After Germany’s occupation of Poland in WWII destroyed the major concert halls and conservatories, burnt most of the existing scores, and imprisoned or murdered numerous musicians, classical music in Poland was reborn under the severely limited conditions of Stalin’s communism. However, with Stalin’s death in 1953, followed by the overthrow of Stalinist regime in Poland in 1956, a Polish musical renaissance began turning the music scene from a neo-classical backwater into an avant-garde frontier.

This was a very exciting time to be composing in Poland, as the work of Bartok, Stravinsky, Boulez, and Stockhousen entered into the country inspiring composers to push open the envelope of conventional musical notation. Soon Penderecki’s work was holding disregard for traditional instrumentation and calling into question the border between music and noise through what Penderecki called the exploration of “noise as sound as music”. By taking raw sound, experimental orchestration techniques, and replacing sound pitch with murmur, Penderecki was soon free from traditional elements such as harmony and melody. Composing instead through colour, density and dynamics Penderecki now “used/abused conventional instruments to create extraordinary sonic collages”. Nicholas Reyland

After beginning his musical education at the Krakow State Academy of Music in 1954, by 1973 he had being given the position of professor at Yale University and was rector of Krakow Musikhochschule.

The Saragossa Manuscript Soundtrack

Penderecki’s The Saragossa Manuscript soundtrack is a remarkable mix of a quasi-quotation of Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” from his Ninth Symphony, recurring Spanish baroque like acoustic guitar, and Electroacoustic music composed at the Polish Radio Experimental Studio. While the more traditional elements of the soundtrack remind us that we are in fact watching a film based on a late Enlightenment / pre-Romantic novel, it is the cutting edge experiments in electronic music that undoubtedly catch the ear most, reminding us that we are watching anything but a conventional film.

Along with hundreds of other films, TV and Radio scores of the period, the avant-garde electrical sections of the soundtrack were composed at the Polish Radio Experimental Studio in Warsaw. The studio was opened in 1957 by Jozef Patkowski and by 1960s, Penderecki (along with Kotonski) had risen to become its most prominent figures. It was a truly remarkable place that opened up the era of electroacoustic music in Poland, welcoming both Polish and foreign composers in to experiment with recording instruments and vocals onto magnetic tape, cutting them up and adding effects, over 20 years before samplers and digital editing.

The Saragossa Manuscript catches Penderecki at a crossroads in his musical career. While the decade before represents his most modernistic period, by the mid 70s he was increasingly moving against the modernism he previously represented claiming composers had “forgotten about music”. Therefore while Has’ film represents traditionalism transformed into modernism, Penderecki was actually moving in the opposite direction, yet at the time of production both meet at exactly the same point.

Remarkably, somehow when placed against the film, Penderecki’s soundtrack unarguably makes perfect sense. Penderecki also scored Wojciech Has’ The Codes (1966) and Kubrick’s 2001 and The Shining.

For a profile of Penderecki’s classical achievements see here

Penderecki’s Myspace page

Timjim 2008

Zbigniew Cybulski – Alphonse Van Worden

Originally, a one-time famous theatre actor Zbigniew Wójcik was penned to play the role of Aphonse Van Worden, but his tragic suicide shortly before production began prevented this. Next a French actor was found to play the main role, but after 3 days of shooting it became obvious that he was neither French nor a professional actor. Over this time, Zbigniew Cybulski was increasingly hanging around set supposedly as a casual observer. Finally when it was proposed to Cybulski to take over the lead role, the decision turned out to be inspired as he transformed the role from that of a romantic into bungling, doubting, and much more modern lead. While he is often compared to James Dean because of his role as Maciek in Andrzej Wajda’s Diamonds and Ashes that pigeonholed him as a young, rebellious romantic, Cybulski had a hard time destroying that image to prove that he in fact had a much wider range. He was a method actor who mentioned Brando or Olivier as his models. With Cybulski the idea of a Polish movie star was born as he became a heartthrob for many young female viewers. His mature roles had a touch of self-irony to them, making him a true modern actor but at the same time frustrating the expectations of viewers. Cybulski appears in The Saragossa Manuscript without his characteristic dark glasses which needed due to poor eyesight caused considerable trouble when shooting the riding scenes. He was also known for his unpunctuality, inability to get up early, and a habit of jumping on moving trains. He died tragically when falling from a moving train that he was unsuccessfully attempting to jump onto. Andrzej Wajda’s most avant-garde movie All for Sale is a tribute metafilm to Cybulski.

