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27-576: He lived in Los Angeles for over 20 years where he painted in a figurative, expressionist mode and occasionally acted in films. He returned to Poland, and to filmmaking as a writer and director, after a 17-year hiatus with Four Nights with Anna (2008). He received the Golden Lion Award for Lifetime Achievement at the 2016 Venice Film Festival . His film EO (2022) was awarded the Jury Prize at

54-479: A challenge by Wajda, he produced his own version which became a basis for the finished film, Innocent Sorcerers (1960), directed by Wajda with Skolimowski playing a boxer. Skolimowski enrolled in the Łódź Film School with the intention of avoiding the long apprenticeship required before graduating to feature film direction. He used the film stock available to him for student exercises, and with initial advice from Andrzej Munk, he filmed over several years in such

81-486: A hurry, he stumbles on a police car and, as he is a known rapist, they take him in. At his trial, when the judge asks why he did it, he says “Love”. Anna allows him to be jailed but then visits him there: she says she has known all along that he is innocent and gives him back the ring. The film had its world premiere as the opening film of the Directors' Fortnight section at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival on 15 May 2008. It

108-643: A neighbor in the same building. Between Hands Up! and his next feature, Arthur Conan Doyle ’s The Adventures of Gerard (1970), Skolimowski contributed a story to a Czech-produced portmanteau film, Dialóg 20-40-60 (1968), in which three different directors (with Zbyněk Brynych and Peter Solan) each devised their own story using identical dialogue even though the central characters in each section are separated in age by twenty years. Skolimowski's segment, "The Twenty Year Olds", would seem to be an extension of Le Départ with Jean-Pierre Léaud playing opposite Skolimowski's wife Joanna Szczerbic. Deep End (1970)

135-449: A rape and the assailant flees. The woman, a nurse at the hospital called Anna, lets him be arrested and jailed. On release, he is given a job in the hospital crematorium and, discovering that the window of Anna's room is within view of his cabin, begins watching her in the evenings. One night he breaks in and mixes some of his grandmother's sleeping tablets that he has ground up into the sugar that Anna puts into her tea each night. Once she

162-626: A spa town near Prague, included future film-makers Miloš Forman and Ivan Passer , as well as Václav Havel . Skolimowski was considered as a trouble maker at school as he was the origin of many pranks which angered the authorities. At college he studied ethnography, history and literature and took up boxing, which was also the subject of a feature-length documentary, his first significant film. Skolimowski's interest in jazz and association with composer Krzysztof Komeda brought him into contact with actor Zbigniew Cybulski and directors Andrzej Munk and Roman Polanski . In his early twenties Skolimowski

189-420: A very limited release. Torrents of Spring (1989), adapted from a semi-autobiographical novella by Russian author Ivan Turgenev , was a big budget European co-production starring Timothy Hutton , Nastassja Kinski and Valeria Golino . It could be considered as Skolimowski's most impersonal 'generic' film, the only real departure from his expressed interest in making films only to please himself. Skolimowski

216-574: A way that the sequences were later clipped off and joined together into one piece of work. While scoring poorly in course work Skolimowski had a finished feature film by the end of the course. Skolimowski then collaborated with Polański, writing the dialogue for the script of Knife in the Water (1962). Between 1964 and 1984 he completed six semi-autobiographical feature films: Rysopis , Walkover , Barrier (1966), Hands Up! (completed 1967, released 1981), Moonlighting (GB 1982) and Success Is

243-441: A weighted average rating of 5.6/10. Erene Stergiopoulos of Exclaim! wrote, "Quite simply, Four Nights with Anna is as subtle as it is complex, and is definitely one to watch." Derek Elley of Variety commented that "[Jerzy Skolimowski's] period as an artist and poet seems to have served him well, more in the film's overall precision and small details than in its look." Peter Brunette of The Hollywood Reporter described

270-785: Is also an actor, having appearances as Colonel Chaikov, a ruthless yet composed KGB colonel, in White Nights (1985) and Uncle Stepan, a Russian expatriate in Eastern Promises (2007), among other roles. In 2012, he appeared in The Avengers , as a villain interrogating Black Widow . In 2008, he directed his first film after his return from the US Cztery noce z Anną ( Four Nights with Anna ). In 2010, he directed Essential Killing starring Vincent Gallo and Emmanuelle Seigner . The film won multiple awards including Special Jury Prize at

297-403: Is based on the 1932 design by German sculptor Renée Sintenis of Berlin's heraldic mascot that later became the symbol of the festival. It has been manufactured since either the first or third edition by art foundry Hermann Noack . The original award was redesigned in a larger version in 1960, with the left arm of the bear raised as opposed to the right in the former model. As of 2010 ,

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324-443: Is sound asleep, he starts visiting her room, not exposing her or touching her, except once to paint a toenail, but content just to be in her presence among her things and to do small tasks like sewing on a missing button, Budget constraints mean that the hospital has to close its crematorium and he is laid off with a terminal payment. He uses it to buy an engagement ring, which he leaves for her one night. Climbing out of her window in

351-683: Is the highest prize awarded for the best film at the Berlin International Film Festival and is, along with the Palme d'Or and the Golden Lion , the most important international film festival award. The bear is the heraldic animal of Berlin, featured on both the coat of arms and flag of Berlin . The winners of the first Berlin International Film Festival in 1951 were determined by a West German panel, with five winners of

