Passion and luck

Parents who were doctors lived in Gorlice, but my birthplace became Kraków. I was rather a late kid and was afraid of having a dense baby, so I was born in a infirmary there. After a fewer days, my parent brought me to Gorlic, where I spent my first, happiest years. I was expected to go to second grade on September 1, 1939, but Hitler attacked Poland. We were moving under bombs to the east. For the first time, I saw close blood and death. That's how my childhood ended. Everyone believed England and France would strike and Germany would be detained. Unfortunately, they didn't hit, but they did. The Red Army entered And in 1940, we were taken to Siberia.

Jerzy Hoffman

Your father, Sigismund Hoffman, joined in 1943 1st Tadeusz Kościuszko Infantry Division And he was a military doctor. He was decorated for the courage and defence of his sanitary battalion in the lap.

[In the house] there is simply a photograph on the wall from the minute of the designation of the father by General Stanisław Popławski by the Grunwald 3rd Class Cross for this defense. Grunwald's Cross was the equivalent of Virtuti Militari, and his father received it as the only doctor. erstwhile the 1st Army of the Polish Army crossed the German border, the sanitary battalion was taken from safety and thrown on the first line. The offensive was moving so fast that all German formations remained behind. 1 specified formation of Waffen-SS surrounded the sanitary battalion. The father was the only front officer – during planet War I he commanded a company of device guns. He organized a defense, fought all, even little wounded. My father shot the cocaine himself, and he shot it well. They survived until the rescue arrived and avoided the destiny of the 2nd Army sanitary battalion [under Budziszyn], where the SS murdered doctors, paramedics and wounded.

Did you usage your father's communicative while shooting conflict scenes, especially Battle of Lenino in his 1978 movie “To the Blood of the Last”?

Of course. Remember the scene from the sanitary battalion, where injured soldiers are assigned the qualifying numbers of their condition, with 1 being an immediate operation. The doctor doesn't have much time. Walking through the injured square, actually in the moving must decide who the number is assigned to. This scene, among others, was based on my father's stories.

It's very shocking, like the full depiction of the conflict of Lenin. To this day, it is impressive, especially if 1 takes into account that all of this has been filmed really, alternatively than generated by the computer – involving people, animals and utilizing real equipment, including armored weapons, artillery and aviation. Of course, the large credit in this is that you could number on the cooperation and assistance of the army, but it is unusual that the censorship "suck through" is that the Lord has truthfully shown that Lenino was no triumph but a bloodbath.

You know, I had another problems back then. Namely in the scene of the interview of Chief Leader General Władysław Sikorski with British abroad Minister Anthony Eden for the first time in the post-war Polish movie Katyń was openly named. In this discussion, Eden tries to convince Sikorski that Katyn is the work of the Germans, and after this scene comes the second, erstwhile 2 Polish officers – Captain Wicherski and Colonel Leon Bukojemski – played by Leonard Pietraszak and Leszek Kubanek, express doubts about the perpetrators of the Katyn crime. “And if this is true?” Wicherski asks, “It is impossible,” says Bukojemski; “And if that is true?” Wicherski repeats. After a long time of silence, Bukojemski answers: “To exist, we must be with them” ... Besides, there was more – let's call it – moments. For example, in the scene of the attack of the artists at Lenino, Pietraszak raises himself and shouts, “K..., as in September!”. too Katynia, there was besides mentioned Polish Lviv erstwhile Lieutenant Andrzej Radwan [Marek Lewandowski] asks Sigismund Gawlik [Jerzy Trela]: ‘Would you like to go back to Lviv?’ and Gawlik answers the question with a question: ‘I would like to, but will they want us there?’.

Camera from the movie ‘To the blood last’, 1978

The premiere was, say, with a immense bang. Even Marshal Viktor Kulikov, who was then the commander-in-chief of the Warsaw Pact, congratulated me. After 2 or 3 weeks of filming in cinemas, they just realized what they were going through! After the intervention from Moscow, where all the dialog issues were clearly accurately translated, there was a chaotic brawl. The movie was taken off and out of me was cut out of it all dangerous according to the censorship of the staff.

There's 1 more thing worth mentioning. After the last blood was directed to the implementation, 2 members of the Political Bureau and 3 secretaries of the National safety Council (CCP) signed. As Moscow raised the larum, they all – but 1 individual – disowned and maintained that they had nothing to do with it. The individual who did not disown himself was Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski.

And is it actual that you were promised that after Lenino you could make a movie about Monte Cassino?

Of course! It was a condition that after the movie “To the Blood of the Last” I will begin work on the movie about the baptism of soldiers of the 2nd Polish Corps. respective scenarios were created, among others by Halina Auderska, based of course on Melchior Wańkowicz's celebrated coverage. But I was unlucky due to the fact that after the fight around “To the Blood of the Last” opponents of this movie in KC gained the advantage, arguing swindlingly that the fashion for movies about the collective hero was over.

