Andrzej Wajda quotes

As I said earlier, there are no writers who could create a literary vision of the new reality. (Andrzej Wajda)
Nevertheless, in the theatre, and in the cinema, the contemporary reality of Poland has been represented only to a minuscule degree in the last 12 years. View quote
Andrzej Wajda
There is no filmmaking legislation because distributors are not interested in sharing their money with the film industry - for instance, by giving a percentage of ticket sales back to filmmakers. View quote
Andrzej Wajda
Cinemas gained new young audiences who wanted films made for them. View quote
Andrzej Wajda
One might have thought that the most significant change in the film industry that would come about with a transition from the communist economy to capitalism would fundamentally concern the sources of funding. View quote
Andrzej Wajda
Language also encodes our past. We want to know who we are. To know who we are, we have to know who we used to be. Consequently, our literature, written in the past, anchors us in that past. View quote
Andrzej Wajda
When a film is created, it is created in a language, which is not only about words, but also the way that very language encodes our perception of the world, our understanding of it. View quote
Andrzej Wajda
It turned out that the country was helpless in the face of a new reality. View quote
Andrzej Wajda
However, that old mode of Polish filmmaking virtually disappeared. View quote
Andrzej Wajda
At the same time, television theatre became more visibly active. View quote
Andrzej Wajda
Films made in the spirit of the past continued to be made. (Andrzej Wajda)
We expected that people were just waiting for the collapse of the Soviet Union, or at least for its retreat, and they were going to be full of initiative in all areas of life - in culture, in economy and in politics. View quote
Andrzej Wajda
It was progressively more difficult to find work in the theatre, as well. View quote
Andrzej Wajda
The difficulty of writing a good theatre play set in new reality was even greater given that the level of similitude to life that is allowed in a film would not work on the stage. View quote
Andrzej Wajda
Previously the same Polish audiences would have been pressured into seeing cinema made for adults, films made by us about those spheres of life that were significant for us and which should be significant for our society. View quote
Andrzej Wajda
In the first years after the systemic transition, our screens showed American entertainment that had not been available before, or had been available only sporadically. View quote
Andrzej Wajda
Also a great part of Polish industry proved to have existed only to support the Soviet military industry, and it became superfluous and incapable of being transformed into anything else. We did not foresee that or the magnitude of these phenomena. View quote
Andrzej Wajda
On the one hand, young theatre directors were coming to television theatre, because they wanted to get closer to the cinema, despite having studied and worked for the theatre. View quote
Andrzej Wajda
The difficulty with the present state of affairs is that there is no legislation on the sources of funding for the Polish film industry. There is no legislation concerning filmmaking. And, there is no legislation on television that would be beneficial to filmmaking. View quote
Andrzej Wajda
A novelty in Polish filmmaking was that it was possible to find funds for a big production. However, at the same time, the state budget committed less and less money to filmmaking. View quote
Andrzej Wajda
On the one hand, we had great filmic spectacles that brought in big audiences, adults as well as primary and secondary school students. On the other hand, there were attempts to create contemporary Polish film. (Andrzej Wajda)
Television theatre, as is implied in its name, should rely on adaptations of scripts written for the theatre. View quote
Andrzej Wajda
In Europe, there is no television filmmaking legislation that could assist film production because private broadcasters are not interested in supporting Polish film. View quote
Andrzej Wajda
In the same period, Polish literature also underwent some significant changes. From social-political literature, which had a great tradition and strong motivation to be that way, Polish literature changed its focus to a psychological rather than a social one. View quote
Andrzej Wajda
Why does there exist a global American entertainment industry, but there isn't an equivalent coming from France or Italy? This is the case simply because the English language opens the whole world to the American cinema. View quote
Andrzej Wajda