POLISH FILM ACADEMY

Faces of Agnieszka Holland.  Editor: Krystyna Zamysłowska, Mieczysław Kuźmicki, Publisher: Muzeum Kinematografii w Łodzi, 2013

About "Fever"

Agnieszka Holland

Remember how I wanted to make the film Fever - at that point it seemed that it was completely impossible. I came across the script, [Krzysztof Teodor] Toeplitz made an adaptation, the prepared
material sat in the Film Production Team ‘X’, I read it and said to myself, ‘I’d like to make that.’ But I did not believe (and neither did anyone in Zespół) that it would pass the censors and be accepted. It was 1979 and in that political context the script seemed completely outside censorship limitations, but thanks to a happy coincidence and getting the Minister of Culture drunk at the festival in Gdańsk, we managed to get it referred for production and so it happened.. After two weeks of shooting I got into a panic. It seemed to me that I would be incapable of finishing the film. I wanted to pull out, but did not know how to. I went to Andrzej Wajda, who at a certain time of my life was to me like a man of providence, and who was also my producer, and I suggested that he could finish the film. And then
suddenly an enormous, art nouveau chandelier crashed to the ground. I decided that all this had happened because of my inner tension. I felt truly ashamed. But after some time I experienced
something of a revelation - I felt that something had let go and I knew what to do next and how to bring the film to its end. Gorączka received the Gdańsk Golden Lions (during the 8th Festival of
Polish Feature Films in Gdańsk, 1981)

(Materials used from the following sources in the order in which they appeared: Stanisław Zawiśliński, Reżyseria: Agnieszka Holland (Film Directing: Agnieszka Holland), Warszawa 1995, (comment from a documentary film) Agnieszka Holland, reż. /dir. Wiesław Dąbrowski, 2008)

Wróć do poprzedniej strony