Paweł Pawlikowski

Early life

Pawlikowski was born in Warsaw, Poland, to his father Wiktor, who was a doctor and Zula, his mother, who started as a ballet dancer and later became an English literature professor at the University of Warsaw. In his late teens, he learned that his paternal grandmother was Jewish and had been murdered in Auschwitz. At the age of 14, he left communist Poland with his mother for London. What he thought was a holiday turned out to be a permanent exile. A year later he moved to Germany, before finally settling in Britain in 1977. He studied literature and philosophy at Oxford University.

Career

20th century: Early works

In the late 1980s and 1990s, Pawlikowski was best known for his documentaries, whose blend of lyricism and irony won him many fans and awards around the world. From Moscow to Pietushki was a poetic journey into the world of the Russian cult writer Venedikt Erofeev, for which he won an Emmy, an RTS award, a Prix Italia and other awards. The multi-award-winning Dostoevsky's Travels was a tragi-comic road movie in which a St Petersburg tram driver and the only living descendant of Fyodor Dostoevsky, travels rough around Western Europe haunting high-minded humanists, aristocrats, monarchists and the Baden-Baden casino in his quest to raise money to buy a secondhand Mercedes.

Pawlikowski's most original and formally successful film was Serbian Epics (1992), made at the height of the Bosnian War. The oblique, ironic, imagistic, at times almost hypnotic study of epic Serbian poetry, with exclusive footage of Radovan Karadžić and General Ratko Mladić, aroused a storm of controversy and incomprehension at the time, but has now secured it something of a cult status. The absurdist Tripping with Zhirinovsky, a surreal boat journey down the Volga with controversial Russian politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky, won Pawlikowski the Grierson Award for the Best British Documentary in 1995. Pawlikowski's transition to fiction occurred in 1998 with a small 50-minute hybrid film Twockers, a lyrical and gritty love story set on a sink estate in Yorkshire, which he co-wrote and co-directed with Ian Duncan.

2000s

In 2000 he wrote and directed Last Resort starring Dina Korzun and Paddy Considine, which won a BAFTA, the Michael Powell Award for Best British Film at Edinburgh and many other awards. In 2004 he wrote and directed My Summer of Love starring Emily Blunt and Natalie Press, which won a BAFTA, the Michael Powell Award for Best British Film and many other awards.

In 2006, he filmed about 60% of his adaptation of Magnus Mills' The Restraint of Beasts when the project was halted—his wife had fallen gravely ill and he left to care for her and their children.

2010s

In 2011, he wrote and directed a film loosely adapted from Douglas Kennedy's novel The Woman in the Fifth, starring Ethan Hawke and Kristin Scott Thomas.

On 19 October 2013, his film Ida (starring Agata Kulesza) won the Best Film Award at the London Film Festival, on the same night that Anthony Chen, one of his students at the National Film and Television School, won the Sutherland Prize for the Best First Film, for Ilo Ilo. Ida won the 2015 Academy Award for Foreign Language Film on 23 February 2015, the first Polish film to do so. In the same year, he was a member of the jury headed by Alfonso Cuarón at the 72nd Venice International Film Festival.

In 2017, Pawlikowski adapted Emmanuel Carrère's biographical novel Limonov (2011), based on the life of Eduard Limonov, into a screenplay. Pawlikowski planned to direct the film adaptation but revealed in 2020 that he lost interest in the character and abandoned plans to direct.

His most recent film, Cold War earned him the Best Director Award at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. It also won five awards at the 2018 European Film Awards including Best Film, Best Director and Best Actress Awards. In 2019, he was announced as one of the members of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival.

2020s

In October 2022, reports emerged that Pawlikowski's next film, under the working title The Island, was scheduled to begin filming in 2023. The film is inspired by true events and cast Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara as an American couple in the 1930s, who leave behind civilization to live on a deserted island.

In May 2023, production for The Island was halted, weeks before filming was set to begin, as a result of the impending 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. In December 2023, cinematographer Łukasz Żal stated that the project was unlikely to ever be made. In February 2024, Mara stated that herself, Phoenix, and Pawlikowski are still committed to make the film, but was unsure of when it may be filmed.

