in t e r view with doro ta wa r d szkiewicz e
“IN MONTAGE, ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE: I take a long time to look over the material. I edit
much more quickly. I don’t generally read screenplays. I don’t stick to any initial montage ideas. I edit what I see, not what I know.… I believe in first impressions, in spontaneous reactions. I know how important this is in later stages of film work. I try to follow my trail of thought, which evolves as I edit … at times, for weeks. It is very hard to convey what the creative editing process is like. Hard to reveal the choices, which rather than being logical are sometimes intuitive, or to explain the role chance plays in it…. Oftentimes it’s about mak- ing the unconscious things visible…. The process of montage reminds me how sculptor Louise Bourgeois once described her work: ‘I do upholsteries.’ It’s some- thing between technology and creativity, splicing frames and invention. You edit a frame, and you ask yourself, what comes next? Same thing with a scene, or the entire film. In documentaries, what’s most interest- ing is the evolution of a theme. A sense emerges step by step through successive transformations, which doesn’t mean helplessness, but rather curiosity, to see to what extent the material can be transformed. That’s why my way of working is akin to creating musical vari- ations. For me, the essence of editing documentaries lies in reinterpretation.” —DOROTA WARDĘSZKIEWICZ, editor of Wanda
Gościmińska, a Weaver ELA BITTENCOURT: How did you end up collaborating
with Wojciech Wiszniewski on his film Wanda Gościmińska, a Weaver?
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DOROTA WARDĘSZKIEWICZ: I recall that our first meeting was casual yet odd. One day I saw him stand- ing in the door to the editing room. He crawled in on all fours dressed in a giant white sheepskin coat that many filmmakers wore in those days. He held out a box of film as he looked at me pleadingly. I learned later that this was one of his usual numbers. Wojciech was famous for practical jokes. He had a great sense of humor and wasn’t afraid of being absurd. Of course, I was taken with his unusual invitation to collaborate. I have always been drawn to filmmakers whose curi-
osity, talent, and persistence are above average, but what distinguished Wojciech were his intense creativ- ity and independent, uncompromising spirit. Working with him was unpredictable. His taking responsibility for every stage of the process meant that he often doubled and tripled himself. If something went wrong on the set, he replaced the film with his own money and shot all over again. In the editing room, he obsessed over how concepts were visualized. Every detail mattered; the composition of each shot or the pitch of someone’s voice was as crucial as the words, or as the rhythm with which the camera depicted space and directed the viewer’s gaze. Wojciech sometimes used his own voice, as he did in Wanda Gościmińska, a Weaver, in the dinner scene and then again during the long run with a flag, where you hear his heavy breathing. He had incredible concentra- tion and stressed the importance of the creative process.
EB: As an editor, what drew you to Wiszniewski’s work? DW: I was fascinated by his personality first and
foremost. When you watch many films, all based on
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