Daniel Olbrychski

Life

Daniel Olbrychski was born on 27 February 1945 in Łowicz¹. According to the note in the filmpolski.pl database, he made his screen debut in 1964, in his first year of study at the State Higher School of Drama (PWST) in Warsaw. He broke off his studies at that time and formally completed them in 2010¹. He acted at the Teatr Powszechny and then at the National Theatre (Teatr Narodowy) in Warsaw. He also appeared in many Hungarian, Italian, French and West German films¹.

His film roles from this period include Rafał Olbromski in Ashes (Popioły, 1965), the Bridegroom in The Wedding (Wesele, 1972) and Karol Borowiecki in The Promised Land (Ziemia obiecana, 1974)¹.

In Hoffman's films

Olbrychski appeared in all three of Jerzy Hoffman's adaptations of the Trilogy. In Pan Wołodyjowski (1969) he played Azja Tuhaj-Bejowicz, in With Fire and Sword (1999) Tuhaj-Bej¹, and in The Deluge Andrzej Kmicic².

According to the National Film Archive's description, his casting as Kmicic at first met with opposition from the public, who remembered him as Azja in Pan Wołodyjowski³. For the role of Kmicic he received the award for best actor at the Festival of Polish Feature Films in Gdańsk in 1974²³, and in 1975 the Golden Camera of the magazine Film and an acting award at the Working People's Film Festival in Czechoslovakia². FINA quotes Zbigniew Klaczyński of Trybuna Ludu:

Nie ma przecież Potopu bez Kmicica [...]. Teraz zaś po sukcesie tej roli nie będzie Kmicica bez Olbrychskiego.

Zbigniew Klaczyński, as quoted by FINA³

(Our translation: "After all, there is no Deluge without Kmicic [...]. And now, after the success of this role, there will be no Kmicic without Olbrychski.")

Kmicic: violence and change

Kmicic does not begin Sienkiewicz's novel as an untarnished hero. His violence and association with the Radziwiłłs alienate Oleńka; the rest of his story follows his mistakes, attempts to make amends and fight for the Commonwealth⁴. The film needed an actor who could make both the young Kmicic's dangerous energy and his later transformation convincing. The fictional career should not be mistaken for a biography of an individual soldier in 1655.

How was he cast?

Olbrychski recalled that Hoffman noticed him after Ashes and already spoke of giving him the role of Kmicic in a future Deluge. He first cast him as Azja in Pan Wołodyjowski. The actor himself worried that audiences might not accept him later as a different hero of the same Trilogy⁵. In his recollection, Hoffman, cinematographer Jerzy Wójcik and production manager Wilhelm Hollender supported the decision despite public criticism⁶.

Hoffman said he kept nearly three thousand letters protesting against Olbrychski's casting and recalled that the actor almost gave up the part⁷. Olbrychski's own account shows another side of the dispute: he had wanted to be Kmicic since reading the novel, and in the first days of filming felt he had to prove the decision was right⁸.

A film idea absent from the book

Olbrychski said he suggested a scene in which Kmicic cuts three burning candle wicks with one stroke of his sabre. It established the hero's skill before his later defeat by Wołodyjowski, giving that victory greater weight. The actor explicitly described this as an addition for the film, rather than an episode taken from Sienkiewicz⁶. The duel itself demanded more than two months of rehearsal; Hoffman recalled a week of filming in cold, wet conditions in Belarus⁹.

In an account of filming at Jasna Góra, Fr Jerzy Tomziński recalled many takes of Kmicic's conversation with Kordecki and long hours spent by Olbrychski in the snow for outdoor scenes¹⁰.