Personal life

Pawlikowski grew up a Catholic and considers himself one up to this day, but says that he finds the Catholic Church in Great Britain to be easier to grow in faith in than that in Poland.

Pawlikowski was a Creative Arts Fellow at Oxford Brookes University from 2004 to 2007. He teaches film direction and screenwriting at the National Film School in the UK and the Wajda Film School in Warsaw. In addition to his native Polish, he speaks six languages including German and Russian.

Pawlikowski's first wife, who was Russian, developed a serious illness in 2006 and died several months later. They have a son and a daughter. After his children left for university, Pawlikowski moved to Paris, and later relocated to Warsaw, where he lives close to his childhood home. At the end of 2017, he married Polish model and actress Małgosia Bela.

Filmography

Short film

Film

Writing credit

Documentary works

Television

1987

• Stasys * Film

Awards and nominations

Academy Awards

British Academy Film Awards

Golden Globe Awards

European Film Awards

Polish Film Awards

British Independent Film Awards

Film festivals and other award ceremonies

Critics' Circle

Other distinctions

Pawlikowski was made Honorary Associate of London Film School. In 2019, he was awarded the title of an honorary citizen of Warsaw.

References

References

1. Hoberman, J.. (30 April 2014). "If You Could Lick My Heart It Would Poison You". Table.
2. (9 February 2019). "Paweł Pawlikowski: ‘My parents’ story was the matrix of all my stories’".
3. (11 September 2024). "Pawel Pawlikowski | Biography, Movies, & Facts".
4. [http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/1321190/index.html Screenonline]. Accessed 2014-05-26. The title of Erofeev's novel (or prose poem) has been variously translated, but Pawlikowski's documentary is in English and is titled in English.
5. Pawlikowski, Pawel. "Filmography". pawelpawlikowski.co.uk.
6. "A Quick Chat With Pawel Pawlikowski". kamera.co.uk.
7. Dawtrey, Adam. (20 September 2007). "Pawel Pawlikowski takes on Stalin". [[Variety (magazine).
8. "Ethan Hawke, Kristin Scott Thomas top 'Women' – Thesps to star in indie thriller based on novel". Variety.
9. (20 October 2013). "Master and Pupil honoured by LFF on the same night".
10. Vivarelli, Nick. (29 December 2017). "Pawel Pawlikowski, Director of Oscar-Winning 'Ida,' to Helm 'Limonov' (EXCLUSIVE)".
11. (15 May 2020). "Paweł Pawlikowski nie wyreżyseruje "Limonova"".
12. "Exciting Jury Announced For Cannes Film Festival".
13. Ntim, Zac. (24 October 2022). "Joaquin Phoenix And Rooney Mara Board Pawel Pawlikowski's New Film 'The Island' – AFM". Deadline.
14. Wiseman, Andreas. (23 May 2023). "Joaquin Phoenix & Rooney Mara Movie 'The Island' Shut Down On Eve Of Shoot As Indie Movie Sector Faces Insurance Crisis Over SAG-AFTRA Strike Fears". Deadline.
15. Newman, Nick. (14 December 2023). "Łukasz Żal on the Unprecedented Process of Shooting Jonathan Glazer's The Zone of Interest". Film Stage.
16. Ntim, Zac. (15 February 2024). "Rooney Mara Discusses Berlin Title 'La Cocina' With Alonso Ruizpalacios And Shares Update On Her Audrey Hepburn Biopic & Pawel Pawlikowski's 'The Island'". Deadline.
17. (18 October 2014). "Kto Ty jesteś? Paweł Pawlikowski o filmie "Ida"". [[Onet.pl]].
18. Bloom, Livia. (5 May 2014). "Courage of Conviction: A Conversation with Ida Director Pawel Pawlikowski". [[Filmmaker (magazine).
19. Robey, Tim. (23 February 2015). "Pawel Pawlikowski on Oscar winner Ida". The Telegraph.
20. (18 September 2014). "Pawel Pawlikowski: 'I was a lost guy in a weird city'". [[The Guardian]].
21. Ellison, Jo. (15 February 2020). "Malgosia Bela in London – and in Love". Financial Times.
22. (20 January 2019). "London Critics Name Roma as Film of the Year".
23. "Sanitariuszka, powstaniec, reżyser. Nowi honorowi obywatele Warszawy".