Agnieszka Holland

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Agnieszka Holland

Holland in 2011
Born (1948-11-28) 28 November 1948
Warsaw, Poland
Occupation Film director, screenwriter
Spouse(s) Laco Adamik (?-?; divorced; 1 child)

Agnieszka Holland (born November 28, 1948) is a Polish film and TV director and screenwriter. Best known for her political contributions to Polish cinema, Holland is one of Poland's most prominent filmmakers.

Personal life

Holland was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1948. She is the daughter of two journalists: Irena (née Rybczyńska) and Henryk Holland.[1] Holland's mother is Catholic and her father Jewish, but she did not receive a religious upbringing. Her father was a member of the Communist Party of Poland who fought in the Red Army; after the war, he returned to Poland and wrote articles critical of the Home Army.[2] His parents were killed in the Warsaw Ghetto; Holland's mother participated in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising and belonged to the Polish resistance movement.

She was often ill as a child, and spent much of her time writing, drawing and directing short plays with other children.[3] Holland's father died during a police interrogation when she was 13 years old. Although official reports labeled his death a suicide, his family and others believe he died by defenestration. Holland’s mother later married journalist Stanislaw Brodzki.[4]

Holland attended the Stefan Batory Gymnasium and Lyceum in Warsaw, where she was distinguished by her Jewish heritage, mixed ancestry and her family’s political past. After high school, Holland studied at the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU) because, as she said in an interview, she thought the Czechoslovak films of the 1960s very interesting: "I watched first films of Miloš Forman, Ivan Passer, and Vera Chytilova. They seemed to be fantastic to me, unlike what was made in Poland at that time".[5] She met her future husband and fellow director, Laco Adamik, who still lives in Poland.

She observed the Prague Spring of 1968, a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia, and spent six weeks in prison for her support of government reforms.[6] Holland graduated from FAMU in 1971.[7]

Career

Holland began her career as an assistant director for Polish film directors Krzysztof Zanussi and Andrzej Wajda. Her credits include Zanussi's 1973 film, Iluminacja (Illumination), and Wajda's 1983 film Danton. She was first assistant director on Wajda’s 1976 Man of Marble, an experience which gave her the capability to explore political and moral issues within the confines of an oppressive regime.[8]

Her first major film was Aktorzy Prowincjonalni (Provincial Actors), a 1978 chronicle of tense backstage relations within a small-town theater company which was an allegory of Poland's contemporary political situation. It won the International Critics Prize at the 1980 Cannes Film Festival.

Holland directed two more major films in Poland, Gorączka (1980) and Kobieta samotna (A Lonely Woman) in 1981, before emigrating to France shortly before the December 1981 imposition of martial law in Poland. She was told that she could not return to Poland, and was unable to see (or contact) her daughter for over eight months.[9] Fever was entered in the 31st Berlin International Film Festival.[10]

Knowing she could not return to Poland, Holland wrote scripts for fellow Polish filmmakers in exile: Wajda’s Danton, A Love in Germany (1983), The Possessed (1988) and Korczak (1990). She also developed her own projects with Western European production companies, directing Angry Harvest (1985), To Kill a Priest (1988) and Olivier, Olivier (1992).[11] Holland received an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film for Angry Harvest, a German production about a Jewish woman on the run during World War II.[12]

Holland's best-known film may be Europa Europa (1991), which was based on the life of Solomon Perel (a Jewish teenager who fled Germany for Poland after Kristallnacht in 1938). At the outbreak of World War II and the German invasion of Poland, Perel fled to the Soviet-occupied section of the country. Captured during the German invasion of Russia in 1941, Solomon convinced a German officer that he was German and found himself enrolled in the Hitler Youth. The film received a lukewarm reception in Germany, and the German Oscar selection committee did not submit it for the 1991 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. However, it attracted the attention of Michael Barker (who handled Orion Classics’ sales at the time). Europa, Europa was released in the United States, winning the 1991 Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film and an Oscar nomination for best adapted screenplay.[13]

A friend of Polish writer and director Krzysztof Kieślowski, Holland collaborated on the screenplay for his film, Three Colors: Blue. Like Kieślowski, Holland frequently examines issues of faith in her work.

