Editing Krzysztof Kieślowski (section)

==Career==
Leaving college and working as a theatrical tailor, Kieślowski applied to the [[Łódź Film School]], which has [[Roman Polanski]] and [[Andrzej Wajda]] among its alumni. He was rejected twice. To avoid [[compulsory military service]] during this time, he briefly became an art student, and also went on a drastic diet to make himself medically unfit for service. After several months of avoiding the draft, he was accepted to the school's directing department in 1964, on his third attempt.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://blog.europeana.eu/2019/06/krzysztof-kieslowski-migratory-filmmaker/|title=Krzysztof Kieślowski: migratory filmmaker|last=Jazdon|first=Mikołaj|date=June 2019|website=[[Europeana]] (CC By-SA)|language=en-GB|access-date=15 October 2019}}</ref> He attended Łódź Film School until 1968 and, despite state censorship and interdiction on foreign travel, was able to travel around Poland for his documentary research and filming.<ref name=":0" /> Kieślowski lost his interest in theatre and decided to make documentary films.

=== 1966–1980: Early work ===
[[File:Kieślowski 1972.png|thumb|Kieślowski in 1972]]
Kieślowski's early documentaries focused on the everyday lives of city dwellers, workers, and soldiers. Though he was not an overtly political filmmaker, he soon found that attempting to depict Polish life accurately brought him into conflict with the authorities. His television film ''[[Workers '71: Nothing About Us Without Us]]'', which showed workers discussing the reasons for the mass strikes of 1970, was only shown in a drastically censored form. After ''Workers '71'', he turned his eye on the authorities themselves in ''Curriculum Vitae'', a film that combined documentary footage of [[Politburo]] meetings with a fictional story about a man under scrutiny by the officials. Though Kieślowski believed the film's message was anti-authoritarian, he was criticized by his colleagues for cooperating with the government in its production.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.indiewire.com/2013/03/the-essentials-krzysztof-kieslowski-100770/ |title=The Essentials: Krzysztof Kieslowski |last=Perez |first=Rodrigo |website=indiewire.com  |date=13 March 2013 |access-date=21 March 2019}}</ref>
Kieślowski later said that he abandoned documentary filmmaking due to two experiences:  the censorship of ''Workers '71'', which caused him to doubt whether truth could be told literally under an authoritarian regime, and an incident during the filming of ''Station'' (1981) in which some of his footage was nearly used as evidence in a criminal case. He decided that fiction not only allowed more artistic freedom but could portray everyday life more truthfully.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://sensesofcinema.com/2003/great-directors/kieslowski/ |title=Kieslowski, Krzysztof |last=Cummings |first=Doug |website=sensesofcinema.com |publisher=Sense of Cinema Inc. |date=July 2003 |access-date=21 March 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://letterboxd.com/film/workers-71/ |title=Workers '71 |last=Trudell |first=Travis |website=letterboxd.com |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |date=6 February 2015 |access-date=21 March 2019}}</ref>

=== 1975–1988: Polish film career ===
His first non-documentary feature, ''[[Personnel (film)|Personnel]]'' (1975), was made for television and won him first prize at the [[Mannheim Film Festival]]. Both ''Personnel'' and his next feature, ''[[The Scar (1976 film)|The Scar]]'' (''Blizna''), were works of [[social realism]] with large casts: ''Personnel'' was about technicians working on a stage production, based on his early college experience, and ''The Scar'' showed the upheaval of a small town by a poorly planned industrial project. These films were shot in a documentary style with many nonprofessional actors; like his earlier films, they portrayed everyday life under the weight of an oppressive system, but without overt commentary. ''[[Camera Buff]]'' (''Amator'', 1979) (which won the grand prize at the [[11th Moscow International Film Festival]])<ref name="Moscow1979">{{cite web|url=http://www.moscowfilmfestival.ru/miff34/eng/archives/?year=1979 |title=11th Moscow International Film Festival (1979) |access-date=18 January 2013 |work=MIFF |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140403102012/http://www.moscowfilmfestival.ru/miff34/eng/archives/?year=1979 |archive-date= 3 April 2014 }}</ref> and ''[[Blind Chance]]'' (''Przypadek'', 1981) continued along similar lines, but focused more on the ethical choices faced by a single character rather than a community. During this period, Kieślowski was considered part of a loose movement with other Polish directors of the time, including [[Janusz Kijowski]], [[Andrzej Wajda]], and [[Agnieszka Holland]], called the [[Cinema of moral anxiety]]. His links with these directors, Holland in particular, caused concern within the Polish government, and each of his early films was subjected to [[censorship]] and enforced re-shooting/re-editing, if not banned outright. For example, ''Blind Chance'' was not released domestically until 1987, almost six years after it had been completed.

