The information of Jerzy Stuhr’s demise was confirmed to PAP by Barbara Kwiatkowska from the Nationwide Previous Theatre in Kraków. Stuhr had been combating a severe sickness.
Krzysztof Kieślowski used to say about him that he was “a novel case in Poland of an actor who works effectively in all of the branches of artwork he practices – in movie, tv and theatre”. “I feel that two parts resolve about it. The primary is approach, a beautiful approach, mastered to perfection in nearly all the small print. The second factor, no much less essential, helpful particularly for cinema, is his data of actuality. And above these two abilities, intelligence prevails” – he stated in 1981, within the tv programme “Twarze teatru”. The director of “Three Colors” was one of the crucial essential figures in Jerzy Stuhr’s skilled life. The actor appeared in a number of of his movies, together with “Spokoj” (1976), “Amator” (1979), “Dekalog: Dziesięć” (1988) and “Biały” (1993).
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Stuhr himself as soon as admitted: “From an early age I used to be in search of a solution to show that I used to be price one thing, that I might do one thing that others couldn’t. My mom taught me to recite, learn so much to me, and as quickly as I mastered this artwork myself, she anticipated me to learn aloud. She was my first listener and viewer. Now I feel that this had an amazing affect on my later alternative of career.”
Jerzy Stuhr was born on April 18, 1947 in Kraków. Seven years later, as a first-grade major college pupil, he recited “Murzynka Bambo” on the college academy and it was then – as he himself stated – “a miracle occurred”. “I used to be standing underneath the portrait of Bierut and Rokossowski, and my associates had been sitting quietly and listening to me, and after I completed, everybody, together with the lecturers who had whipped me on the palms with a ruler, began applauding. I understood then, nonetheless intuitively, that what distinguished me within the group was my capacity to recite” – he recalled his beginnings.
In 1970 he graduated from Polish research on the Jagiellonian College, and in 1972 from the Kraków State Drama College, of which he turned rector years later. After commencement, he was employed on the Helena Modrzejewska Previous Theatre in Kraków. Earlier, in 1971, he appeared as a movie actor in “A Million for Laure” by Hieronim Przybył and “The Third A part of the Night time” by Andrzej Żuławski.
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In 1977, he created the primary of his most well-known movie roles. In Feliks Falk’s “Wodzirej” he performed the function of Lutek Danielak. Lutek – an upstart, a profitable upstart who ruthlessly strives to realize success in life and is able to sacrifice the whole lot for his profession, even his closest associates – “turned an emblem of the ethical degradation of the period of “small stabilization”” – wrote Janusz Wróblewski in “Polityka”.
Stuhr then performed a morally ambiguous man – an unscrupulous lawyer – within the drama “Bez anaestheticenia” directed by Andrzej Wajda (1978).
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In 1979, he created the function of Filip Mosz in Kieślowski’s “Amator”. He performed a provider employed in an industrial plant, for whom the turning level in his life is the acquisition of an beginner movie digital camera. The ultimate scene of “Amator”, when Mosz, deserted by his family members, turns the digital camera lens on himself, is likely one of the most well-known within the historical past of Polish cinema; it’s also also known as Kieślowski’s “program manifesto”.
Stuhr’s comedic expertise may very well be admired in Juliusz Machulski’s movies, together with “Kingsajz” (1987, Stuhr because the honcho Kilkujadek), “Kiler” (1997, as Commissioner Ryba) and “Seksmisja” (1984), wherein, as Maks, he delivered memorable traces: “Darkness, I see darkness! I see darkness!”, “Head east, there have to be some civilization there!”, “You’ve got gone loopy, you have not had a person for a very long time! You want a person!”. In 2008, in the course of the Golden Geese award ceremony, awarded by the readers of “Movie” journal, “Seksmisja” was honored with the award for one of the best Polish comedy of the century.
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Stuhr’s well-known roles additionally embrace roles within the following movies: “Szansa” by Feliks Falk (1979), “Pociąg do Hollywood” by Radosław Piwowarski (1987), “Obywatel Piszczyk” by Andrzej Kotkowski (1988), “Persona non grata” by Krzysztof Zanussi (2005) and “Kajman” by Italian director Nanni Moretti (2006).
