EDWARD KLOSINSKI

#2: "Vinci" [2004]

#3: [Right] - "Vinci" [2004]

EDWARD KLOSINSKI

Born: 2 January 1943, Warsaw, Poland, as Edward Stefan Kłosiński.

Died: 5 January 2008, Milanówek [near Warsaw], Poland.

Education: PWSFTviT, Lódz [graduated in 1967].

Career: Worked at the Film Academy [PWSFTviT] as asst at the film department [1967-68].

Was a member of the STOFF/PSC.

Was married to actress Krystyna Janda.

Got a 'star' on the 'Walk of Fame' in Lódz in March 2009.

Appeared in the doc's 'Wiecej swiatla. Festiwal Operatorów Filmowych Camerimage '97' [1997, Piotr Lazarkiewicz; ph: Adam Sikora; 54m] & 'Krec! Jak kochasz, to krec!' [2010, Andrzej Wajda; ph: Jacek Petrycki & Pawel Edelman; 46m].

Awards: Komitetu d/s Radia i Telewizji [1978] for 'Polskie drogi'; Panama MFF [1979] for 'Spirala'; Sitges IFF 'Best Cinematography' [1991] for 'Europa'; Medina del Campo, Spain - 4° Certamen Nacional de Cortometrajes, Trofeo a la mejor fotografia [1996] for 'La muerte de Filomeno'; Bayerischer Filmpreis [2000] for 'Gloomy Sunday'; Krzyż Oficerski Orderu Odrodzenia Polski [2008]; Plus Camerimage Award for the Contribution to the Art of Cinematography [2008].

Obituary: It is a tribute to the skills of the cinematographer Edward Klosinski, who has died of lung cancer aged 65, that the greatest Polish film directors - Andrzej Wajda, Krzysztof Zanussi and Krzysztof Kieslowski - sought his collaboration on their films. Wajda, for whom Klosinski shot eight films, gave him his first job as director of photography on 'Brzezina/The Birch Wood', when the credited cinematographer, Zygmunt Samosiuk, left the production. The look of the film derives from Polish art nouveau paintings, although this bitter-sweet drama was set in the 1930s. Driven by "censorship behind closed doors", Wajda had turned to non-overtly political literature for his material until 'Czlowiek z marmuru/Man of Marble'.

This bold, no-frills political tale of a modern film student's investigation of the life of a Stakhanovite bricklayer in the 1950s has black-and-white recreations of the newsreels of the time. The chain-smoking student was played by Krystyna Janda, whom Klosinski married in 1981, the year of 'Czlowiek z zelaza/Man of Iron'. In this sequel to 'Czlowiek z marmuru/Man of Marble', Janda appeared as a dissident filmmaker, now married to the son of the worker. In a way, Wajda's uncluttered style suited Klosinski, who had a fondness for natural light. "The cinematography cannot be a wall separating the film from the viewer," he once said. "If the cinematography is so aggressive that the cinema viewer starts sighing 'how lovely', then they lose the essence of the film. I try not to stick out from behind the camera, and not to overdo special shots - from under the table, then from a bird's-eye view."

In Wajda's 'Bez znieczulenia/Rough Treatment', the shots are intentionally rough because, as the cinematographer himself said, "this was a story about difficult moments in the life of a journalist, so I did my best to make it look like a reporter's work, to make it restless, careless".

Klosinski worked for Zanussi in the 1970s on 'Illuminacja/Illumination' and 'Barwy ochronne/Camouflage', both taking place in the narrow scientific academic community, both making wider philosophical and political statements. Klosinski considered himself part of the "cinema of moral anxiety" created by the generation inspired by the films of Wajda.

"The most active period of my work," Klosinski declared, "fell in the years of the birth and peak development of the cinema of moral anxiety. I know it was needed and important, but in terms of form it is hard to view it as rich. It probably had to be that way. If the formal aspects had been more spectacular, they would have falsified the content which was the most important thing."

In 1987, Klosinski and Kieslowski teamed up for the first time for Episode 2 of 'Dekalog/Decalogue', a series of 10 one-hour television films inspired by the Ten Commandments. On the theme of "thou shalt have no other gods before me", the story tells how a young boy, encouraged by his father to calculate everything by computer, miscalculates that the ice on a lake will be thick enough to support him.