Iga Cembrzynska – Princess Emina

Iga Cembrzynska was in the last year of her acting school when approached to play the role of Princess Emina. Many years later, Has admitted that he had no doubt she was meant for this part when he saw her try on her costume and it was only later that he was also pleasantly surprised to find her as talented as she was pretty. Cembrzynska has admitted that at the time the dress and the lesbian kissing scene were extremely risqué and challenging for her. Before going to the acting school, Cembrzynska trained in playing the piano. She always said that singing was her first love before acting, the best proof of this being the flamboyant credits to Hydrozagatka (Polish cult film, a mock sociorealism Superman) by her husband director Andrzej Kondratiuk, in which she sings and shouts the opening credits direct into the camera. Cembrzynska and Kondratiuk now live in the country where they have plenty of cats and dogs and where they make films that are arguably one of the most significant contribution to contemporary Polish counter-cinema.

Gustaw Holoubek – Pedro Velasquez

Another Krakow man in the film born and bred, most famous for his beautiful and gentle voice that had a tendency to hypnotise viewers into complete submission. His recent death was a day of national mourning all over Poland. Holoubek was the Polish Olivier and although he could never have Sir in front of his name, many have often referred to him as a true gentleman both on and off the screen and stage. He was one of Has’ favourite actors appearing in his Noose (Petla), Farewells (Pozegnania), Goodbye to the Past (Rozstanie), One Room Tenants (Wspolny Pokoj), How to be Loved (Jak byc kochana), The Codes (Szyfry), The Hour-Glass Sanatorium (Sanatorium pod Klepsydra), The Doll (Lalka).

Leon Niemczyk – Avadoro

Before appearing in Saragossa, he won the general acclaim of the public and critics in Polanski’s Knife in the Water (Noz w wodzie). This was not the only good movie he made. Niemczyk played in over 500 movies in Poland and abroad (mostly the former Soviet block). He was also a war veteran and a real hero awarded for his involvement in the opposition front. He fought under general George Patton in the 444 Battalion of the USA army during WWII. He lived in Lodz for most of his career where he also played one of his last roles in David Lynch’s Inland Empire. He was said to like women and Japanese cars.

Bogumil Kobiela – Toledo

Studied acting together with his best friend Cybuski. They worked in the famous Gdansk theatre Bim-Bom, whose sharp satire was mostly aimed at the absurd of the then current political system. One of the greatest comedy actors of Polish post-war cinema, his experimental humour can only be compared to the likes of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. In one of his self-directed semi-documentaries entitled Kobiela on the Beach, he parades on the beach in his skiing gear in the biggest Polish seaside resort – Sopot, to the wonder and amazement of holidaymakers and beachcombers. On the Saragossa set, he is interestingly yet another Krakow guy born and bred. Just like Cybulski, he died tragically in the 60s in a car crash. He remains a cult figure and inspiration for many young comedy actors in Poland.

Zdzislaw Maklakiewicz – Roque Busqueros

Another war hero on the set actively involved in Warsaw uprising and in the right wing army in WWII. After the Warsaw uprising, he was taken captive and sent to a German work camp from which he returned to Poland in 1945. He studied both acting and directing. He was one of the most famous character actors whose face will always be associated with the absurd and the grotesque of Polish comedies of the 70s. He died tragically beaten up to death near Europe Hotel in Warsaw after a hard drinking session in 1977. He often co-acted with his best friend and drinking buddy, Jan Himilsbach, for example in a Polish cult comedy Cruise (Rejs) where most of the humour was actually improvised on the set in the heat of Polish summer and under the influence of a couple of beers, and in many Kondratiuk’s movies (Cembrzynska’s husband). In one of them, Wniebowzieci (1972), they play two simple guys who win a lottery and decide to spend all their money on flying from one town to the next. Still, this is a bitter-sweet comedy without a happy-end, as was Maklakiewicz’s life.

