Tadeusz Łomnicki

The Little Knight in The Deluge

Tadeusz Łomnicki returned as Michał Wołodyjowski, a role he had already played in Hoffman's Pan Wołodyjowski. In The Deluge, his character is more than a master swordsman: after Kmicic's attack on Oleńka, he confronts and defeats him but spares his life. The duel exposes Kmicic's violence and marks a turning point in his story¹². Wołodyjowski belongs to Sienkiewicz's story; the film scene is not a record of an actual duel in 1655.

Making the duel

Hoffman recalled that Łomnicki lost 17 kilograms for the role and learned to ride and use a sabre. Wilhelm of the Łódź film school choreographed the duel; Hoffman and Olbrychski give different first names for him³⁴. The actors trained for more than two months, then filmed the scene over a week during a cold spring in Belarus. Fire engines supplied the water seen on screen. Precise sword work also mattered for the actors' safety³.

Daniel Olbrychski later said he suggested an earlier scene in which Kmicic cuts three candle wicks with one stroke. It prepared viewers to see Wołodyjowski's opponent as a skilled fighter. Olbrychski noted that the scene was not in Sienkiewicz's novel⁴.

Wołodyjowski as Kmicic’s conscience

Hoffman explained in 1975 that the screen Wołodyjowski was to guide Kmicic towards change. He emphasised the soldier and citizen while reducing the character’s comic traits⁵. This deliberately assigned function connects Łomnicki’s swordsmanship with his character’s moral influence on the protagonist.