There is, in this response to my questions, an intense feeling of disillusionment. The wonderful heritage of Polish cinema seems to have been obliterated by the changes that have resulted from the break up of the Soviet hegemony since the fall of the Berlin Wall. On my last visit to Lodz, where Milenia was born, the largest cinema with five screens had four Hollywood films and one Turkish – not one Polish. However we should not forget the incredible amount of visionary work that has come out of Poland, especially since the Second World War. It is unacceptable to imagine that a renaissance will never happen in this country for which cinema seems such a natural medium. For there is cause for optimism in the work of the current film-makers in Poland. In her relatively short career, Milenia has worked several times with Wojciech Marczewski and Witold Adamek two of the brightest directing talents currently working in her country.
Milenia Fiedler (Courtesy of Milenia Fiedler)
I was born in Lodz, Poland and both my parents were teachers. Literature has always been my love. I used to read everything as a child, then I started to choose more carefully, but I still get satisfaction reading Stephen King or Borges1 (different kind of satisfaction, but satisfaction). Theatre has never been a space which I could sink into – I usually watch a theatre performance as a kind of ritual that belongs to a strange religion – I can be impressed but not involved. However four or five times in my life I watched performances that were just pure magic (once it was ballet, the other times puppet or mime performances). Music is what I love although I don’t understand it (and I don’t want to understand it).
I started to go to movies when I was ten or eleven. The reason was that my brother damaged the TV set at home. I used to go to the cinema even three times a day. In those days (the 1980s) there were over forty cinemas in Lodz with an interesting repertoire – film was considered an Art in Communist countries, so I learned film from Bergman, Losey, Kurosawa, Tarkovsky, etc.
At the age of eighteen, I wanted to be a film director – so I went to the Lodz Film School and passed the exams but not well enough to be accepted for the course of directing. But they proposed me for a scholarship to FAMU.2 I knew nothing about what film-making really was in those days. After a few months in Prague I learnt that I would never want to be a director, and I fell in love with editing.
I learnt at school – from my teachers, especially Professor Valusiak3 who never told us how to edit but taught me how to read the hidden universes from the pieces of film in the editing room. Maybe I can’t express myself clearly enough – watching the rushes is like standing in front of the entrances to many possible worlds – you must compose them, but they are not your creation, because they were always there. It’s like following the rabbit in the woods, when neither the rabbit nor the woods exist unless you pursue them. That’s why editing is the greatest adventure I know.
Some examples of the work I have done, which show the value of editing, are ‘The Gateway to Europe’ by Jerzy Wojcik, ‘Weiser’ by Wojciech Marczewski and ‘Monday’ by Witold Adamek.4 Only the last one is a good film. The first two films are just a promise of something interesting and original but they contain great scenes created during editing. I love director’s mistakes – they encourage me in my work.
‘Hollywood’ film-makers deal with the audience, European filmmakers deal with reality. In the first case the goal is to tell a story – people have always loved to hear stories because story is a structure that helps us to understand reality, it gives sense to a stream of events experienced by a human being. When you present a film you always say, ‘Hey, look, life is like this’. And you can give an explanation to the phenomena of life recovering the chain of reasons and results, recognising a man by his actions – simply, telling the story. But that doesn’t explain everything. So instead you can focus on what’s beyond the story. And that is what non-Hollywood film-makers do. It makes editing much more difficult. There are no ready solutions, there are no schemes and there is nothing except your own mind to direct you.
I love digital technology. I think it gives an editor freedom to experiment, to test any possibility that comes to his or her mind. Film in the process of creation is virtual so the digital environment is natural for it.
I guess I have no routine that is necessary for me – I can work in any place and under any circumstances. People are what are essential for me – people that I can discuss with – the more the better.
Empathy, curiosity and a vivid imagination – these are the qualities that are essential for this job. Then you must use intuition or analytic skills. And you have to be patient and optimistic to believe you will eventually find the way to fit all the parts of your puzzle together.
There are no rules of editing – there are only examples of solutions that have worked. When you learn them and follow them you are competent, but when you have the courage to follow your own path then you have a chance to be a genius. And the courage is something you are born with.
Seventy per cent of the time I work on projects that come along otherwise I couldn’t pay my bills. But when I have a comfort to choose, I choose the director. I never read scripts unless I am asked to discuss it before shooting.
I don’t like to know the script. It’s not because I’m afraid it will narrow my imagination or influence my judgement (I can free myself from any influences) but because it is a pleasure not to know what will happen next.
I prefer the Avid Film Composer – it’s the most comfortable of the non-linear systems I have tried. The only thing important for me is to place monitors about seventy centimetres in front of my eyes and a bigger display about two metres from my head to the right, and no reflections from any sources of light on the screen.
I can’t perform a rough-cut. I always work till I feel I have a fine cut of a scene. After I assemble the scenes I can see what is wrong – I start to rebuild the scenes, to cut them again, to test alternatives till it’s done.
Picture without sound and the same picture with a sound effect are not the same pictures – they have different meanings. When you cut a closeup of a man with his POV (a parked car, let’s say) that means he sees the car. When you add the effect of the engine, your character would see the approaching car. Sorry for this primitive and obvious example, but I try to explain why I can’t edit without designing the sound. I usually just think about sound effects that should be used, but quite often I edit sound effects together with picture just to make sure that the scene has the shape and meaning that I planned for it. That doesn’t mean a real sound design – often after finishing my job I remove all the effects I used and wait for a sound designer to do his job. He is another person who can enrich the film.
I try to avoid using music during editing. The rhythm of cuts starts to be musical, the mood and emotions are forced by music instead of picture. It doesn’t help me. I am usually able to influence the way music is used in my films. In most cases I am invited to discuss it with the director and the composer. As regards my particular feelings about music in film – nothing original – music is very important because of the reasons described thousands of times by persons much more experienced in this field than me.
I always want to have an assistant who is capable of taking care of all logistic and technological problems concerning the project, to communicate with others involved in post-production (laboratory, sound, graphics, etc.). But good ones are very rare these days.
I cut on film during my school. As a professional I started with analogue linear systems (which was hell) and then used non-linear digital technologies. Only once in my professional career I had to cut on film and had to change my methods from non-linear to traditional. I found it less convenient. But I don’t think that technology can determine the final result.
I am convinced that personality affects ones work. My personality determines my attitude to the film’s characters, to the idea of the film. But I can’t describe either my cutting style (perhaps I have one, but it’s beyond my control – each of the films I’ve done seems to be completely different for me) or my personality. I think that I change when I work in the way actors change when they perform. I feel I am different when I work on an action movie or when I edit a film that examines the complicated relations between people. Perhaps it is just an illusion, but I feel so.
I can’t predict anything. When I observe the way film changes in Poland (or should I say dies in Poland) I could only say that the best thing is to quit. The quality of TV production, which is what we do here for the most of time, is so low that it doesn’t matter who edits it. It requires just basic skills and no personality at all. I am afraid that this routine kills creative potential forever.
Notes
1. Stephen King – Born in US in 1947. Writer of thrillers often dealing with the supernatural and Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) – Argentinean writer noted for his dense but moving prose and poetry in which he expresses the deep conundrums of human existence.
2. FAMU – The Czech Film School in Prague. The Polish School in Lodz does not offer editing as a specialism.
3. Josef Valusiak – See interview in this book.
4. Films:The Gateway to Europe – Wojcik, 1999.
Weiser – Marczewski, 2001.
Monday – Adamek, 2002.