Stanislaw Barriga. Who was the creator of “Teddy” and the comedy Moral Concern?

Kazimierz Kutz used the term “bareizm” during a discussion at the Polish Society of Filmmakers in the 1970s, and for him it was synonymous with the concept of kitsch and stupidity. He attacked his college friend in his absence, leaving him unable to defend himself, and contributing to the view that he is a shoddy comic director. Then it was repeated several times during the sets of his films. This movie “What Will You Do To Me When You Catch Me” was mentioned by Stanislaw Tim as “The Mood Before Execution”. The then Minister of Culture, Janusz Wilhelmy, refused to distribute the film. The limited distribution was made only after the manager approved the cuts.

the actor Krzysztof Kowalewski: “There was a package that caught him at every examination. But there was also personal jealousy: they pointed out his mistakes or his embarrassment with relief. Only Andrei and his grandmother said at a meeting: I am not surprised that everyone wants to catch him, because if his films have achieved such success, And your movies are not…”. But in Staszek there was no fierce desire or willingness to match again.

There were crowds flocking to all the Barriga films he was so proud of. He would say, “If my movie was watched by a million people, there would be two million happy hours. This is more than one man’s life.” However, he had the right to feel like a full-time boy: “I think the viewer will not go to a bad movie. It is said, for example, that anyone can be persuaded to come to a comedy. They don’t conquer … “.

When asked about the Masters, Renee Claire and Jack Tate remarked, “Comedy should contain ten times more ideas than drama.” He drew it from life – from the newspaper, from what he saw on the street or heard from friends. He regularly went on bike notes in Warsaw. He listened and then wrote down the dialogues he heard.

He made his debut with the traditional comedy ‘Husband-in-law’ (1960) in reference to pre-war cinema. 3 million viewers went to play both male and female roles. Then there was The Marriage of Reason, the somewhat failed “Wife for Australians”, the failed musical “Adventure with a Song”, the detective story “Touch the Night”, and the air crime series “Captain Sawa on the Road”. Written by Janina Ipohorska. He bravely tried qualitative cinema, but of his early works he said: “My first films were sweet comedies, and at last they began to make me ill and I decided to add a little bitterness.” He got into the path of satire, creating, as he put it, “a comedy of moral concern.”

The first was Wanted Wanted, inspired by the true story of a missing painting told to him by his wife Hana Kotkovska Barriga, curator of contemporary sculpture at the National Museum. The story of a man who works as a housewife in a female outfit became an opportunity to show the truth of that time in a distorting mirror. Choosing the role of assistant professor in art history for Stanisław Maria Ruchowicz, or Marcia, was a remarkable performance in itself. Jacek Fedorovic, Janusz Gagos, and Jacek Pokora wore dresses, wigs and high heels. The first of the three pulled out when it turned out he had a short beard right after shaving. The youngest of them, Janusz Gagos, was too athletic to pass on a woman. For this film, Barriga received the only distinction during his life – an award at the Queens Council Festival of Arts in New York.

Stas was a man with an active social life and made the film as often as he saw it necessary. Usually, in the morning, his work day begins with shopping for food. Later, the shooting continued until dinner, which he cooked himself at home. Example: Bareja’s team makes a movie on the rooftops. Suddenly, the director comes to the chimney, smells the smoke rising from it, and says: Grochóweczka! End of Shooting … ”, recalls Andrzej Wajda.

During his studies in Lodz, he discovered a talent for cooking. His specialties were Jewish-style red beet and liver soup with onions, boiled eggs, and French cod. He prepared roulades and roulades – roast beef stuffed with bacon. But he could also compose vegetarian dishes at the request of his beloved wife, whom he named Małżowinka. As his daughter Catarzina Barga recalls: “He drank while eating, claiming it tasted better at the time. He also had a territorial attitude toward his own rations. No kidding like ‘Try me’.”

Zbigniew Bojak, the solidarity activist who hid from SB for the longest time, wears a wig and mustache from the Bareja series “Zmiennicy”

At the beginning of the 1960s, the Barejs family moved from a room several meters high in Wilcza (with a shared bathroom and no hot water) to a new house listed at the ZAIKS Osiedle Artystów Cooperative on Fitelberga 31, in what was then a village rather than the Warsaw district. The first piece of furniture – the table, was designed and built by the director himself. Here, finally, his friends and colleagues can visit him freely. Beloved books, which he had been absorbing since his early youth, also found their place.

The script of the film was written with a giant straw teddy bear and the leading head of the Tęcza sports club in the Stanisław Tym summer house in the Suwałki region in the summer of 1979. It contains 311 pages. Lots of notes for both authors in the dialogues. They wrote 748 rounds per meter of film. The planned total length is 2880 meters. The final version, after the intervention of censors, is 3,183 meters long, which is equivalent to 111 minutes of film. The script was approved by Perspektywa Film Group thanks to the enthusiastic opinion of Janusz Morgenstern. Later that same year, the first slap on the set of the movie “Miś”, a film considered the best in Barja’s career. This time, the comments during the review (including those of Krzysztof Kieślowski) turned out to be favorable. And Barga did not hide his surprise: “Since the examination was conducted in a way I am not accustomed to, I was not ready for such a reception, so I do not know what to say.”

