06/09/2007

Polish cinema lost one of its poets on Saturday with the death of Witold Leszczyński at the age of 74 in Łodź. The director-scriptwriter-cinematographer died during the shoot of his autobiographical film Stary człowiek i pies (The Old Man and the Dog).

"Form is much more important than content," the director often said. Indeed each story wrote by Leszczyński was directed with incomparable care. The title that put the director’s name on the map of Polish film history was Matthew's Days (1967), an intimate tale adapted from the prose by Norwegian writer Tarjei Vesaas. The feature received several awards, notably the Grand Prix at the Cannes International Youth Film Festival, Grand Prix at Valladolid and Best Film at Colombo.

Born in 1933, Leszczyński graduated from the Łódź Film School. After Matthew’s Days he wrote and directed Personal Search (1972) and Recollections (1977). In 1981, he directed Konopielka, a film based on the book by Edward Redliński, with an unforgettable role for Krzysztof Majchrzak. The film picked up awards at the 1984 Gdynia Polish Film Festival.

Two years later Leszczyński was awarded the Grand Prix at Gdynia for his new piece, Siekierezada, which also won the FIPRESCI and INTERFILM prizes at the 1987 Berlinale. In 1993, Leszczyński directed Kolos followed a year later by Requiem, a film similar in style to Matthew’s Days.

Leszczyński taught at the Łódź Film School from 1997.

(Translated from French)