POLISH FILM ACADEMY

Film, theatre and television director, screenwriter and actor. Born on October 24, 1935, in Warsaw. A graduate of journalism at the University of Warsaw (1963) and the Directing Department of the State School of Theatre and Film in Łódź (1967). In the mid-1960s, he worked for the magazine "Nowa Kultura". Even as a student, he was gaining recognition for his first productions, especially documentaries, which explicitly used staging: Muchotłuk (1966, awards in Moscow and Warsaw), an insightful observation of a shady drinking hole and its patrons, and Kirk Douglas (1966, award in Amsterdam), a funny account of the visit of the American film star to Łódź Film School. He successfully employed the style and the grotesque look on the surrounding reality he developed in his documentaries: Pożar! Pożar! Coś nareszcie dzieje się/ Fire! Fire! Finally Something Is Happening (1967), Sukces/Success (1968), Dwie lewe ręce/Two Left Hands (1968), 16 mieć lat/To Be Sixteen (1969, Warsaw Mermaid), and Psychodrama, czyli bajka o księciu i Kopciuszku wystawiona w zakładzie dla nieletnich dziewcząt w D./Psychodrama, Or A Fairy Tale About The Prince And Cinderella Staged In An Institution For Juvenile Girls In D. (1969).

In 1970, he debuted with a feature film, the unconventional – in terms of form and content – Rejs/The Cruise. The paradocumentary observation of a boat cruise on the Vistula turned out to be an apt metaphor for life in a socialist country (in the 1999 survey of Polityka weekly, Rejs/The Cruise was voted the most interesting Polish film of the twentieth century). Another feature film – Przepraszam, czy tu biją?/Excuse me, is it rowdy here? (1976, awards in Gdansk, Golden Camera) – is a successful attempt to adapt American police cinema to the Polish realities, and Uprowadzenie Agaty/Abduction of Agata (1993) – a comedy melodrama, inspired by the famous case of a young girl in love, daughter of a prominent politician, who ran away from home. Despite his feature films, Piwowski is faithful to documentary cinema, which earned him critical acclaim and audience’s favour, as well as many prestigious awards at festivals: Korkociąg/Corkscrew (1971, Silver Lajkonik in Krakow), Hair (1971, Golden Hobby in Krakow), Psychodrama (1972; Silver Dragon in Krakow, awards in Oberhausen).

Marek Piwowski occasionally stars in films as an actor, including Bilans kwartalny/ Quarterly Balance Sheet (1974) by Krzysztof Zanussi, Rebus/Riddle (1977) by Tomasz Zygadło, Ryś (2007) by Stanisław Tym.

He was awarded the Commander's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (2001).

Jerzy Armata