''[[No End (film)|No End]]'' (''Bez końca'', 1984) was perhaps his most clearly political film, depicting political trials in Poland during martial law, from the unusual point of view of a lawyer's ghost and his widow. At the time it was harshly criticized by both the government, dissidents, and the church.<ref name=":0" /> Starting with ''No End'', Kieślowski closely collaborated with two people, the composer [[Zbigniew Preisner]] and the trial lawyer [[Krzysztof Piesiewicz]], whom Kieślowski met while researching political trials under martial law for a planned documentary on the subject. Piesiewicz co-wrote the screenplays for all of Kieślowski's subsequent films.<ref name=":0" /> Preisner is best known for collaborating with Kieślowski on the scores for the Three Colors trilogy.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Greiving |first=Tim |title=Under the Sign of Sadness: Zbigniew Preisner's Three Colors Scores |url=https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/8063-under-the-sign-of-sadness-zbigniew-preisners-three-colors-scores |access-date=2023-02-22 |website=The Criterion Collection |language=en}}</ref>

Preisner provided the musical score for ''No End'' and most subsequent of Kieślowski's films and often plays a prominent part. Many of Preisner's pieces are referred to and discussed by the films' characters as being the work of the (fictional) Dutch composer "Van den Budenmayer".<ref name="oxford">{{cite news|last=Abrahamson |first=Patrick |title=Kieślowski's Many Colours |newspaper=Oxford University Student |date=2 June 1995 |url=http://www.musicolog.com/kieslowski_manycolours.asp |access-date=19 May 2012}}</ref>

''[[Dekalog]]'' (1988), a series of ten short films set in a Warsaw tower block, each nominally based on one of the [[Ten Commandments]], was created for Polish television with funding from [[West Germany]]; it is now one of the most critically acclaimed film cycles of all time. Co-written by Kieślowski and Piesiewicz, the ten one-hour-long episodes had originally been intended for ten different directors, but Kieślowski found himself unable to relinquish control over the project and directed all episodes himself. Episodes five and six were released internationally in a longer form as ''[[A Short Film About Killing]]'' and ''[[A Short Film About Love]]'' respectively. Kieślowski had also planned to shoot a full-length version of Episode 9 under the title ''A Short Film About Jealousy'',<ref>{{Cite book|title=Krzysztof Kieslowski: Interviews|publisher=University Press of Mississippi|year=2016|isbn=978-1626745742|editor-last=Bernard|editor-first=Renata|editor-last2=Woodward|editor-first2=Steven}}</ref> but exhaustion eventually prevented him from making what would have been his thirteenth film in less than a year.

=== 1990–1994: Commercial success abroad ===
Kieślowski's last four films, his most commercially successful, were foreign co-productions, made mainly with money from France and in particular from Romanian-born producer [[Marin Karmitz]]. These focused on moral and metaphysical issues along lines similar to ''Dekalog'' and ''Blind Chance'' but on a more abstract level, with smaller casts, more internal stories, and less interest in communities. Poland appeared in these films mostly through the eyes of European outsiders.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.vox.com/2016/9/27/13012144/kieslowski-political-films-decalogue-three-colors-veronique |title=Political movies are hard to pull off. The films of Krzysztof Kieslowki hold the key. |last=Wilkinson |first=Alissa |website=vox.com |publisher=Vox Media Inc. |date=27 September 2016 |access-date=21 March 2019}}</ref>