When the filming of the television series “Alternatyw 4” began two years later, which shows the life of the inhabitants of the block that was supposed to be a microcosm of the Polish People’s Republic, martial law began. Most members of the acting community boycotted appearing on television. Burga was a wholehearted supporter of the boycott, but he didn’t want to stop shooting. By agreement with Solidarity, he decided to continue filming. But then, he found himself in the hospital in Anin, after suffering a heart attack. When he was discharged from the hospital, he was advised to avoid stress, but as early as February 1982, he stood behind the camera. The work was not going smoothly. Although the actors and crew members have special permits that allow them to travel during the curfew, operator Wojciech Jastrzębowski was interviewed by the Ministry of the Interior (due to his brother’s opposition activities). The director defended him and threatened a ceasefire. It worked.

He was critical of the system in which he had to live. Despite his persuasion, he never joined the party. He felt alienated from any kind of organization. His friends had to persuade him to join the Association of Polish Filmmakers for a long time. He described party members as “liars”. Perhaps because he did not swear at all, and when he wanted to express himself negatively about someone, he called him a “ram”. In this case, his involvement in underground activities does not seem strange, but few people knew about his activity, which began thanks to Stanisław Tim.

When in 1977 they went to Paris to shoot What Would You Do to Me, If You Caught Me, he visited Maison-Laffitte to meet Jerzy Gidruik and Zygmont Hertz. He left Kultura with books banned in Poland. Together with Bareja, they filled a metal container for film materials. “Sensitive material” labels protect them from customs control. When Teddy’s team was later flying back from London, there were also illegal flyers hidden under boxes with film tape and props in the luggage hold.

In 1978, Miroslav Shujiki, a member of the Workers’ Defense Committee and organizer of the underground publishing house NOWa, was looking for a place for a printing press. He received the address Fitelberg 31 from someone he trusted, and only realized it was the home of Stanislaw Pariga there. It was not a printing house, but a conspiratorial matrix workshop.

It was the director who also supplied the publishing house with a new offset copier. After leaving Hungary, he returned with his family via Vienna. The 50-kilogram package collected there after it unfolded was packed onto the roof of the child. The director’s wife was responsible. When the customs officer asked what they were carrying, they began to mention peppers and eggplants… He let them pass. And when in the summer of 1982 meetings of the secret structure of Solidarity were held in the house of Vittelberg, Pareja helped Zbigniew Bojak, who was wanted under an arrest warrant, to change his appearance. The wig and mustache were props from the “Zmiennicy” series, and Bujak became the longest-running hiding activist in the guild.

It often featured actors who previously played Kieślowski, Zanussi or Wajda. He wanted to show the same people playing in comedy that critics ignore, and admired in films considered ambitious. He loved and understood actors, played small episodes himself early in his career, and then, like Hitchcock, appeared in each of his films.

But he didn’t polish every shot. Janusz Morgenstern: “It could have been made more carefully, but it would gain nothing. It enhanced the very rough and uncomplicated form as well as the sheer amount of humor it contained. It was simple, but not cliched.” Jacek Fedorowicz: “Staszek was able to watch the film through the eyes of the viewer. Such an exchange of opinions: Staszek, she was in a white blouse, now she is in a red blouse, she will not be released! If the viewer notices such things, it is useless. He was filming This movie! Then he scored hardships in famous American films.” Wiesław Gołas: “I found room to show off, he allowed my suggestions, and I had a lot of proposals to enrich the roles. He gave me a complete break and always said: Wiesiu, do whatever you want. Sometimes, when we were filming, Stay sat and looked and scratched his face grimacing and asked him” How was it? Which is: very good, very good.”

Krzysztof Kowalewski: “He had excellent cinematic hearing and eyesight. He could sense any hesitation in his voice, a change in mood or well-being. Even if the actors were sometimes in vain, they could appreciate this confidence. He worked quickly. Once, the production director comes and says You need a meadow for tomorrow’s pictures., You have to go and look. Parija: Meadow? No, you don’t have to. I have a garden in front of the house, I will do there And when the actor asked: May we repeat it?

In 1987, he submitted the script for another film with the Tor Film Group directed by Krzysztof Zanuss. But months passed and he got no answer. In early June, he went on a scholarship from the Folkwang Museum in Essen to work on film documentation. There he had a stroke. He died three days later at the age of 57. Little did he know that Toru’s filmmakers were against his new movie.

The decision to broadcast “Alternatives” was made after the director’s death and became another occasion to attack him. Several scenes were removed from the series that, according to TVP authorities, could be related to a tragic flight and insult to the families of the victims of the plane crash in the Kabaki Forest. After the broadcast, an excerpt was shown with the comment that the director, who had been dead for six months, had a dubious sense of humor, feeding off the tragedy. Although “Zmiennicy” was created two years before the accident. In defense of her husband’s good name, Hanna Kotkovska-Barga spoke in an open letter: “Stanislaw Barga will not make any films and cannot defend himself, therefore I consider it unacceptable that the arrogance of the television authorities condemn him with harmful insinuations even after his death.”

The data comes from the books: Katarzyna Bareja “Frogs in Cream, or Stanisław Bareja and Their Relatives”, Maciej Replewicz “Stanisław Bareja. King of the Crooked Mirror”.