Much of her film work has a heavy political slant. Government reprisals, stifling bureaucratic machinery, sanctioned strikes and dysfunctional families are represented in her early work.[14]

In a 1988 interview Holland said that although women were important in her films, feminism was not the central theme of her work. She suggested that when she was making films in Poland under the Communist regime, there was an atmosphere of cross-gender solidarity against censorship (the main political issue). Holland said that she was interested in happenings between people, not the politics occurring outside them; in this context, “maybe you could say that all my movies are political”.[15]

Holland's later films include Olivier, Olivier (1992), The Secret Garden (1993), Total Eclipse (1995), Washington Square (1997), the HBO production Shot in the Heart (2001), Julie Walking Home (2001), and Copying Beethoven (2006).

In a 1997 interview, in response to how her experiences as a director have influenced her films, Holland said “filmmakers of the younger generation lack life experience” and, as a result, lack many of the tools needed to breathe humanity into their characters. Compared to directors of her generation, she feels that the younger generation comes from wealthy families, goes straight to film schools and watches movies primarily on videotape. Holland suggests that this results in what she calls a “numbness” and “conventionalization” of contemporary cinema.[16]

In 2003, Holland was a member of the jury at the 25th Moscow International Film Festival.[17] The following year she directed "Moral Midgetry", the eighth episode of the third season of the HBO drama series The Wire.[18][19][20] In 2006, Holland returned to direct the eighth episode of the fourth season ("Corner Boys").[21][22][23] Both were written by novelist Richard Price. Show runner David Simon said that Holland was "wonderful behind the camera" and staged the fight between Avon Barksdale and Stringer Bell in "Moral Midgetry" well.[24]

In 2007 Holland, her sister Magdalena Łazarkiewicz and her daughter Katarzyna Adamik directed the Polish political drama series Ekipa. On February 5, 2009, the Krakow Post reported that Holland would direct a biopic about Krystyna Skarbek entitled Christine: War My Love.[25]

Her 2011 film, In Darkness, was selected as the Polish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 84th Academy Awards.[26] In January 2012, the film was one of the five nominees.[27]

Holland accepted an offer to film a three-part drama for HBO about Jan Palach, who immolated himself in January 1969 to protest "normalization" after the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968. The miniseries, Burning Bush, has been shown in Poland and Germany[28] and has been selected for a Special Presentation screening at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival.[29] It was also shown at the 2013 Philadelphia Film Festival.[30] Holland is filmmaker-in-residence at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York.

On December 2013 Agnieszka Holland was announced to direct NBC’s next miniseries - a four-part "Rosemary's Baby".[31]

Agnieszka Holland takes over the chairmanship of the European Film Academy board in January 2014. [32]

Filmography

Further reading

  • Quart, Barbara Koenig (1988). Women Directors: The Emergence of a New Cinema. New York: Praeger. ISBN 0-275-93477-2. 

