Krystyna Janda
According to the readers of the Polityka weekly, Krystyna Janda is one of Poland’s greatest actresses of the 20th century. The truth is she’s probably the greatest - the greatest of all time, as one fellow entertainment heavyweight would most likely put it.
As you might have already read in the Biała Bluzka event description, Janda is indeed a phenomenon. A dazzling actress, proven director, established book author and columnist. She has over 80 feature films to her name, including Andrzej Wajda’s Man of Marble (1976) and Ryszard Bugajski’s Interrogation (1982). The latter - easily one of the greatest female screen performances in the history of Polish cinema - won her Best Actress award at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival. She also played in István Szabó’s Oscar winning Mephisto (1981).
Krystyna Janda has been directing for theatre and television for the past 10 years and her feature film Pestka (1995) won the Best Directing Debut award at the Polish Film Festival in Gdynia that year. She has been a theatre actress for 30 years now, the first 11 years spent at Ateneum, followed by 16 years at Powszechny, both highly valued addresses on Warsaw’s cultural stage. In 2005 she opened her own Teatr Polonia, a company under Krystyna Janda’s Foundation for Culture. In 2006 she received the Médaille Charlemagne, the prestigious European media award. Then in 2007 came the Golden Duck for the Best Film Actress of the past 50 years of Polish filmmaking. In 2009 she got two Golden Ducks, including one for Best History and Costume Film Actress on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Polish cinema.
Her second theatre in Warsaw, Och-Teatr, opened in January 2010. It is an open secret that there were many top young Polish actresses in attendance at the premiere of Biała Bluzka at Och-Teatr in June 2010. They must have come to see what form the best Polish actress was in. It turned out she’s in good form. In other words, she is still pretty much out of everyone else’s league.
Krystyna Janda has been directing for theatre and television for the past 10 years and her feature film Pestka (1995) won the Best Directing Debut award at the Polish Film Festival in Gdynia that year. She has been a theatre actress for 30 years now, the first 11 years spent at Ateneum, followed by 16 years at Powszechny, both highly valued addresses on Warsaw’s cultural stage. In 2005 she opened her own Teatr Polonia, a company under Krystyna Janda’s Foundation for Culture. In 2006 she received the Médaille Charlemagne, the prestigious European media award. Then in 2007 came the Golden Duck for the Best Film Actress of the past 50 years of Polish filmmaking. In 2009 she got two Golden Ducks, including one for Best History and Costume Film Actress on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Polish cinema.
Her second theatre in Warsaw, Och-Teatr, opened in January 2010. It is an open secret that there were many top young Polish actresses in attendance at the premiere of Biała Bluzka at Och-Teatr in June 2010. They must have come to see what form the best Polish actress was in. It turned out she’s in good form. In other words, she is still pretty much out of everyone else’s league.
krystynajanda.pl
Photo: Lidia Popiel
Photo: Lidia Popiel