Klosinski later shot Kieslowski's penultimate film, 'Trois couleurs: Blanc/Trzy kolory: Bialy/Three Colours: White', the middle film in the trilogy based on the colors of the French flag; it is a wry black comedy set in Poland and shot in a more realistic manner than the other two more spiritual films. With its wintry landscapes, the title color permeates the film. [From obituary by Ronald Bergan in The Guardian, 22 February 2008.]

FILMS AT THE PWSFTviT
1964	Propozycja [Jerzy Wojciech Wójcik] b&w; short/22m; c.asst; ph: Jan Hesse
1965	Przygoda [Raszko Uzunow] b&w; short/5m
1965	Velorio [José Luis Di Zeo] b&w; short/4m
1965	Zdarzenie [Marek Piestrak] ?; short/5m
1966	Dzien zwyciestwa [Marek Piestrak] b&w; short/11m
1966	Niebo [Juan Manuel Torres] b&w; short/10m
1966	Wygrana, przegrana/Park [Raszko Uzunow] b&w; short/8m; cph: Slawomir Idziak
1967	Nocna wizyta [Jerzy Wojciech Wójcik] b&w; short/27m; c.op; ph: Ryszard Kuziemski
1967	Wagary [Jacek Butrymowicz] b&w; short/23m; c.asst; ph: Slawomir Idziak
1968	Czy panstwo gracie [Juan Manuel Torres] b&w; short/30m

FILMS
1969	Jacek Mierzejewski 1884-1925 [Jerzy Mierzejewski] c; doc/14m; cph: Mieczyslaw Lewandowski
1970	Spojrzenie [Slawomir Idziak] b&w; doc/247mtr
1970	Brzezina/The Birch Wood [Andrzej Wajda] c; was c.op, but finished the film after ph Zygmunt Samosiuk left the prod
1971	Uciec jak najblizej/Run Counter Run [Janusz Zaorski] b&w
1972	Illuminacja/Illumination [Krzysztof Zanussi] c
1974	Ziemia obiecana/The Promised Land/Land of Promise [Andrzej Wajda] 35mm & 70mm/c; 179m; cph: Witold Sobocinski & Waclaw Dybowski; also 4-part tv-miniseries/204m (1975)
1975	Strach [Antoni Krauze] c
1976	Barwy ochronne/Camouflage [Krzysztof Zanussi] c
1976	Czlowiek z marmuru/Man of Marble [Andrzej Wajda] c
1977	Pokój z widokiem na morze/A Room with a View on the Sea [Janusz Zaorski] c
1977	Wodzirej/Top Dog [Feliks Falk] c
1977	Spirala/Spiral [Krzysztof Zanussi] c
1978	Bez znieczulenia/Rough Treatment [Andrzej Wajda] c
1979	Panny z Wilka/The Young Ladies of Wilko [Andrzej Wajda] c
1979	Szansa/Chance [Feliks Falk] c; + co-dialogue
1979	Pogoda domu niechaj bedzie z Toba... Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz [Andrzej Wajda] c; doc/19m
1981	Dziecinne pytania/Childish Questions [Janusz Zaorski] c
1981	Czlowiek z zelaza/Man of Iron [Andrzej Wajda] b&w-c
1982	Matka królów/Mother of Kings [Janusz Zaorski] b&w; cph: Witold Adamek
1982	Bella Donna [- Kann denn Liebe Sünde sein?] [Peter Keglevic] c
1984	Der Bulle und das Mädchen [Peter Keglevic] c
