Unfinished list of film achievments

The audience gathered at Lütfi Kırdar Convention and Exhibition Center Saturday night seemed to be a little confused when renowned movie director Jerzy Skolimowski, upon receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 28th International Istanbul Film Festival, addressed the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts, or İKSV, president, Şakir Eczacıbaşı, in Polish.

The world-renowned artist also joked that 10 years from now the organizers of the festival would have to give him another special achievement award as he was planning to make many more movies.

Long-awaited comeback
Skolimowski’s work was presented to the Istanbul audience with his latest picture "Four nights with Anna." The movie is the director’s comeback after a long break, which he spent painting.

"I was ready to come back after 15 years," the director told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review, "and back then I was offered to make a film based on Susan Sontag’s book ’In America’ with a budget of 20 millions euro." On the other hand there were also some skeptical voices saying Skolimowski wouldn’t be able to handle a huge production after such a long absence. For this reason it was somehow safer to come back with a smaller picture.

With "Four nights with Anna" receiving good reviews and positive feedback at festivals, it is hard to believe the whole process of writing the screenplay was achieved in under a week. "I reminded myself about the script six days before the deadline," Skolimowski told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review, adding that his wife helped him come up with an idea by recalling a story they had read in the "Curiosity" section of the Los Angeles Times. "It was just one sentence about a shy Japanese man, who used to climb through the window of his beloved’s room," the director said. In the screenplay the characters, places and situations were related to Skolimowski’s current residence, a small village in a picturesque lake district of Poland.

Asked about other stories, which he based his films on, Skolimowski seemed rather critical toward himself. "Adaptations of books were among my later films, and at the same time - the weakest ones," he said, adding that his first movies were rather reflecting personal experiences. The director especially pointed out "Moonlighting," which presents a story of Polish immigrants illegally working in London. "One year before [the movie was made] I had Polish workers renovating my house," Skolimowski explained the film’s background.

"Moonlighting" is undoubtedly among the director’s outstanding achievements. It was competing hand in hand with Turkish picture "Yol" for Palme d’Or in Cannes in 1982. "It is a very good picture and I didn’t feel sorry to lose with this kind of film," said Skolimowski, who already received the award for "The Shout" in 1978.

Director vs. accountant
According to Skolimowski music has a great impact on the movie. Asked about recent trend of not engaging music, especially in the smaller productions, the director said that in most cases it is a matter of money, as film’s budget is usually spent before the production starts. "Music is a relevant part of the production," he said, adding that if every director had such opportunity within the budget, he would definitely spend it entirely on music.

Skolimowski is also a producer of his films, and unlike other filmmakers, who find it distracting from their main work, he finds doing both as a way to avoid conflicts, when producer and director have different opinions on what to spend the budget on. "While being a producer I take full responsibility for what I do," Skolimowski said.

Creating static frames
During a break in filmmaking Skolimowski devoted his time to his other passion Ğ painting - what he used to do it in between shooting movies. It wasn’t, however, the right approach for someone who wanted to turn it into a real art. "I was always uncompromising in painting, which was the most satisfactory way of doing it" the director told the Daily News, adding that when he was able to transfer this kind of approach into his movies, he also realized it was the right time to go back to directing. According to him, however, those two categories of art require employing two different parts of the brain.

"Painting is a single static frame," he said and added that while in the first case there is nothing else between the author and the creation, in film production the presence of third parties is unavoidable. "The director’s impact on the movie is immense," Skolimowski said, "but he can never claim it is 100% his work." He also revealed that Istanbul art connoisseurs might get the chance to see his works in Istanbul Modern in the near future.

Awards

International competition

Golden Tulip Award - "Tony Manero" by Pablo Larra’n
Special Jury Prize - "A Film With Me In It" by Ian Fitzgibbon

National competition

Best actor 

Nadir Sarıbacak in "Uzak İhtimal" ("Wrong Rosary")

Best actress

Derya Alabora in "Pandora’nin Kutusu" ("Pandora’s Box")

Best director 

Mahmut Fazıl Coşkun for "Uzak İhtimal" ("Wrong Rosary")

Best Turkish film of the yearÂ

"Köprüdekiler" ("Men On The Bridge") by Aslı Özge

Lifetime Achievement Award Director

Jerzy Skolimowski

Cinema Honorary Awards of the Festival

Actor John Malkovich
Director Erdoğan Tokatlı
Actress Hale Soygazi
Film critic Agáh Özgüç

FACE - Film Award of the Council of Europe

"Firaaq" by Nandita Das