In 2011, Jerzy Stuhr may very well be seen once more in a movie by Moretti – within the comedy-drama “Habemus papam – mamy papieża”. The movie, which competed for the Palme d’Or on the Cannes pageant, is a narrative a couple of pope affected by melancholy and loneliness. Stuhr performed the function of the pope’s spokesman, whereas the top of the Church himself was performed by Michel Piccoli. A yr earlier, Jacek Koprowicz’s movie “Mistyfikacja” premiered, wherein Stuhr performed the function of the excellent playwright and painter Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz.
Stuhr started his profession as a movie director in 1994 with “Spisem cudzołożnic”, based mostly on the novel by Jerzy Pilch. “I used to be by no means given the possibility to play the mental I felt like. I wished to inform (…) a couple of hero of my technology, to convey the whole lot that I had caught in Kieślowski’s movies within the seventies. (…) It so miraculously occurred that Witold Adamek recommended Jerzy Pilch’s novel to me,” Stuhr defined on the time in an interview for “Życie Warszawy”.
Stuhr’s directing credit additionally embrace movies based mostly on his personal scripts: Love Tales (1997), which received the celebrated FIPRESCI Critics’ Award on the Venice Movie Pageant; A Week within the Lifetime of a Man (1999), nominated for the Golden Lion in Venice; Tomorrow’s Climate (2003) and The Procession (2007); and The Large Animal (2000), which received the Particular Jury Prize on the Karlovy Range Movie Pageant, directed by Stuhr based mostly on a script by Kieślowski.
As a theatre artist, for a few years – since 1972 – he was related to the Modrzejewska Previous Theatre in Kraków. On its phases he performed in performs directed by, amongst others, Andrzej Wajda, Konrad Swinarski, Jerzy Jarocki, Jerzy Grzegorzewski. On this stage he directed performs independently. Stuhr’s achievements additionally embrace a few years of cooperation with Italian theatres, which started within the eighties.
In 2018, the artist was honored with the Polish Movie Award Eagles for lifetime achievement. Director Janusz Majewski, talking on the time about Stuhr’s performing, emphasised that there’s all the time fact in it. “Every character he performs will get a dose of authenticity, some sincerity. Though every of his roles is completely different, that every has completely different necessities, Stuhr stays himself in all of his creations, you’ll be able to all the time see him someplace beneath, underneath the textual content of the function, underneath the offered occasions, all the time someplace beneath all of this Stuhr will be acknowledged,” he assessed.
Jerzy Stuhr labored as a instructor for a few years. In 1994 he obtained the title of professor within the discipline of theatre arts. Within the years 1990-1996 and 2002-2008 he was the rector of the State Increased College of Theatre in Kraków. Since 1998 he has additionally been a member of the European Movie Academy.
In 2020, the actor suffered a stroke. Earlier, in 2011, he was identified with laryngeal most cancers. Observing the world from his hospital mattress, he started writing a diary, which was later revealed underneath the title “That is How I Suppose”. “I’m more and more daring in saying that I’m ending my career. That it’s tiring me, that the kind of performing I’ve all the time practiced requires huge psychophysical health, which I’m more and more missing, and that I can not follow it in any other case. (…) Typically, I feel that theater is for younger folks. By some means they’re believed extra after they attempt to current us with a fictional world, this phantasm of actuality,” he wrote.
Stuhr additionally talked about in his diary the roles that gave him probably the most by way of his performing improvement. Paradoxically, these weren’t roles that had been well-known and praised by critics. Extra essential had been tough roles, ones that the actor needed to wrestle with, like his “Hamlet”. “I’ve all the time believed that since I’m gifted with sure skills that others aren’t given, it’s my responsibility to serve folks in each kind and kind, from carefree laughter to emotion and terror. That’s my complete mission! And performing is nothing greater than the flexibility to recollect sure nervous states and recreate them on command,” he added in one other place.
In February this yr, the artist returned to the stage. On the Polonia Theatre in Warsaw, he directed the play “Genius” based mostly on the play by Tadeusz Słobodzianek, wherein he performed the Russian director and instructor – thought-about the daddy of contemporary theatre – Konstantin Stanislavski. Requested by PAP why he undertook to stage this drama, Stuhr replied: “as a result of it’s a drama about Stanislavski, i.e. my life”. “I deal with this efficiency as a small tribute to my whole skilled life”, he emphasised.
He died on the age of 77. (PAP)
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