In Polish history, the 1970s were the age of economic prosperity (brought upon
by foreign loans) and political appeasement introduced by the rule of Edward
Gierek, Wladyslaw Gomulka’s successor at the head of the almighty Central
Committee. Film history saw them as revival years after the crisis of the 1960s.
In the ‘70s, Wajda shot Landscape after the Battle, The BirchWood, The Maids
of Wilko, The Wedding, The Promised Land, Man of Marble, Rough Treatment and
The Conductor. Kutz, Konwicki and Kawalerowicz appeared as distinctive
authors, while Passendorfe, Antczak, Stanislaw Rozewicz, and Poreba continued
their development.

More importantly, a whole new generation was on the rise, led by two Krzysztofs
– Zanussi and Kieślowski (Trzos-Rastawiecki, Majewski, Łeszczyński, Żuławski,
Hollandova, Marczewski, Piwowski...)

With the new wave came the directing and writing debut of Roman Zaluski. After
playing a series of smaller parts and assisting in less important films by
Bohdziewicz, Korzeniowski, Stanisław Rózewicz, Berestowski, Kutz, and especially
Paweł Komorowski, he finally got an opportunity to direct a movie. Zaluski, a
thirty-four-year old student of the renowned High Film school in Lodz (born
1936, graduated in 1958) shot his first film, The House, in 1970.
Although dealing with the epic subject of the first inhabitants of western
Poland, area returned to Poland after World War II, the film is actually a
chamber Black and White 78- minute long film. Still, it won the prize of the
president of the state Committee for film and television, Golden Prague award
for the screenplay, and opened the door for his creator to continue working.

The following year, an experienced beginner managed to direct two of his
screenplays – Cardiogram and Epidemic (first shown in April of 1972),
followed by The Anatomy of Love (1972) and The Secret. Although he
directed 13 more films: Rust (1981), Emergency Escapet (1982),
Oh, Charles (1985)…, the first four remained the high points of his opus.
His newer films are light social comedies filled with music and not too witty –
Kogel – Mogel I i II (1988, 1989) and the Marital Comedy (1993).


Do Zaluski’s best works have anything in common apart from their author? All
four definitely belong to the genre of psychological drama. Death is a central
figure of all four films. Protagonists of The Epidemic are the
inhabitants of Wroclaw attacked by the epidemic of smallpox. Hero of
Cardiogram is a young doctor questioning the real cause of death of a child.
The Secret starts with the death of a professor whose widow unexpectedly
discovers that her husband led a double life. Even The Anatomy of Love
opens with the same motive – only after having buried her much older husband,
painter Eve starts a complicated relationship with her Adam. All four films have
excellent dialogues (screenplays for Cardiogram and The Anatomy
were done by the excellent dramaturge Ireneusz Iredynski), impressive ambiance
(Wroclaw) and good actor support (director's acting experience obviously was not
a waste of time). There are evidently many similarities.

Finally, maybe the most important thing about Zaluski is that he is an
incorrigible optimist. After the catastrophe in The Epidemic, life
restores. The doctor's dark premonitions in Cardiogram do not come true,
The Anatomy ends with marriage, the widow from The Secret finally
realizes that she was truly loved.

At the beginning of the 1970s Polish society and film felt a flicker of
optimism. Then came the 1980s, Jaruzelski, and the 'state of war'. In the 1990s
the 'big brother' left. Today, at the beginning of the third millennium surveys
reveal that most Polish people remember the 1970s as the best years of their
lives.