Slawomir Idziak on Kieslowski and the documentary

from the Criterion DVD od Krystof Kieslowski's The Double Life of Veronique, cinematographer Slawomir Idziak on Kieslowski.


at 1:15 of the interview

...since he [Kieslowski] only made documentaries. He actually despised the world of feature films. He clearly stressed this point in all his early manifestos, that this was a world of artifice and deception, and that the true cinema was documentary film. He wrote a screenplay whose action took place in one night called Pedestrian Subway, about a girl who escapes from a small town and works as a window dresser. We were shooting by the book like a regular feature film, shot, countershot, master shot, etc. Film labs in Poland then functioned very poorly, so the rushes for the shoot, which took a week, arrived just a day before the end of filming. He completely broke up when he saw them, saying they were terrible. Then I suggested, "Let's do it the way documentaries are made. let's redo it from the beginning but without any setup. I'll just keep changing film cassettes and following the actors around, filming everything." Later, in the editing room, he didn't use the documentary version exclusively. He combined both versions and I think that was the beginning of transferring his documentary experience to a feature film and an attempt at his own language, his own way of expression

Composer Zbigniew Priesner speaks about Krystof Kieslowski and Van Den Budenmayer

From the interview with the composer Zbigniew Priesner on the Criterion DVD release of Krystof Kieslowski's The Double Life of Veronique.

at 3:15

He [Kieslowski] really did not have much understanding of music. Let me rephrase that. He simply couldn't sing. when he sang Jingle Bells, it sounded like Silent Night. But he understood the function of music in movies.

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at 14:40

The character of the composer Van Den Budenmayer in Krystof's films is reminiscent of the fictional character of Mr. Cogito in Zbigniew Herbert's work. It began as pure coincidence. In Decalogue IX, Krystof wanted to use some Mahler songs that had never been recorded in Poland. Recording them would cost a fortune. So I said, "I'll write something different. If it doesn't work you'll just have to buy the rights to some Mahler." So I wrote some very lousy music, we say it's not me, it's Van Den Budenmayer. If it's good, then we say it's me. We both liked Holland -- it's a beautiful country -- and we decided that Van Den Budenmayer was a Dutch name. Later, when the Decalogue became well-known, Krystof started receiving letters from various people, one was from the Larousse encyclopedia, and it said, "We're publishing a new edition of our Encyclopedia of Music. you must tell us about this Mr. Van Den Budenmayer. Being a serious encyclopedia, we can not be ignorant on this matter." So in The Double Life of Veronique, we decided to give dates for his birth and death. His date of birth is the same as mine, only 200 years earlier. and then it all broke loose. Of Course, there were other encyclopedias. I returned to Poland once after a few years absence. I was then living in Paris, making films with Kieslowski. and I read in the papers that I was being sued in Paris by the Van Den Budenmayer heirs for stealing his music.

some ideas from Krystof Kieslowski

From the documentary Kieslwski-Dialogue which is on Disc 2 of the Criterion DVD release of La Double vie de Véronique (The Double Life of Veronique).

at 7:40 into the documentary -- Kieslowski speaking of Krystof Piesiewicz who colloborrated with him on this film and many others

Piesewicz can't write but he knows how to tell a story. And he's quite good at thinking.

at 24:40

You have to break through the barrier of shame and the feeling that you musn't be weak.

at 50:25

I made a documentary once entitled Talking Heads. I asked people two questions: "Who are you?" and "What do you want?" Afterwards, I asked myself those questions. I realized I didn't have any answers.