Tuesday 14/11/2000

During his press conference earlier today, the President of the International Competition Jury, who is also being honored with a grand tribute for his work, revealed his new plans.

As he said, there are two films in the making. The first is titled The system and is based on a true story. Two brothers in Poland try to find a way out of the military regime and wait for days in front of the American embassy to obtain their way of departure. Legally, though, they can't pull it off so they migrate illegally to the States. In Las Vegas they run into their mother who had abandoned them when they were still young. They discover that she has turned into a compulsive gambler who uses a chapel she built to gather money for her gambling. The younger brother, who has studied aerodynamics uses his knowledge and his understanding of movement to help his mother. While observing roulette, he discovers that there are chances of prediction since the ball would stop at the highest point of the roulette, which was always slightly tilted. The children's mother becomes a millionaire and the casino is forced to change its roulettes and smooth off the sections between the numbers so the ball wouldn't stop there.

It is a "rich" story, said the director, which also has a metaphorical meaning in its political references. The film is expected to be finished by next year.

The director's second plan, which is a low-budget film based on Knut Hamsun's book "Mysteries" is also expected at about the same time.

In reply to a question about his absence from cinema for the past few years, the director said that he had found the time to dedicate himself to his "second great passion", painting. As he said, he is particularly interested in monumental painting. He paints on wooden boxes 2,5 x 1,5 in dimension which have already been exhibited in Europe and the United States. These works are actually always vertical as a "response" to the horizontal frame of cinema which has always "trapped" him.

In a short retrospective, he mentioned the circumstances under which he fled from Poland, something that he never wanted. As he said, he has always been a political director who made films against political establishments with messages appealing to society. With his fourth film, Hands up!, he went too far and the film was banned while he found himself in a foreign country whose language he couldn't speak.

He began work on The adventures of Gerard, a Hollywood production in Italy, with an enormous budget, a crew of 140 personnel and movie stars like Claudia Cardinale. He considers this as his worst film, although he gained a lot of money from it that helped him continue his work. On the other hand, according to the director, his best film was Deep End, which he filmed thirty years ago with a much smaller budget and crew.

Jerzy Skolimowksi also spoke about the idea behind his movie Moonlighting, filmed in 1982. He recalled how in December 12th, 1982 when the junta took over in Poland and he was in England, he met a group of terrified Pols who had no money or place to stay and no way of flying to Warsaw since all flights had been cancelled. He arranged for their stay with other Pols and also took one of them in his place, who anxiously observed the developments. His guest knew no English so Skolimowski would translate the news for him but would always present the situations in a lighter way. This created the idea behind the movie which was filmed in a period of 18 days, staring Jeremy Irons, with an incredible struggle to obtain the necessary finances for its filming by the director himself.

Finally, Jerzy Skolimowksi mentioned his film Barrier (1966), which he characterized as film full of imagery, because, as he said, he tried to find new ways of expression since the polish Minister of Culture would not let him star in it.