On the plan “To the Blood of the Last”, but besides during the shooting of subsequent parts of the Trilogy, you experienced something that many professional officers do not have the chance to experience. You led a large mass of troops, and it was a multinational, to mention, in addition to our soldiers, the Mosfilm cavalry regiment [the common name of the russian regiment that supplied horses, stuntmen and extras for movie production, including Mosfilm label].

O Mosfilma, I could tell you here for a long time... It is adequate to say that while I was filming “The Flood” in Ukraine, at the same time, Nikolai Maschenko [“How steel was toughened up” from 1973] made his movie rather near. And Mashenko's crew was stealing a 3rd of that regiment from me to shoot their conflict scenes. There was nothing I could do but tighten my jaws, due to the fact that it was the only formation in this part of the planet that had worn horses prepared to carry out batalistics. As it is said, they were the tops of the “fired”, that is, the skyrocketing firearm and cannonfire, fire, smoke and water. They besides listened to commands and were taught a cavalry drill. During the implementation we could see amazing images. For example, on the 1 hand, our husaria was standing in formation, and armored transporters arrived from across the street, which were taken on the plan of soldiers disguised as Swedish musketeers and pickiniers.

A comic communicative happened erstwhile in the late 1990s we utilized to do Fire and Sword at Drawsk. In parallel, there were large manoeuvres involving NATO observers. erstwhile I started filming the Hussaria scene, this full delegation left their posts and switched to my set to see the charge!

As for my cooperation with the army, I had the top pleasance in filming a documentary about the Polish Army, whose title “To flourish life” [1961] was invented by the Marshal of Poland – what a marshal he was, another substance – Marian Skuszalski. I made this movie together with Edward Skórzewski, and thanks to the military we had a large field to show, due to the fact that for example we got for the implementation of respective twelve tanks with crews, especially for us, the ORP “Błyskawica” and so on. But on the another hand, we besides had a conflict with the celebrated "general Gazruka" Kazimierz Witaszewski (a nickname coined by Gazrurek, which according to Witaszewski had to beat oppositionists – P.K.) who began to interfere with the script and demanded changes. erstwhile we rejected his suggestions, he began to scare us with a raised voice: “We will mobilize you and you will gotta make a movie as I command!” I replied, “I may gotta do this movie, but I won’t gotta do a good one...”. And then, as Szbuszski awarded us the Monsk Prize for this document, he asked: “I heard that you had any misunderstandings with General Witaszewski?” I said, “Yes, it happened.” Shoszalski went on to ask what was going on, and I said, “The general offered to join the army, but I had to refuse.” erstwhile asked by the marshal why, I said, "You don't have the rank of a movie marshal."

In this film, you cut an even larger number, revealing to the planet the existence of a "super secret" jet-powered racer in our military...

That's right! [laughs] 1 day a movie in a lake shed saw a real miracle of our technique: a landing boat with a jet engine attached to it. It turned out that any visionary designer wanted to make an amphibian that would be from water utilizing a jet drive to jump over tiny and smaller islands. So a prototype was built, but as usual, it proved to be a complete failure. In fact, what I found in the shed was a wreck, but I insisted on reviving it for the movie. Edek [Skórzewski] tried to talk me out of the idea, arguing that it would be a large fight, but I was not convinced. We pulled a jet pilot from Warsaw, on board I ordered to set up mock-ups of rockets and put a squad with fire throwers. The vehicle took on a cosmic appearance, but on the water it was moving like this... We shot it on a heavy released cage [the number of frames per second] and the boat picked up an incredible acceleration.

This magic of cinema must have shocked the military decision-makers back then...

She shocked mainly the military attaché of Western and russian states after an authoritative screening at the legislature Hall. On the sight of the “space amphibious” arrow scurrying like an arrow, how the electrical shocks came from the seats! Earlier on, on a fewer military collauds that this movie had undergone, no of our officers asked about the boat, reasoning simply that it was not allowed into this secret weapon.

To be rather serious, thanks to the military, you were able to carry out with real momentum the ballistics.

Of course! Let us take the scene of the German attack on russian positions close Moscow in the winter of 1941 in “To the blood of the last” – I had at my disposal a full division plus respective twelve tanks perched on German panzers! Today, you could only show that many people with computer photos. This realism of combat in my films is, of course, due to the participation of the military and our large stuntmen. The viewer must believe in the fact of all scene, if erstwhile he feels false, he will halt believing in the message of the full film.

Jerzy Hoffman

Jerzy Hoffman born March 15, 1932 in Kraków. Gorlician, sybirak, outstanding Polish manager and screenwriter. The co-author of the Black Series of the Polish Document, among his best-known films, include: “Gangsters and philanthropists”, “Right and fist”, “Trędowata”, “Zaczor”, “To the Blood of the Last” and “1920 conflict of Warsaw”, and, above all, the movie adaptation of Henryk Sienkiewicz’s Trilogy, from which “The Flood” was nominated for an Oscar for the best non-English-language film.