Kamiñski has a chance for a third Oscar. The directors answer what his secret is

It was said that the beginning of Janusz Kamiński’s great Hollywood career was “Schindler’s List”. It was for the black and white cinematography of this film, which was made in Poland, that the operator received his first Oscar. However, Kaminski would not have gotten involved in a Steven Spielberg film had it not been for a coincidence. And if he hadn’t shot for Diane Keaton in 1991’s “Wild Flower”. Luckily, one night Spielberg was lazily watching TV and jumping between channels. Until he came across the one where the Keaton-directed movie was being played. His attention was drawn to how the cameraman worked with the camera. He was so intrigued that he decided to meet the cinematographer. And the rest, as they often say, is history.

Spielberg on Kamiński: A true master in his profession

“I remember that we met completely by accident. I was sitting at night in front of the TV – I must admit that this is my favorite form of rest – and it was just Wild Flower, a drama directed by Diane Keaton. Janusz was taking pictures for this film. , I immediately thought that this is a man for me! And so it started – our cooperation resulted from the fact that I used to watch TV lazily. As you can see, in my work you can combine business with pleasure “- he said with a laugh during one of the In another conversation, however, he added that he wanted to check Kaminski first, because he was not sure if the operator really had an exceptional talent or was just lucky:

So I asked my people to give him an episode of a TV series that my studio was making to shoot. When I saw the effects, I already knew that this is the man I need. I made him an offer: let’s make a ‘Schindler’s List’ together. Just.

The director was also supposed to warn the operator that he wanted to shoot a documentary-style black-and-white film. When Kamiński heard this, he was to reply: “It’s very good, because the first films I shot in Poland were also black and white.” Well, how did the operator from Poland come to the USA?

From Polish soil to also a little Polish

Kamiński was born on June 27, 1959 in Ziębice. He left Poland for good only at the age of 21 and he did not immediately assume that he would never come back from holidays in Greece. However, when he was resting there, he heard about solidarity strikes in Poland. He then decided to stay abroad: he went to Vienna and obtained political asylum. After a few months, however, he moved to the USA and settled in Chicago – a city known for the fact that there is a large Polish community there. He worked in various factories there, and the money he earned was used to study at the Film and Fine Arts Department of Columbia College. When he studied, he also worked as a lighting technician, which undoubtedly helped him in his further career. Spielberg in an interview with Czaderska-Hayek emphasized:

When I met him, I realized that there was a real artist in front of me. (…) I am talking about Janusz that he is an outstanding painter who paints with light. He always finds a way to emphasize the mood of a given story with lighting, and he can surprise me every time. (…) With appropriate lighting, one day she creates pictures like Chagall, at other times – like Goya or Monet. I thought, “I have to keep this guy with me.” And so it has remained so far.

During his studies, he also shot over 40 different student etudes. After earning a bachelor’s degree in Chicago, he moved to Los Angeles, where in 1987 he managed to get a one-year course at the prestigious American Film Institute (AFI). He started working in the film industry as an assistant cinematographer on a B-horror set – but he did it under the supervision of producer Roger Corman, who is considered a specialist in the genre. And so he started with the 1990 film “Grim Prairie Tales”, and before he hit the set of Diane Keaton’s film, he also made “The Terror Within II” and “The Rain Killer”. Before “Schindler’s List” he also had to shoot such pictures as “Killer Instinct”, “Love in the rhythm of rap” or “The Adventures of Huck Finn”. And then his many years of collaboration with Steven Spielberg began.

Relationships more durable than marriages

In fact, Steven Spielberg and Janusz Kamiński have been working together since 1993. In 2014, the operator joked in:

The “relationship” with Spielberg has been going on for 20 years and it turned out to be more durable than my two marriages.