References

  1. ↑ Agnieszka Holland Biography (1948-)
  2. ↑ Stalinięta straszą, by powrócić – Stanisław Michalkiewicz, June 25, 2010, "Jak wiadomo, terror był wówczas zjawiskiem codziennym, a towarzyszyła mu oszczercza, czarna propaganda, w której – tak się akurat złożyło – specjalizował się ojciec pani Agnieszki, Henryk Holland. Zasłynął on bowiem podówczas z publikacji szkalujących Armię Krajową i jej żołnierzy, którzy – jeśli nie zostali zamordowani, to właśnie gnili w więzieniach."
  3. ↑ Tibbets, John and Holland, Agnieszka. “The Interview with Agnieszka Holland: The Politics of Ambiguity.” Quarterly Review of Film and Video. 25:2, pp. 132-143. Print.
  4. ↑ Crnković, Gordana and Holland, Agnieszka. “Interview with Agnieszka Holland.” Film Quarterly. Vol. 52, No 2 (Winter, 1998-1999), pp. 2-9. Print.
  5. ↑ Na czeskiej fali, Agnieszka Holland - wywiad retrieved March 9, 2013
  6. ↑ Crnković, Gordana and Holland, Agnieszka. “Interview with Agnieszka Holland.” Film Quarterly. Vol. 52, No 2 (Winter, 1998-1999), pp. 2-9. Print.
  7. ↑ Crnković, Gordana and Holland, Agnieszka. “Interview with Agnieszka Holland.” Film Quarterly. Vol. 52, No 2 (Winter, 1998-1999), pp. 2-9. Print.
  8. ↑ Tibbets, John and Holland, Agnieszka. “The Interview with Agnieszka Holland: The Politics of Ambiguity.” Quarterly Review of Film and Video. 25:2, pp. 132-143. Print.
  9. ↑ Crnković, Gordana and Holland, Agnieszka. “Interview with Agnieszka Holland.” Film Quarterly. Vol. 52, No 2 (Winter, 1998-1999), pp. 2-9. Print.
  10. ↑ "Berlinale 1981: Prize Winners". berlinale.de. Retrieved August 29, 2010. 
  11. ↑ Crnković, Gordana and Holland, Agnieszka. “Interview with Agnieszka Holland.” Film Quarterly. Vol. 52, No 2 (Winter, 1998-1999), pp. 2-9. Print.
  12. ↑ "The 58th Academy Awards (1986) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 2013-11-10. 
  13. ↑ Tibbets, John and Holland, Agnieszka. “The Interview with Agnieszka Holland: The Politics of Ambiguity.” Quarterly Review of Film and Video. 25:2, pp. 132-143. Print.
  14. ↑ Tibbets, John and Holland, Agnieszka. “The Interview with Agnieszka Holland: The Politics of Ambiguity.” Quarterly Review of Film and Video. 25:2, pp. 132-143. Print.
  15. ↑ Crnković, Gordana and Holland, Agnieszka. “Interview with Agnieszka Holland.” Film Quarterly. Vol. 52, No 2 (Winter, 1998-1999), pp. 2-9. Print.
  16. ↑ Crnković, Gordana and Holland, Agnieszka. “Interview with Agnieszka Holland.” Film Quarterly. Vol. 52, No 2 (Winter, 1998-1999), pp. 2-9. Print.
  17. ↑ "25th Moscow International Film Festival (2003)". MIFF. Retrieved April 1, 2013. 
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Agnieszka Holland (November 14, 2004). "Moral Midgetry". The Wire. Season 3. Episode 08. HBO.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 "Episode guide - episode 33 Moral Midgetry". HBO. 2004. Retrieved August 9, 2006. 
  20. ↑ "The Wire season 3 crew". HBO. 2007. Archived from the original on October 12, 2007. Retrieved October 14, 2007. 
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Agnieszka Holland (November 5, 2004). "Corner Boys". The Wire. Season 4. Episode 08. HBO.
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 "Episode guide - episode 45 Corner Boys". HBO. 2006. Retrieved November 9, 2006. 
  23. ↑ "The Wire season 4 crew". HBO. 2007. Archived from the original on October 12, 2007. Retrieved October 14, 2007. 
  24. ↑ Jim King (2003). "3rd Exclusive David Simon interview". The Wire at AOL. Retrieved November 5, 2007.  Page 5
  25. ↑ Krakow Post re film to be made of Krystyna Skarbek / Christine Granville's life by A. Holland
  26. ↑ "Poland to Submit Agnieszka Holland’s In Darkness for Oscars". indiewire.com. Retrieved August 22, 2011. 
  27. ↑ "Oscars 2012: Nominees in full". BBC News. Retrieved January 24, 2012. 
  28. ↑ "Beta Film Acquires Agnieszka Holland’s Burning Bush". 
  29. ↑ "Burning Bush". TIFF. Retrieved 2013-08-07. 
  30. ↑ http://filmadelphia.festivalgenius.com/2013/films/burningbush_agnieszkaholland_filmadelphia2013
  31. ↑ "Agnieszka Holland Directs NBC Miniseries: Rosemary's Baby". Culture.pl. Retrieved 2013-12-12. 
  32. ↑ "New EFA Board". EFA. Retrieved 2013-12-12. 
  33. ↑ Agnieszka Holland (February 3, 2008). "React Quotes". The Wire. Season 5. Episode 5. HBO.
  34. ↑ "The Wire episode guide - episode 55 React Quotes". HBO. 2008. Archived from the original on February 5, 2008. Retrieved February 5, 2008. 

External links

Films directed by Agnieszka Holland
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