Quotes

[on filmmakers who influenced her work] I think I was influenced by the Czech New Wave the most, especially Evald Schorm and Jan Nemec, Ivan Passer, and my professors were Karel Kachyna and Otakar Vávra. Schorm has also influenced me as a person. Their films still inspire me today. My cinema has always oscillated between Polish pathos and Czech civilness.

[on filmmaking in communism] Money was not so important then. It was a communist economy, so the money was not real, and we could take a long time in shooting a film, and we could build big sets. However, film stock had to be exported from the West, and we had to shoot a one-to-four ratio, which is nothing. It's a good lesson, however, because it teaches you how to edit the film in your head.[2015]

In 1976 Andrzej Wajda was the most talented director working in Poland, and he became head of a creative group that he called "X." After 1970, there was a liberalization, so he had a large degree of freedom of development, but (the shorts) still had to pass through official censorship and communist party censorship. Most of Wajda's contemporaries saw this as his project, and perhaps because of creative jealousy, they didn't want to be part of it. So except for one director, all of the others, including me, were recent film school graduates. (...) He was brave. He had a lot of problems, because none of my scripts could get passed by the censors. It was a good move to put my film among nine others. It made it more difficult to target me. Wajda was so committed to my well-being that he literally offered to adopt me, if needed.[2015]

I went to school in Prague because there was no chance for me to be accepted at Lodz [film school}. My father was a well-known Party member and journalist who had been arrested on false accusations, and committed suicide by jumping out of a window while in custody. His death was an important event. Also, at FAMU, I was politically engaged, and I was also arrested and sentenced. Then, around 1970, the situation improved in Poland and it became unbearable for me in Czechoslovakia.{2015}

[on Krzysztof Kieslowski] In 1974, we became close friends and began to creatively collaborate. He also tried several times to help me by petitioning for me to be accepted into Lodz, but it was too difficult. (...) He was already a person of great authority. Everyone looked up to him. But he was much more fun then. Success did not free him. He seemed to suffer under the weight of responsibility. We all knew that he was special, with a special eye and gift for directing.[2015]

[on casting Miroslav Krobot in Tableau de chasse (2017)] He's one of my favorite actors, not just Czech or Polish, but overall. Mirek's got a unique personality that I find not only appealing but different. It's so authentic, like he isn't even an actor at all. He also put in a tremendous amount of work to learn the dialogues in Polish, which really are not easy. Most people think it just comes to him naturally