A novelty in Polish filmmaking was that it was possible to find funds for a big production. However, at the same time, the state budget committed less and less money to filmmaking.
Andrzej Wajda
2
Also a great part of Polish industry proved to have existed only to support the Soviet military industry, and it became superfluous and incapable of being transformed into anything else. We did not foresee that or the magnitude of these phenomena.
Andrzej Wajda
3
As I said earlier, there are no writers who could create a literary vision of the new reality.
Andrzej Wajda
4
At the same time, television theatre became more visibly active.
Andrzej Wajda
5
By dint of that concern and because that society was willing to examine its particular reality, Solidarity could come into existence.
Andrzej Wajda
6
Cinemas gained new young audiences who wanted films made for them.
Andrzej Wajda
7
Even better, there were established two separate committees deciding on state film funding.
Andrzej Wajda
8
Eventually, the state's funding covered only the stages leading to presenting a film project to potential funding bodies. It was enough to produce a script, indicate casting and put together a budget to present it all, but nothing beyond that.
Andrzej Wajda
9
Films made in the spirit of the past continued to be made.
Andrzej Wajda
10
However, that old mode of Polish filmmaking virtually disappeared.
Andrzej Wajda
11
I think that adult Polish audiences, while observing what was happening in Poland, started to give in to a particular kind of anxiety.
Andrzej Wajda
12
In Europe, there is no television filmmaking legislation that could assist film production because private broadcasters are not interested in supporting Polish film.
Andrzej Wajda
13
In the first years after 1989, films were partly financed from the state's budget as well as by public television. Still, except for a few special cases, most films are made this way.
Andrzej Wajda
14
In the first years after the systemic transition, our screens showed American entertainment that had not been available before, or had been available only sporadically.
Andrzej Wajda
15
In the same period, Polish literature also underwent some significant changes. From social-political literature, which had a great tradition and strong motivation to be that way, Polish literature changed its focus to a psychological rather than a social one.
Andrzej Wajda
16
It turned out that the country was helpless in the face of a new reality.
Andrzej Wajda
17
It was progressively more difficult to find work in the theatre, as well.
Andrzej Wajda
18
Nevertheless, in the theatre, and in the cinema, the contemporary reality of Poland has been represented only to a minuscule degree in the last 12 years.
Andrzej Wajda
19
One might have thought that the most significant change in the film industry that would come about with a transition from the communist economy to capitalism would fundamentally concern the sources of funding.
Andrzej Wajda
20
Previously the same Polish audiences would have been pressured into seeing cinema made for adults, films made by us about those spheres of life that were significant for us and which should be significant for our society.
Andrzej Wajda
21
The difficulty with the present state of affairs is that there is no legislation on the sources of funding for the Polish film industry. There is no legislation concerning filmmaking. And, there is no legislation on television that would be beneficial to filmmaking.
Andrzej Wajda
22
There is no filmmaking legislation because distributors are not interested in sharing their money with the film industry - for instance, by giving a percentage of ticket sales back to filmmakers.
Andrzej Wajda
23
We expected that people were just waiting for the collapse of the Soviet Union, or at least for its retreat, and they were going to be full of initiative in all areas of life - in culture, in economy and in politics.
Andrzej Wajda
24
When a film is created, it is created in a language, which is not only about words, but also the way that very language encodes our perception of the world, our understanding of it.
Andrzej Wajda
25
Why does there exist a global American entertainment industry, but there isn't an equivalent coming from France or Italy? This is the case simply because the English language opens the whole world to the American cinema.
Andrzej Wajda
26
Young directors had no choice but to throw themselves into writing scripts. That did not have a positive effect on the quality of Polish cinema.
Andrzej Wajda