1985	Ga, ga. Chwala bohaterom [Piotr Szulkin] c
1985	Kronika wypadków miłosnych/Chronicle of Love Affairs [Andrzej Wajda] c
1986	Magic Sticks [Peter Keglevic] c
1988	And the Violins Stopped Playing/I skrzypce przestaly grac [Alexander Ramati] c
1989	Herzlich willkommen [Hark Bohm] 16mm-35bu/c
1989	Der Skipper/Kill Cruise [Peter Keglevic] c
1990	Zycie za zycie. Maksymilian Kolbe/Leben für Leben - Maximilian Kolbe [Krzysztof Zanussi] c
1990	Europa [Lars von Trier] p/b&w-c; cph: Henning Bendtsen & Jean-Paul Meurisse; uwph: Mike Valentine
1991	Kuchnia polska [Jacek Bromski] c; cph: Janusz Gauer; followed by tv-series
1992	Trois couleurs: Blanc/Trzy kolory: Bialy [Krzysztof Kieslowski] c; + scrpl cons
1995	Love & Hate - European Stories [seg 'Steps' dir by Olaf Olszewski] c; short/15m; seg of 5-part anthology; other ph: Anthony Dod Mantle, Hans Welin, Radoslav Vladic & Erik Poppe
1995	Pestka/The Pip [Krystyna Janda] c
1995	La muerte de Filomeno [Ina Lüders] c; short/12m
1997	Un air si pur.../An Air So Pure [Yves Angelo] c; cph: Denis Lenoir
1998	Gloomy Sunday - Ein Lied von Liebe und Tod/The Piano Player [Rolf Schübel] c
1999	Tydzien z zycia mezczyzny/A Week in the Life of a Man [Jerzy Stuhr] c
1999	Abschied - Brechts letzter Sommer/The Farewell [Jan Schütte] c
1999	Zycie jako smiertelna choroba przenoszona droga plciowa/Life as a Fatal Sexually Transmitted Disease [Krzysztof Zanussi] c
2000	Chopin. Pragnienie milosci/Chopin: Desire for Love [Jerzy Antczak] c
2001	Old Love/Späte Liebe [Jan Schütte] c; short/25m
2001	Suplement/The Supplement [Krzysztof Zanussi] c
2001	Gebirtig [Robert Schindel & Lukas Stepanik] c
2002	Superprodukcja [Juliusz Machulski] c
2002	SuperTex [- Eine Stunde im Paradies] [Jan Schütte] scope/c
2003	Pogoda na jutro [Jerzy Stuhr] c
2004	Vinci [Juliusz Machulski] c
2004	Jaki jest z bliska [Katarzyna Maciejko-Kowalczyk] c; doc/45m
2005	Persona non grata [Krzysztof Zanussi] c
2005	Solidarnosc, Solidarnosc... [seg (7m) 'Sushi' dir by Juliusz Machulski, 'Czolgi' (6m) dir by Krzysztof Zanussi, 'Krótka historia jednej tablicy' (5m) dir by Feliks Falk & 'Czlowiek z nadziei' (10m) dir by Andrzej Wajda] s16/c; 13 seg; other ph: Adam Bajerski, Piotr Sliskowski, a.o.
2005	Fale. Wyjazd/Waves. Day Return [Maciej Pisarek] c; short/27m
2005	Wszyscy jestesmy Chrystusami/We're All Christs [Marek Koterski] c
2006	Love Comes Lately [Jan Schütte] s16-35bu/c; cph: Chris Squires
2009	Rewizyta/Revisited [Krzysztof Zanussi] c; ph (footage 'Barwy ochronne', 1976); ph: Dariusz Kuc