The first of these was ''[[The Double Life of Veronique]]'' (''La double vie de Veronique'', 1990), which starred [[Irène Jacob]]. The commercial success of this film gave Kieślowski the funding for his ambitious final films (1993–94), the trilogy ''[[Three Colours]]'' (''[[Three Colours: Blue|Blue]]'', ''[[Three Colours: White|White]]'', ''[[Three Colours: Red|Red]]''), which explores the virtues symbolized by the French flag. The three films garnered prestigious international awards, including the [[Golden Lion]] for Best Film at the [[Venice Film Festival]] and the [[Silver Bear for Best Director]] at the [[44th Berlin International Film Festival|Berlin Film Festival]],<ref name="Berlinale">{{cite web |url=http://www.berlinale.de/en/archiv/jahresarchive/1994/03_preistr_ger_1994/03_Preistraeger_1994.html |title=Berlinale: 1994 Prize Winners |publisher=Berlinale |access-date=30 December 2011}}</ref> in addition to three [[Academy Awards|Academy Award]] nominations.

Kieślowski announced his retirement from filmmaking after the premiere of his last film ''[[Three Colours: Red|Red]]'' at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival.

===Posthumous work===
At the time of his death, Kieślowski was working with his longterm collaborator Piesiewicz on a second trilogy: Heaven, Hell and Purgatory. After his death, the scripts were adapted and produced by three different directors: ''[[Heaven (2002 film)|Heaven]]'' by [[Tom Tykwer]] in 2002;<ref>{{Cite news|last=Rockwell|first=John|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/06/movies/film-a-polish-master-s-last-collaboration.html|title=FILM; A Polish Master's Last Collaboration|date=6 October 2002|work=The New York Times|access-date=27 April 2020|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20021018/REVIEWS/210180305/1023|title=Heaven|author=Roger Ebert|date=18 October 2002|website=RogerEbert.com|access-date=2 February 2015|archive-date=10 October 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121010052308/http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20021018/REVIEWS/210180305/1023|url-status=dead}}</ref> ''[[Hell (2005 film)|Hell]]'' ("L'Enfer") by [[Danis Tanović]] in 2005;<ref name="Bradshaw">{{cite news|last1=Bradshaw|first1=Peter|title=Hell (L'Enfer)|url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2006/apr/21/4|access-date=26 December 2017|work=The Guardian|date=21 April 2006}}</ref> and ''Purgatory'' in 2007.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0847750/?ref_=nm_flmg_job_1_cdt_t_2 |title=IMDB}}</ref>

===Casting===
Kieślowski often used the same actors in key roles in his films, including:
* [[Artur Barciś]] in ''[[No End (film)|No End]]'', ''[[Dekalog]]'', ''[[A Short Film About Love]]'', and ''[[A Short Film About Killing]]''
* [[Aleksander Bardini]] in ''[[No End (film)|No End]]'', ''[[Dekalog]]'', ''[[The Double Life of Veronique]]'', and ''[[Three Colours: White]]''
* [[Tadeusz Bradecki]] in ''[[Camera Buff]]'' and ''[[No End (film)|No End]]''
* [[Irène Jacob]] in ''[[The Double Life of Veronique]]'' and ''[[Three Colours: Red]]''
* [[Bogusław Linda]] in ''[[Blind Chance]]'' and ''[[Dekalog]]''
* Maria Pakulnis in ''[[No End (film)|No End]]'' and ''[[Dekalog]]''
* [[Jerzy Stuhr]] in ''[[The Scar (1976 film)|The Scar]]'', ''[[Camera Buff]]'', ''[[Blind Chance]]'', ''[[Dekalog]]'', and ''[[Three Colours: White]]''
* [[Grażyna Szapołowska]] in ''[[No End (film)|No End]]'', ''[[Dekalog]]'', and ''[[A Short Film About Love]]''
* [[Zbigniew Zamachowski]] in ''[[Dekalog]]'', and ''[[Three Colours: White]]''
* [[Janusz Gajos]] in ''[[Dekalog]]'', and ''[[Three Colours: White]]''