However, it is definitely not a professional marriage of convenience. On the air, Kamiński explained that with Spielberg he would be ready to even film a telephone book, because it is so good to work with him:

Whatever he does – if he makes a movie about the phone book – I’ll do with him too. There is always something new, always a different storytelling style. There is such an amazing energy in this man that even if the team felt a bit tired sometimes, we were all infected with his energy.

Spielberg himself believes that their cooperation is so fruitful, among others thanks to the fact that both complement each other, if only in terms of characters. that during the shooting of the second part of “Jurassic Park”, he understood that this great specialist is also a great friend – “I found out that we are on the same wavelength. And we complement each other very well. Janusz is funny, I am not. Sometimes his humor is I really need him. We have been close friends ever since. “

“Janusz is a real Hollywood man”

For 29 years, Janusz Kamiński and Steven Spielberg have made about 20 films together: “Schindler’s List”, “Lost World: Jurassic Park”, “Amistad”, “Saving Private Ryan”, “AI Artificial Intelligence”, “Catch Me If You Can” , “Minority Report”, “Terminal”, “Munich”, “War of the Worlds”, “Indian Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”, “War Time”, “Lincoln”, “Bridge of Spies”, “BFG: A Very Cool Giant”, “Fourth Power”, “Player One”, “The Kidnapping of Edgaro Mortata” and “West Side Story”. In various conversations, the director pours out compliments: “He’s a great artist, a real master in his profession”, “Of all the cinematographers I’ve worked with, Janusz is certainly the best.” “I had the pleasure to work with many masters in this trade, such as Vilmos Zsigmond, Allen Daviau or Mikael Salomon, but I have not made friends that much with anyone other than Janusz.”

But it’s not that only Spielberg appreciates the work with Janusz Kamiński. During the interview, the director, who engaged him to “Funny People”, Yola Czaderska-Hayek, said that it was difficult to break his favorite cinematographer from the clutches of the legendary director, but he managed to shoot the filmmaker’s open window: “We knew that Janusz had just free time , maybe because Spielberg wasn’t making a movie at the time. (laughs) I don’t think he’ll ever be able to tell Spielberg, “You know Steven, now I don’t have time for you because I work with Judd.” (laughs) the fact that there is a unique opportunity, he emphasized. Appatow was also delighted with how open to his idea Janusz Kamiński was:

I told him the whole story, though I didn’t even have a script at the time. He agreed – and then the work could move forward. Janusz is a real Hollywood man. A great artist, with an amazing sense of humor. He captured the mood of the story flawlessly. He found a way to convey more with the help of an image than I could with the help of words. Working with him is a dream for a filmmaker.

Julian Schnabel, the director of the critically acclaimed “Butterfly and the Suit”, had a similar opinion – a film shot from the perspective of a paralyzed man. In an interview for “Rzeczpospolita”, the French filmmaker emphasized that his project and bold assumption scared away many professionals:

I was looking for an operator who would not be afraid to experiment. Several people turned me down. Kaminski only asked: ‘When do we start?’. He is an extremely brave operator.

In an interview with Michał Burszt himself, Kaminski emphasized that he wanted to make “a cinema that guarantees the viewer”, aroku explained that “the operator must understand the script and translate words into images”. And this, as it turns out, is often very difficult: “Many of us often cannot give up the desire to create nice frames. This is a mistake. Cinema is like life. Not always beautiful. Therefore, in order to recreate reality in the studio, you need to have real eyelids under your eyelids. images of the world “.

Maybe that’s why Kamiński liked the idea of ​​making a new “West Side Story” so much. On the air of RMF FM he emphasized: “We had to remind people that the division of society that we are now experiencing is a recurring part of human history. (…) We need to remind people to be tolerant of each other, not to let primitive instincts win and lead to violence – he adds. It is good to make such a film to remind people how easy it is to come back to being an animal “- he emphasized in an interview with Katarzyna Sobiechowska-Szuchta. And we can hope that this passion has also been appreciated by the members of the American Film Academy and will make Janusz Kamiński the first Polish filmmaker with three Oscars.