Trieste Contemporanea settembre n.5 1998
 

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Some time ago I was in Copenhagen with professor Jerzy Toeplitz, who praised the qualities of the Lódz Film School. He was speaking English and maybe for this reason I soon realized that I had attended the best Film School I could attend. The subjects that the teachers taught and the general organization of practical and theoretical activities, according to professor Toeplitz, formed an excellent pedagogical system, which gave to the average student the opportunity to understand the mysteries of film art and to have a job. I grew silent and pensive: I could not believe to what he was saying to me. I had finished the School, but according to my memories I could not remember any of the pedagogical exercises that professor Toeplitz had mentioned. On the contrary, I remembered all the wasted time I had spent, sitting on the stairs of the School, waiting for the teachers who never arrived from Warsaw.

I also remember the awful impression to waste time and to be far away from the places where something important, concerning the future of Polish cinematography, was occurring witout me.

In the meantime, I also remembered that in less than one year, after finishing my studies, I had made my first feature film on my own. All my friends worked in the film industry and as far as I remember, it was rather easy for me to write a screenplay. It was easy to persuade the actors, to obtain what I wanted from the art director, whose artistic choices I succeeded to mould according to my personal taste.

Andrzej Wajda

I managed to overcome a lot of obstacles in the organization during the shooting of the film Pokolenie (My Generation). Where did I learn all this?