle. Almost all of the director’s films, which won many awards, tended to embody a certain kind of Polish and European memory, battle against a ‘withering away of memory’, and, in so doing, create a certain kind of Polish imagery which still burns brightly. This is what this second Andrzej WAJDA retrospective, comprising 27 screenings and 3 conferences, will set out to prove.
Please note: this page is devoted exclusively to the conferences. The programmation of the screenings can be found HERE.

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CONFERENCES (all in French)

• “Andrzej Wajda. Comment être artiste de cinéma en Pologne” (“Andrzej Wajda. How to be a cinema artist in Poland”), by Tadeusz LUBELSKI

>>> Monday 9 October 2017 – 19:00 [for more info]
Conference followed by a screening of the movie Ashes and Diamonds (Popiół i Diament)

• “Andrzej Wajda. Orfèvrerie d’un cinéma total” (“Andrzej Wajda. The Jewels of Total Cinema”), by Dominique NASTA

>>> Thursday 12 Octobre 2017 – 19:00 [for more info]
Conference followed by a screening of the movie Everything Must Go (Wszystko na sprzedaż)

• “Andrzej Wajda, ou les paradoxes d’un cinéaste d’état” (‘Andrzej Wajda, or the paradoxes of being a state film maker’, by Jeremi SZANIAWSKI

>>> Thursday 13 November 2017 – 19:00 [for more info]
Conference followed by screening of the movie Without Anesthesia (Bez znieczulenia)

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PRACTICAL INFORMATION
>>> CINEMATEK (Rue Baron Horta 9, 1000 Brussels) – see map
>>> 9 and 12 October, 13 November 2017 – 19:00
>>> €8 / conference (possibility to buy seats online or by telephone)
>>> the three conferences will be in French

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DETAILS

#1
“Andrzej Wajda. Comment être artiste de cinéma en Pologne” (“Andrzej Wajda. How to be a cinema artist in Poland”), by Tadeusz LUBELSKI
(monday 9 October 2017 – 19:00) || on the site of CINEMATEK
Conference followed by a screening of the film Ashes and Diamonds (Popiół i Diament)

From the age of fourteen, Andrzej Wajda was destined to be a painter – a decision which influenced all of the choices he made as a young man. That is, until August 1949, when, having abandoned his brilliant studies at the Krakow Academy of Fine Art, he enrolled at the Lodz Cinema School. This conference investigates the impact of this decision on Wajda’s future work. It will provide four possible responses to the question in the title: the artist from the Polish cinema school; the artist as guardian of a nation’s heritage; the artist as citizen; and the artist as witness of existence.

Tadeusz LUBELSKI
Historian, critic and cinema professor at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Tadeusz Lubelski is a specialist in Polish cinema who has devoted several pieces of work and articles to Andrzej Wajda’s oeuvre. His book, ‘A History of Polish Cinema’, has just been published in French by Septentrion’s éditions universitaires.

#2
“Andrzej Wajda. Orfèvrerie d’un cinéma total” (“Andrzej Wajda. The Jewels of Total Cinema”), by Dominique NASTA 
(thursday 12 October 2017 – 19:00) || on the site of CINEMATEK
Conference followed by a screening of the film Everything Must Go (Wszystko na sprzedaż)

The indispensable film maker who evokes a sense of Polishness marked by the numerous scansions of History, Andrzej Wajda was also an artist in the broad sense of the term, a man whose entire oeuvre bears witness to the constant desire for cinema, in all its forms, to diversify and renew itself. The conference will address his filmography both from the angle of building a new ethics of looking, made possible by the process of destalinization and the thawing of political relations after the Cold War, and that of a syncretism which is constantly asserted and adopted. It will therefore explore the manner in which Wajda, by delving into his own literary and artistic heritage, as well as into the various facets of universal culture, never ceased to experiment with cinematographic themes and aesthetics. He also managed, in more than half a century of work, to synthesise audio-visual resources in an exceptional way. What’s more, he went beyond what was often a Manichean duality between eastern and western Europe.

Dominique NASTA
Professor of history and the aesthetics of cinema at the ULB, Nasta is the author of several articles and works of reference, including ‘Contemporary Romanian Cinema: The History of an Unexpected Miracle’ (Wallflower, 2014). 

#3
“Andrzej Wajda, ou les paradoxes d’un cinéaste d’état” (“Andrzej Wajda, or the paradoxes of being a state film maker”), by Jeremi SZANIAWSKI
(monday 13 Novembre 2017 – 19:00) || on the site of CINEMATEK
Conference followed by the screening of the film Without Anesthesia (Bez znieczulenia)

Throughout his illustrious career, Andrzej Wajda weaved between the troubled waters of communist and post-communist Poland. In troubling fashion, his work reflects the various stages of the dominant ideology in the country, starting with the thawing of political relations after the Cold War and ending with the advent of neoliberalism. Between the discourse of a persecuted martyr and demonstrable political opportunism, Wajda delivered an abundant filmography, the likes of which any ‘official’ film maker would envy. This is the opportunity to ask questions about authenticity and bad faith.

Jeremi SZANIAWSKI
The holder of a doctorate in cinema studies from Yale University, Szaniawski is the author of several films and books about cinema, including ‘The Global Auteur’, a collection which he edited alongside Seung-hoon Jeong.

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Andrzej WAJDA
Film and theatrical director; born March 6th 1926 in Suwałki, Poland; Education: Academy of Fine Arts, Krakow; Film School Łódź; Film Director 1954; Theater Dir. Teatr Stary, Cracow 1962-1998; Man. Dir. Teatr Powszechny Warsaw 1989-90; Hon. mem. Union Polish Artist and Designers (ZPAP) 1977; President Polish Film Assoc. 1978-83; ”Solidarity” Lech Wałęsa Council 1981-89; Senator of the Republic of Poland 1989-91; Presidential Council for Culture 1992-94; Founder: Center of Japanese Art and Technology, Krakow 1994
Dr. h. c.: American University Washington 1981; University Bologna 1988; Jagiellonian University Krakow 1989; University Lyon 1995; University Libre Bruxelle 1995; Gdańsk University 2004; University of Warsaw 2005; Membre Institut de France 1997;
Prizes:

• State First Class Prize 1974;
• Order of the Banner of Labor (second class) 1975;
• Konrad Swinarski Prize 1976;
• Premio  David di Donatello Luchino Visconti, Italy 1978;
• Officer’s Cross of Order of Polonia Restituta;
• Order of Kirill and Methodus (first class), Bulgaria 1978;
• BAFTA Fellowship 1982;
• Onassis Prize, Greece 1982;
• Oficier, Legion d’honneur 1982 France;
• Cesar Award, France 1983;
• Pirandello Artistic Award, Italy 1986;
• Kyoto Prize, Japan 1987;
• Felix European Film Awards – Lifetime Achievement Award 1990;
• Order of Rising Sun, Japan 1995; Premium Imperiale, Japan 1997;
• Golden Lion Life Achievement Award, Venice, 1998;
• OSCAR American Film Academy – Lifetime Achievement Award 2000;
• Commandeur, Legion d`honneur  France 2001;
• Golden Bear Life Achievement Award, IFF Berlin 2006;
• European Film Award Prix FIPRESCI 2009.