POLISH FILM ACADEMY

One of the icons of 60s Polish cinema, right after finishing The University of Performing Arts she debuted in a film by Jerzy Kawalerowicz and it’s safe to say that she became ‘his actress’. Her most interesting roles were in Prawdziwy koniec wielkiej wojny/The Real End of the Great War, Pociąg /Night Train, Gra/The Game and more importantly in Matka Joanna od Aniołów/Mother Joan of the Angels for which she received L'Étoile de Cristal – a masterpiece which deeply moves to this day not only with the level of its philosophical discourse and the aesthetics of the shots but also – or maybe mainly – with the actors’ expressiveness. Winnicka created an ambiguous character that cannot be easily interpreted or analysed; we cannot be sure right until the end if Joanna is possessed or if she only acts possessed.
It is no accident in this or other films that the camera liked to stop and focus on her face for a long time: her eyes could be a much better conveyor of meanings and emotions than dozens of words.