Direction makes me feel alive’

Krzysztof Zanussi 

Polish auteur Krzysztof Zanussi on his craft and the world of cinema.

He studied physics, but chose to be a filmmaker. “Even though I am still in love with physics, it was not in love with me. And so, when I understood that I would have no chance of getting a Nobel Prize for physics– I wouldn’t have settled for anything else – I made films!”

Auteur Krzysztof Zanussi made films that won honours at international film festivals, tackling subjects such as morality and values. He was part of the New Wave that swept Polish cinema. Producer, theatre and opera director and scenarist, Zanussi’s virtuosity and versatility have only enhanced his sense of humour and astute observations. In a freewheeling conversation with Friday Review when he was in the capital city to hold a workshop for students of Revathi Kalamandir Film Academy, Zanussi spoke about films and filmmaking soon after “an exotic lunch with a lot of dishes.”

Ask him about the workshop and he says, “First I introduce myself to them as a dinosaur! I tell them I started making films even before their parents were born!”

Having travelled all over the world with his vision and cinema, he makes it a point not to indoctrinate the students with his ideas. “Cinema is not the same everywhere and so I read up on what might interest the students in each place.Sometimes I get feedback, sometimes I get one after many years, sometimes I fail,” he says.

Moving to Indian cinema, he talks about its variety. “You have the fairytale Bollywood on one side and another category that is totally different from it. There is so much richness. But what I really enjoy is tracing the Sanskrit drama here. It has a different structure, different story-telling, which you don’t find in the West,” Zanussi says.

However, he is quick to point out that cinema has taken a step backward across the world. The language of cinema was far more advanced then than what we have now, he says. “The works of avant garde, for example Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane, had a sophisticated language that is missing today. In fact, cinema has become more of a mass media thing now. Television has, to some extent, made our tastes primitive.”

So has social media been responsible for this in any way? “I would be stupid to say that because it has got its good and bad aspects. On one side there is an emancipation, with more people getting an opportunity to express themselves and be heard. But this freedom has to be handled with responsibility. It shouldn’t be used as a medium to hurt others. In a developed society it is important to maintain a balance,” Zanussi says.

That takes the conversation to censorship, something he has experienced in close quarters as a filmmaker. Living in Poland during the Cold War, he, like many other directors, had to submit his scripts to censors. “Censorship doesn’t mean control. But filmmakers on their part shouldn’t provoke society with their works. The problem now is that we have more subjects to tackle. And with everybody having an opinion, the situation is quite volatile,” he says.

Referring to film festivals, Zanussi talks about his previous trips to Kerala as part of International Film Festival of Kerala. “We need more film festivals to promote cinema, it is a forum for distribution. But it is quite sad when these films are not getting a wide release, with films being treated on two levels as commercial and non-commercial. Otherwise you have to be a Charlie Chaplin, who entertained both the most primitive audience and Albert Einstein.”

At 76, he is ready to do more work, with his new script, Ether, all ready for filming. So what keeps him going? “You want the standard answer or the funny one? The former is that film is a vehicle for me to interact with the society because every human being is a separate island. Before I tell you the latter, I have to tell you an incident. I live near a forest area in Poland and every weekend people come there to jog. One day my wife asked one of them, ‘What are you running away from?’ He said: ‘Death’. I too feel the same way, I am making films to escape death, I feel I am alive as long as I am able to work…,” he says.

And no interview with Zanussi is complete without mentioning his friend the late Krzysztof Kieslowski, one of the most influential directors of European cinema. “I miss him. I’ve produced all his films. For many years he was disregarded and that was quite painful. Doctors said that heavy smoking was a reason behind his death. We directors always work under pressure and for many smoking is a stress buster, which happened in his case too. However, I have stayed away from that all these years.”

So, how does he de-stress? “I have cold water…,” he says breaking into a laugh, before going back to the students.