378-754: The 67th Venice International Film Festival , Golden Ástor Award at the Mar del Plata International Film Festival and the Golden Lions Award for Best Film at the Gdynia Film Festival . In 2011, he became the recipient of the Commander's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta and the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres . In 2015, he directed thriller film 11 Minutes starring Richard Dormer and Andrzej Chyra . It

405-544: The Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film at the 95th Academy Awards . Skolimowski was born in Łódź , Poland, the son of Maria (née Postnikoff) and Stanisław Skolimowski, an architect. He often recognized indications in his work to a childhood ineradicably scarred by the war. As a small child he witnessed the brutalities of war, even having been rescued from

432-476: The 1966 drama film Au hasard Balthazar directed by Robert Bresson . Submitted by Poland, EO was nominated for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film at the 95th Academy Awards . In 2022, he co-wrote Roman Polański 's drama film The Palace . Four Nights with Anna Four Nights with Anna ( Polish : Cztery noce z Anną ) is a 2008 drama film directed by Jerzy Skolimowski . It stars Artur Steranko and Kinga Preis . It tells

459-1001: The Best Revenge , a segment in Dialóg and two other features Le Départ (1967) and Deep End based on his original screenplays. Barrier won Grand Prix at Bergamo International Film Festival. Le Départ won the Golden Bear at the 17th Berlin International Film Festival . While living and working in many countries, he also completed another six relatively big budget productions, including four international co-productions, between 1970 and 1992 ( The Adventures of Gerard , King, Queen, Knave , The Shout , The Lightship , Torrents of Spring and Ferdydurke ), all distinctly bearing Skolimowski’s signature. After Barrier he left Poland to make Le Départ in Belgium in French. According to him Le Départ

486-525: The Golden Bear, divided by categories and genres. Between 1952 and 1955, the winners of the Golden Bear were determined by the audience members. In 1956, the Fédération Internationale des Associations de Producteurs de Films formally accredited the festival, and since then, the Golden Bear has been awarded by an international jury. The statuette shows a bear standing on its hind legs and

513-442: The film as "an exercise in tedium marked by only the tiniest of redeeming moments." Akiva Gottlieb of Slant Magazine gave the film 1.5 out of 4 stars, writing, "Without attempting even a superficial inquiry into the kinks of voyeurism, Skolimowski's return to the big screen is only interested in soiling its viewer with a cheap and gimmicky moral relativism." Golden Bear The Golden Bear ( German : Goldener Bär )

540-727: The rubble of a bombed-out house in Warsaw. His father, a member of the Polish Resistance , was executed by the German occupiers Nazis . His mother hid a Polish Jewish family in the house and Skolimowski recalls being required to take candy from German soldiers to maintain appearances. After the war, his mother became the cultural attaché of the Polish embassy in Prague. His fellow pupils at school in Poděbrady ,

567-546: The story of a man who visits a woman in her sleep. The film had its world premiere as the opening film of the Directors' Fortnight section at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival on 15 May 2008. It was released in Poland on 12 September 2008, and in France on 5 November 2008. In a small town in Poland, an inarticulate man named Leon lives with his bedridden grandmother in a log cabin next to the hospital. Out fishing one day, he stumbles on

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594-522: Was Skolimowski's second non-Polish feature to be based on his own original screenplay. The movie with a coming of age storyline bears distinctive thematic similarities to Le Départ . His films The Shout (1978) and Moonlighting (1982) became critical successes, with Moonlighting , made in the UK and starring Jeremy Irons , the fifth of his Polish sextet, being critically and commercially his most successful film. The Lightship , Skolimowski’s first US production,

621-560: Was a light film rather than a comedy, stating that it "does not have the serious layers that I like in my work." Skolimowski returned to Poland to make Ręce do góry ( Hands Up! ), the third film of the Andrzej trilogy and the fourth of his Polish sextet. The anti-Stalinist themes of Hands Up! resulted in that film being banned and him being effectively expelled from then communist Poland. He then resettled in London, notably having Jimi Hendrix as

648-552: Was adapted from a novella by the German writer Siegfried Lenz and starring Robert Duvall and Klaus Maria Brandauer . Set on a US Coast Guard ship it was filmed in the North Sea. It is suspended between psychological duel with a doppelgänger theme and a pure performance piece within the stage-like confines of the lightship. However, even though receiving the best film award at the Venice Film Festival, The Lightship had only

675-421: Was already a writer, having published several books of poems, short stories and a play. Soon Skolimowski met Andrzej Wajda , the leading director of the then dominant 'Polish school' and twelve years his senior, who showed him a script for a film about youth written by Jerzy Andrzejewski , the author of the novel Ashes and Diamonds . Skolimowski was not impressed and dismissed the script. However, in response to

702-753: Was also screened at the New Horizons Film Festival , the New York Film Festival , the Toronto International Film Festival , the Gdynia Film Festival , the Lisbon & Estoril Film Festival , and the Trieste Film Festival . It was released in Poland on 12 September 2008, and in France on 5 November 2008. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , the film has an approval rating of 67% based on 6 reviews, and

729-647: Was selected as the Polish entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar at the 88th Academy Awards . In July 2016, at the Venice International Film Festival , Skolimowski was honoured with the Golden Lion for "lifetime achievement". His film EO premiered at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival where it won the Jury Prize . The Polish-Italian co-production is a contemporary interpretation of

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