Wojciech Jerzy Has

01.04.1925 - 03.10.2000

 

Director
Wojciech Jerzy Has was born April 1, 1925, in Krakow, and died October 3,
2000 in Lodz. In 1964, while studying at the visual arts academy, he took a film
course in Krakow. Soon after, he started working as assistant director. For
three years he worked in the studio for documentary film in Warsaw and then
joined the studio for instructional film in Lodz, where he spent the following
six years. In 1958, he directed his first feature film, The Noose (Petla),
which clearly showed his inclination towards subjective film expression that
eventually became characteristic of all of his films. In 1981, he became
director of the legendary film school in Lodz. Wojciech Jerzy Has is one of
Poland’s most appraised film directors.

Filmography

The Tribulations of Balthazar Kober (Niezwykla podróz Baltazara Kobera, 1988)
The Memoirs of a Sinner (Osobisty pamietnik grzesznika... przez niego samego spisany, 1986)
Write and Fight (Pismak, 1985)
An Uninteresting Story (Nieciekawa historia, 1982)
The Hour-Glass Sanatorium (Sanatorium pod Klepsydra, 1973)
The Doll (Lalka, 1969)
The Codes (Szyfry, 1966)
The Saragossa Manuscript (Rekopis znaleziony w Saragossie, 1965)
Gold Dreams (Zloto, 1963)
The Art of Loving (Jak byc kochana, 1963)
Partings (Rozstanie, 1961)
Roomers (Wspólny pokój, 1960)
Farewells (Pozegnania, 1958)
The Noose (Petla, 1958)


Related texts

Wojciech Jerzy Has – great Polish director

Films by this director

The Noose

(Petla, 1958)

Directed by: Wojciech Jerzy Has
PHOTOGRAPHY: Mieczyslaw Jahoda
Synopsis:

The hero is a man who decided to commit suicide. He spends his last day with a bottle of vodka, in a room with a noose hanging from the ceiling… Adaptation of a story by then very popular author Marek Hlask.

b/w, 105 min

Farewells

(Pozegnania, 1958)

Directed by: Wojciech Jerzy Has
Synopsis:

The story takes place in Poland before and during World War II and depicts the economic and social elite of that time. Through the story of one boy’s growing up and a young woman’s marriage to someone who is not of her social status, the film describes the relationship of the elite and the majority of unprivileged citizens.

b/w, 90 min

The Art of Loving

(Jak być kochana, 1963)

Directed by: Wojciech Jerzy Has
Synopsis:

It is a story about an actress traveling from Warsaw to Paris who remembers recent past events. She goes back in time when, in the time of German occupation, she hid her actor colleague who had been charged with the murder of a Nazi collaborator. He was weak, a bit of a coward, and suffered because there was no audience to witness his audacity, ego, and bravery. They separated after the war, but soon they were both charged with helping the enemy. For the first time, in this film, Has...

b/w, 100 min

The Codes

(Szyfry, 1966)

Directed by: Wojciech Jerzy Has
PHOTOGRAPHY: Mieczyslaw Jahoda
Synopsis:

After World War II, an officer of the Polish army returns from London to Poland and finds out that his wife is ill. She never recovered from the loss of their twelve-year-old son in the war. Searching for his son, the father experiences fickle and encoded nature of the truth… The film visualizes the destinies of war survivors, and in addition, visualizes their memories and psychological deformations with the elements of surrealism…

b/w, 80 min

The Saragossa Manuscript

(Rekopis znaleziony w Saragossie, Poland, 1965)

Directed by: Wojciech Jerzy Has
PHOTOGRAPHY: Mieczyslaw Jahoda
Synopsis:

At the time of Napoleon wars, a young cavalry officer finds an old book that he believes to be about his grandfather. The book deals with labyrinth adventures of the Belgian captain Alfonso van Worden, whose trip through the supernatural wilderness of Spain draws him into a fascinating fairytale about the ghosts of Maoris princesses, gypsies, cabalists, cursed rascals… The Saragossa Manuscript is Has’ most praised film.

b/w, 182'
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