The Saragossa Manuscript Players

While The Saragossa Manuscript boasts some of Poland’s most respected ‘serious’ actors/actresses, it also contains numerous of Poland’s finest ‘comedy’ players making its cast list really second to none. Even in cameo supporting roles are actors of the quality of Wieslaw Golas (Kapitan Sowa/Dzieciol), making the film so rich and amusing wherever you look.

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

Inside Saragossa

Wojciech Has’ film The Saragossa Manuscript is many things to many people. To fans of 60s Counter-Culture it is a head movie, to Lynch enthusiasts it is surrealist film, to story tellers it is a labyrinth and puzzle.

But when searching for underlying influences, the city of Krakow, Poland, is to be found everywhere. Wojciech Has was born in Krakow (1925) where he was childhood friends with Mieczyslaw Jahoda (Director of Photography) and Jerzy Skarzynski (Set and Costume Designer). The film is shot in a semi-mountainous area just one hour north of Krakow. Cybulski was a graduate from Krakow acting school, where Iga Cembrzynska was also just about to graduate, and the whole film was only possible thanks to the cooperation of the artistic community of the Krakow theatre scene bending its timetables to accommodate shooting. Krzysztof Penderecki was educated at Krakow State Academy of Musicand had recently become a rector of another music school in Krakow. Even, the novel’s author’s name ‘Potocki’ is a great aristocratic family name originating from Potok in the Krakow Voivodship.

It is in Krakow, 1960s Poland, operating on rules largely unknown and incomprehensible to the West that perhaps the key to understanding The Saragossa Manuscript lies. A reality where although celebrating new freedoms upon the end of Social Realism, everyday life remained anything but settled and comprehensible.

So pull up your most comfortable chair, take a deep breath, and disconnect your mind from what you think you know. You’re going on a Journey, back to Spain, 18th Century, to Madrid….

60s Counter Culture

The ideology of the 60s was able to cross borders unhindered and it was only products of that culture (music, literature, film) that couldn’t infiltrate. Countries experiencing cultural blockades therefore had to produce their own versions.

Where’s the Target?

Not all film is made within a free market for a commercial audience. Imagine if there was a ‘Director of Culture’ in charge instead of a producer and constant supply of new film makers and actors graduating from specialist state funded film schools. Further more, imagine if stars and cleaners earn the same wage.

Whatever Makes You Laugh

What happens when you live under a state system that makes absolutely no sense, that is unwanted yet (supposedly) supported by all, where everyday life becomes increasingly farcical as surrealism and realism merge into one? Humour based on the absurd and disbelief emerges.

Travel Broadens the Mind

Youth often considers travel and adventure instrumental in coming of age, but not everyone is free to travel or has the passport to do so. For some, all journeys must begin and end at home or are travels of the mind.

Who is Pulling your Strings?

You have no control over your life and key decisions are made for you by those around you. Even if you try to take your life back into your hands, ultimately comes the realisation that notion of controlling your own destiny has been given to you by others.

Welcome to the farcical, dark, satirical, and baffling world of The Saragossa Manuscript. Enjoy!

Timjim 2008