Beata Tyszkiewicz – Rebeca

Once married to one of the most famous Polish directors and Oscar winners, Andrzej Wajda, Tyszkiewicz is now a member of the jury in Celebrity Dancing, reflecting the changes that have taken place in the Polish reality. She is often called the First Lady of Polish cinema due to her impressive credentials but also to her very aristocratic beauty and behaviour. She is therefore mostly known for playing the parts of beautiful yet aloof ladies of noble birth (including that of the title role in Has’ other movie The Doll). So, she did not get her part in Saragossa only thanks to her impressive bust. In fact, most of the Polish actresses on the set proved in their later careers that there was more to them than beauty.

Agnieszka Rasmus 2008

Pre-Production

The starting point of the whole project for Has was being introduced to and then reading Potocki’s novel. However, thereafter his background and education in painting took control of proceedings.

Together with set/costume designer Jerzy Skarzynski a series of illustrations were drawn, setting the tone for the film that went on to feature in the opening credits. The illustrations took on a surrealist feel, probably in reaction to the end of the era of Social realism in Poland, but otherwise contained no direct social or political hints.

From here the script was then written by Tadeusz Kwiatkowski, which was accepted by Has without alteration. Has, however, then went on to develop his shooting script in which he considerably altered many aspects of the original screenplay. This shooting script was compiled with incredible precision and detail including camera movement. It is this shooting script that became The Saragossa Manuscript.

The Saragossa Manuscript is not just a film, but a whole make-believe world in itself as from the original illustrations and the shooting script was created an entire country. The set featured over 100 buildings that took over 7 months to prepare and within these building were extensive props, most of which were designed and created for the film.

Production

Has regarded film as more like human thought rather than an activity as you don’t know where it will take you. He was therefore a believer in allowing his films to grow their own energy, embracing the notion that film is regulated by its own rules and that the movie world does not need to pretend to be real.

While the shooting script was exact, there was enormous room left for the cast to develop their roles. In fact right from the very beginning, there were never screen tests to acclimatise the actors and on set Has rarely provided them with instructions. Instead he observed each shot, choosing whether to accept it or re-shot it, but never giving any criticism, good or bad, to the actors. A firm believer in self motivation, the only advice he gave Beata Tyszkiewicz while viewing the rushes was that she should listen to herself and decide if she is lying or not. While this technique coerced fine performances from the seasoned professionals on the cast (Holoubek) or the talented new-comers (Cembrzynska), it left others all at sea.

Themes

Has’ most common motif is that of the journey and many of his films tell the same story but in different ways. Nearly all involve the desire to go places and escape from enclosed spaces, as characters struggle to settle into the reality of their own lives. It is claimed that Krakow is embedded in his movies and that it is through them that he attempted to come to terms with his surroundings and to keep his head above them (1960s Krakow was extremely poor).

More specifically, the dominant theme in The Saragossa Manuscript seems to be that of duality. On a broad scale, the real or unreal, magical or mathematical, believer or sceptic. Or in closer detail, Muslim or Christian, dead or alive, libertine or pensive. Throughout the film there are frequently pairs, the foreign Princesses, the Hanged brothers, the duellists, and finally even Alphonse himself divides up into two people in the most talked-about mirror scene at the end of the film.

Has’ Later Career

In 1974 Wojciech Has became a lecturer in Directing at the Lodz film school in Poland, before becoming the dean of the directing department in 1989. In 1990 he became the school’s provost, a position he retained for 6 years.

In the later part of his career, it became more and more obvious that the unique circumstances that led to the production of films such as The Saragossa Manuscript were now a thing of the past and Has became aware that modern ways of film-making meant he would never be able to make another movie.

With money now firmly in the driving seat, he continued to work with film by moving into teaching and educating others. Has has said of himself.

“My cinema, my film narratives are visual in nature… Their point of departure is always literature. Operating on time. Abbreviations of time. Jumps in time. Sidetracks and various layers. Space is the domain of painting; time is the domain of literature and film. Playing with time activates the imagination of film viewers (…) the fundamental topic of cinema to me is that of the journey.” (Culture.pl)

Memorial to Wojciech Has in Wraclaw, Poland.

Timjim 2008