May 5 - Jerzy Skolimowski

Happy 82nd Birthday, Jerzy Skolimowski! Born today in 1938, this Polish dramatist, actor, screenwriter and director was a graduate of the prestigious National Film School in Łódź. 

  

His fellow students eventually went on to become future Czech cinema giants. These included Czech-American film director, screenwriter, actor, and professor Miloš Forman ('The Firemen's Ball', 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest', 'Amadeus') and Czech film director and screenwriter Ivan Passer. 

  

He has directed more than twenty films since his cinematic debut in which he show, wrote and directed his student film. This was the two-minute 1960 Grecian silent black and white short film 'Oko wyko' ('The Menacing Eye'). 

  

In the late 1960s, Skolimowski was awarded Golden Bear for his 1967 Belgian black and white drama/romance film  'Le départ' ('The Departure'). This occurred at the 17th Berlin International Film Festival. 

  

Among his credits, Skolimowski is best known for co-writing and directing the 1970 British–West German drama/romance film 'Deep End'. This was his second non-Polish feature to be based on his own original screenplay.  

  

This coming-of-age film follows Michael (John Moulder-Brown), a fifteen-year-old bathhouse worker who develops a crush on his older, attractive co-worker, Susan (Jane Asher).  

  

At first, they help each other secure bigger tips by swapping their respective male and female clients. However, their tidy business arrangement is severed when Michael discovers that Susan has not only shunned him, but is cheating on her fiancé with an older swim coach.  

  

As Michael begins stalking Susan in an effort to break them up, his innocent crush spirals into obsession and, ultimately, his own death. 

'Deep End' also included a soundtrack by Cat Stevens and the German experimental rock band The Can.  

  

The film beared distinctive thematic similarities to 'Le Départ'. 'Deep End' was a promising film, yet it was poorly handled by the studio. 

  

Skolimowski had a cameo in 'Deep End', credited as Passenger reading Polish Newspaper. 

  

Skolimowski had lived in Los Angeles, California for over twenty years, where he painted in a figurative, expressionist mode and occasionally acted in films.  

  

He later returned to Poland, and to film making as a writer and director, after a seventeen-year hiatus. This was with his 2008 Polish thriller/drama film 'Cztery noce z Anną' ('Four Nights with Anna')

In the early 2010s, Skowlimowski had a bit part in the 2012 American superhero action/sci-fi film ‘The Avengers’. This was as Colonel General of the Russian Armed Forces and weapons dealer Georgi Luchkov. 

In the film, he had kidnapped Black Widow/Natasha Romanova (Scarlett Johansson) and attempted to interrogate and torture her, only to be outwitted by her before he and his men were beaten in a brief fight with the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent.   

  

Four years later, Skolimowski received the Golden Lion Award for Lifetime Achievement at the 73rd Venice Film Festival in 2016. 

  

Skolimowski has been active from 1964–present. 

  

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