Elżbieta Czyżewska
| Elżbieta Czyżewska | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Elżbieta Justyna Czyżewska May 14, 1938 Warsaw, Poland |
| Died | June 17, 2010 (aged 72) New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1958–2010 |
| Spouse(s) |
Jerzy Skolimowski (1959–1965; divorced) David Halberstam (1965–1977; divorced) |
Elżbieta Justyna Czyżewska (May 14, 1938 – June 17, 2010) was a Polish actress active in both Poland and the United States.
Czyżewska was born in Warsaw in 1938. She attended the State Academy of Theatre in Warsaw and was advised by the Dean that in order to play leading roles in Romantic repertory she should undergo plastic surgery: to reduce the size of her breasts. Her answer, after she consulted her colleagues in the anti-establishment Student Satirical Theatre, was "No way".
Her first marriage was to the film director Jerzy Skolimowski. In 1965, she married the New York Times Warsaw correspondent, David Halberstam. She left Poland for the United States with him, but they divorced in 1977.
At the peak of her film and theater career, and in trouble with the communist regime on account of her marriage to Halberstam - she was cast by the Polish director Andrzej Wajda in his film, Everything for Sale. The young directors of the Polish new wave in cinema recognized their peer in breaking the conventions of superficial romantic comedy. In A Bride for the Australian (1963), Where is the General (1963) and Giuseppe in Warsaw (1964), Czyżewska created a character who was almost the reverse of the Cinderella versus Prince Charming formula, as it was her charm and wit that turned her suitors into her equals. Not a "method" actor, she would never disappear into a character, nor would she, on the other hand, allow her striking persona to wholly define her succession of screen and theatre parts. Wojciech Has directed her performance in The Saragossa Manuscript (1964).
Besides the theater role that won her the major Golden Mask Award, Czyżewska had her most significant stage success in the Teatr Dramatyczny's 1965 production of Arthur Miller's After the Fall. By now internationally recognized (from Moscow to San Salvador) as one of Poland's top young actors, she expanded her artistic range in two film dramas: Unloved (1965) by Janusz Nasfeter and Wajda's Everything for Sale (1968). The dark mood of both these movies marked the country's disillusionment after a brief period of cultural "thaw". Unloved, set shortly before the outbreak of World War II, tells the story of a young Jewish woman's love affair whose ending coincides with the ominous atmosphere of the period, including the Holocaust.
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Wikipedia