16-11-2008

Obituatry: Stanislaw Rozewicz, TOR film studio founder

By Krzysztof Kwiatkowski

    Stanislaw Rozewicz, director, founder and artistic director of the TOR Film Studio, and considered a great moral authority among Polish film-makers, died of cancer on November 9, age 84.

    Rozewicz's elder brother Tadeusz is one of Poland's leading poets and playwrights.

    As an artist, Rozewicz had a very clear, pronounced style. His debut was Difficult Love (1953). His films feature subjects characteristic of the Polish school of cinematography and the later cinema of moral anxiety. He tackled subjects ranging from war and the history in Three Women (1956), Free City (1958), and Westerplatte (1967); historical Polish figures in Passion (1977); observed ordinary people in personal and intimate films, such as Loneliness for Two (1968); and experimental styles with Hell and Heaven (1966). He was the artistic director for TOR Film Production between 1967 and 1968 and between 1972 and 1980. The leading figures among Polish filmmakers worked under his supervision: Krzysztof Zanussi, Janusz Majewski, Antoni Krauze, Edward Zebrowski, Wojciech Marczewski, and Krzysztof Kieslowski. In 1980, TOR studio was taken over by Krzysztof Zanussi.

    After 1989, Rozewicz was relegated to documentary filmmaking; with Cinema (1999) and Where are the Toys from Old Years (2008), he returned to his childhood and the family home.

    He was a lecturer of many years at the Film School in Lodz. In 2001, he was honoured with the Eagle, the Polish Film Award for artistic accomplishment. He received a similar award, a Platinium Lion, at this year's festival in Gdynia, but was unable to accept it in person. He is survived by his wife and son.The burial will take place at Powazki cemetary on November 20.