TELEVISION
1970	Na dobranoc [Janusz Zaorski] tvm/b&w/25m
1971	Dekameron 40 czyli cudowne przytrafienie pewnego nieboszczyka [Jan Budkiewicz] tvm/28m
1971	Mateo Falcone [Jan Budkiewicz] tvm/26m; + co-scrpl
1971	Meta/The Pad [Antoni Krauze] tvm/b&w/65m; cph: Slawomir Idziak
1972	Hipoteza/Hypothesis [Krzysztof Zanussi] tvm/28m
1973	Sobie król [Janusz Leski] tvm/b&w/37m
1973	Sledztwo [Marek Piestrak] tvm/34m
1973	Zólw [Andrzej Kotkowski] tvm/31m
1974	Historia pewnej milosci [Wojciech Wiszniewski] tvm/b&w/52m
1974	Sedziowie. Tragedya [Konrad Swinarski] tvm/51m
1976	Polskie drogi [ep #1-6 dir by Janusz Morgenstern] 11-part series; ep #7-11 ph by Witold Adamek
1976	Umarla klasa. Seans T. Kantora [Andrzej Wajda] doc/72m
1978	Zalegly urlop [Janusz Zaorski] tvm/53m; cph: Janusz Kalicinski
1978	Dlugie pozegnanie [Jerzy Domaradzki & (tv dir) Ryszard Kosminski] tvm; cph: Wojciech Król
1980	Die Jahre vergehen [Peter Keglevic] tvm
1980	Z biegiem lat, z biegiem dni... [Andrzej Wajda & Edward Klosinski] 8-part series; other ph: Witold Adamek
1983	Die Grünstein-Variante [Bernhard Wicki] tvm
1984	Eine blaßblaue Frauenschrift [Axel Corti] 2-part tvm
1985	Pattbergs Erbe [Marianne Lüdcke] tvm/16mm
1985	Sansibar oder Der letzte Grund [Bernhard Wicki] tvm/16mm; cph: Claus Neumann & Jürgen Lenz
1987	Dekalog/Decalogue [ep 'Dwa/Two' (58m) dir by Krzysztof Kieslowski] 10-part series
1989	Modrzejewska [Jan Lomnicki] 7-part series
1991	Kuchnia polska [ep #1-2 dir by Jacek Bromski] 6-part series, 1991-93; other ph: Janusz Gauer
1991	Der große Bellheim [Dieter Wedel] 4-part miniseries
1994	Der Schattenmann [Dieter Wedel] 5-part miniseries
1995	Im Innern des Bernsteins [Ilse Hofmann] tvm
1995	Amfitrion [Michal Kwiecinski] tvm
1996	Opowiesci weekendowe/Weekend Stories [ep 'Damski interes/A Woman's Business' (56m), 'Slaba wiara/Little Faith' (54m) & 'Urok wszeteczny/Deceptive Charm' (55m) dir by Krzysztof Zanussi] 8-part series, 1996-97 & 2000
1996	Tristan i Izolda [Krystyna Janda] tvm
1997	Der König von St. Pauli [ep #1-4 & #6 dir by Dieter Wedel] 6-part miniseries, 1998; other ph: Gerard Vandenberg (cph #2), Franz Rath (#5) & Kurt Weber (#5); also 3-part tvm (2003)
1998	Liebe mich bis in den Tod [Michael Keusch] tvm
1998	Fizjologia malzenstwa [Krystyna Janda] 24-part series, 1999-2000
1999	Od czasu do czasu [Juliusz Machulski] tvm
1999	Skowronek [Krzysztof Zanussi] tvm
2000	Opowiesci weekendowe/Weekend Stories [ep 'Skarby ukryte/The Hidden Treasure' (54m) dir by Krzysztof Zanussi] see 1996
2000	Zwiazek otwarty [Krystyna Janda] tvm/52m
2001	Zazdrosc [Krystyna Janda] tvm/71m
2002	Porozmawiajmy o zyciu i smierci [Krystyna Janda] tvm/55m
2003	19. Poludnik [Juliusz Machulski] tvm/75m
2003	Sluby panienskie czyli magnetyzm serca [Krystyna Janda] tvm
2003	Meskie - Zenskie [ep #4 'Buty', #5 'Aktorka' & #6 'Danie swiateczne' dir by Krystyna Janda] 6-part series/v, 2003-04; other ph: Witold Sobocinski
2006	Mein alter Freund Fritz [Dieter Wedel] tvm
2007	1939-1944 Tagebuch eines Lagerkommandanten [Anja Krug-Metzinger] doc + dram seq/b&w-c/52m/dv; cph: Bernd Meiners; released in 2011

FILMS AS CAMERA ASSISTANT/OPERATOR
1969	Sasiedzi [Aleksander Scibor-Rylski] co-c.asst; ph: Kurt Weber

With dir Wojciech Marczewski - "Podrózni jak inni"

1969	Podrózni jak inni [Wojciech Marczewski; tvm/24m] co-c.op; ph: Slawomir Idziak
1970	Lokis. Rekopis profesora Wittembacha [Janusz Majewski] c.asst; ph: Stefan Matyjaszkiewicz
1970	Brzezina/The Birch Wood [Andrzej Wajda; tvm] c.op (and finished film as ph); ph: Zygmunt Samosiuk
1970	Dzien listopadowy [Edward Zebrowski; tvm] c.asst; ph: Zygmunt Samosiuk
1971	Jeszcze slychac spiew. I rzenie koni... [Mieczyslaw Waskowski] c.asst; ph: Slawomir Idziak
1972	Zabijcie czarna owce/Kill the Black Sheep [Jerzy Passendorfer] c.op; ph: Stefan Pindelski