POLISH FILM ACADEMY

Film director, screenwriter, set designer, production manager. He was born on January 1, 1893, in Warsaw, died in September 1944 in Warsaw. A graduate of the Higher School of Business. He became involved in the film industry in 1912 as an assistant to Aleksander Hertz – director, producer, founder of the first Polish film company “Sfinks”. Before moving into directing, he worked as a set designer, production manager and actor (he starred in Trędowata/Leper (1926) by Edward Puchalski and Józef Wegrzyn).

As a director, he made his debut in 1929 with two books adaptations: Grzeszna miłość/Sinful Love, co-directed with Zbigniew Gniazdowski and based on the novel by Andrzej Strug, and Szlak Hańby/Trail of Shame, co-directed with Alfred Niemirskim, inspired by Antoni Marczyńsk’s book. Up until the outbreak of the Second World War, Krawicz had made 19 films, mostly comedies (Dwie Joasie/Two Joans, 1935, Sportowiec mimo woli/Accidental Sportsman, 1939) and melodramas (Jego wielka miłość/His Great Love, 1936; Skłamałam/I Lied, 1937). Often, his love stories had comic elements, thus making him a precursor romantic comedy (Każdemu wolno kochać/Everyone Can Love, 1933; Jadzia, 1936; Paweł and Gaweł, 1938). He made his films in the Blok film studio, which he co-founded (1930). In 1930, he was elected deputy chairman of the Polish Association of Film Producers. The outbreak of war interrupted his film Szczęście przychodzi, kiedy chce/Happiness Comes When It Wants. He was executive producer of Kroniki oblężonej Warszawy/The Chronicles of the Besieged Warsaw (1939), as well as the head of the cameramen in the Warsaw Uprising, during which he died.

Jerzy Armata