Biography
Stanislaw Lenartowicz was a Polish film director and screenwriter, born on February 7, 1921, in Dzianowo in the Vilnius region. During World War II, he served as a soldier in the Home Army and was later imprisoned in the Kaluga camp in Russia. After being repatriated in 1946, he settled in Wrocław. He graduated from the Faculty of Philology at the University of Wrocław and from the Directing Department of the Łódź Film School in 1953, where Antoni Bohdziewicz was his mentor.
Lenartowicz began his directing career at the Educational Film Studio in Łódź, collaborating there from 1952 to 1955. During this time, he created Miniatury Kodeksu Behema (The Behem Code Miniatures) in 1953, which won the Special Award at the Oberhausen festival five years later. He also adapted Stanisław Dygat’s novel for the film Trzy starty (Three Takeoffs) in 1955.
His feature debut, Zimowy zmierzch (Winter Dusk) in 1956, provoked intense debates among Polish film critics. Amid the prevailing socialist realist style, the film stood out due to its innovative narrative and rich visual symbolism. His later works, Pigułki dla Aurelii (Pills for Aurelia, 1958) and Giuseppe w Warszawie (Giuseppe in Warsaw, 1964), explored wartime themes without glorification. Lenartowicz also portrayed the overlooked life of Polish provinces with attention to detail and mentality in Czerwone i złote (Red and Gold, 1969), based on Stanisław Grochowiak’s writings, which earned an award at the Valladolid festival. He tackled maritime themes in Cała naprzód (Full Steam Ahead, 1966) and Martwa fala (Still Wave, 1970), and adapted Tadeusz Dołęga-Mostowicz’s prose in Pamiętnik pani Hanki (The Diary of Mrs. Hanka, 1963). On set, he frequently collaborated with actor Zbigniew Cybulski.
Lenartowicz’s fascination with Russian culture is evident in the television series he directed, which were adaptations of classic Russian novels produced for Canadian television in the late 1960s. These include Brawler (based on Turgenev), Phantom (Tolstoy), and Postmaster (Pushkin), all completed in 1967. In 1979, he directed Strachy (Spooks), a series based on Maria Ukniewska’s prose about the lives of Warsaw actors. He retired from filmmaking following the imposition of martial law in Poland.
In 1959, Lenartowicz was honored with the Award of the City of Wrocław, followed by the Gold Cross of Merit in 1960. Later in life, he received the Gold Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis. He passed away on October 28, 2010, in Wrocław.
By Beata Pieńkowska
From the Polish Film Academy - History of Polish Cinema
http://akademiapolskiegofilmu.pl/en/historia-polskiego-filmu/directors/stanislaw-lenartowicz/65
