FEEL IT.STREAM
Zbigniew Cybulski

Zbigniew Cybulski

Acting

Biography

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Zbigniew Cybulski Polish pronunciation: [ˈzbiɡɲɛf t͡sɨˈbulskʲi] (November 3, 1927 – January 8, 1967) was a Polish actor, one of the best-known and most popular personalities of the post-World War II history of Poland. Zbigniew Cybulski was born November 3, 1927 in a small village of Kniaże near Śniatyń, Poland (now a part of Sniatyn Raion, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, Ukraine). After World War II he joined the Theatre Academy in Kraków. He graduated in 1953 and moved to Gdańsk, where he made his stage debut in Leon Schiller's Wybrzeże Theatre. Also, with his friend Bogumił Kobiela, Cybulski founded a famous student theatre, the Bim-Bom. In the early 1960s, Cybulski moved to Warsaw, where he shortly joined the Kabaret Wagabunda. He also appeared on stage at the Ateneum Theatre, one of the most modern and least conservative Warsaw-based theatres of the epoch. However, Cybulski is best remembered as a screen actor. He first appeared in a 1954 film Kariera as an extra. His first major role came in 1958, when he played in Kazimierz Kutz's Krzyż Walecznych. The same year he also appeared as one of the main characters in Andrzej Wajda's Ashes and Diamonds and Aleksander Ford's The Eighth Day of the Week based on a short story by Marek Hłasko. From then on Cybulski was seen as one of the most notable actors of the Polish Film School and one of the "young and wrathful", as his generation of actors were called at the time. His most famous films, apart from Ashes and Diamonds, include Wojciech Has' The Saragossa Manuscript. He also acted in numerous television plays, including some based on works by Truman Capote, Anton Chekhov and Jerzy Andrzejewski. Cybulski died in an accident at a Wrocław Główny railway station on January 8, 1967, on his way from the film set. As he jumped on the speeding train (as he often did), he slipped on the steps, fell under the train, and was run over. Before the accident he said goodbye to Marlene Dietrich, a personal friend of his, who was a passenger on the train. He was buried in Katowice.

Known For

Ashes and Diamonds
7.4

A young academy soldier, Maciek Chelmicki, is ordered to shoot the secretary of the KW PPR. A coincidence causes him to kill someone else. Meeting face to face with his victim, he gets a shock. He faces the necessity of repeating the assassination. He meets Krystyna, a girl working as a barmaid in the restaurant of the "Monopol" hotel. His affection for her makes him even more aware of the senselessness of killing at the end of the war. Loyalty to the oath he took, and thus the obligation to obey the order, tips the scales.

Ashes and Diamonds

1958
Giuseppe in Warsaw
6.2

The Italian soldier Giuseppe Santucci, on his way home from the Russian front has his machine gun stolen in Warsaw. Afraid of consequences, he stays in Warsaw and occupies a flat of the Polish girl Maria, whom he suspects of stealing weapon. Maria indeed is an active member of the Polish resistance, contrary to her brother, Staszek, a painter, who only wants a calm living. In a course of events Giuseppe falls in love and, along with Staszek, becomes a hero of the Polish resistance.

Giuseppe in Warsaw

1964
Salto
6.4

A man jumps off a moving train and goes to a small town to face its inhabitants, who seem familiar, but odd.

Salto

1965
The Saragossa Manuscript
7.8

During the Napoleonic wars, a Spanish officer and an opposing officer find a book written by the former's grandfather.

The Saragossa Manuscript

1966
A Generation
7.0

Stach is a wayward teen living in squalor on the outskirts of Nazi-occupied Warsaw. Guided by an avuncular Communist organizer, he is introduced to the underground resistance—and to the beautiful Dorota. Soon he is engaged in dangerous efforts to fight oppression and indignity, maturing as he assumes responsibility for others’ lives. A coming-of-age story of survival and shattering loss, A Generation delivers a brutal portrait of the human cost of war.

A Generation

1955
How to Be Loved
7.5

An actress travels from Warsaw to Paris and during the trip reflects on the last few years of her life. It goes back to the German occupation and her hiding of a fellow actor who has supposedly killed a collaborator.

How to Be Loved

1963
The Criminal and the Lady
7.0

Young Małgorzata leads a very boring life as a cashier. One day a robber riddles her bank car with bullets, kills the driver and two security guards and takes the money. The police finds out that the stolen banknotes are being spent at a fashionable spa resort. The only way to find the criminal is to favor Małgorzata with a seaside holiday in the company of a handsome Captain as her brother.

The Criminal and the Lady

1963
Koniec nocy
4.8

A group of young Łódź hoodlums spends their time shoplifting, partying and drinking heavily, until they are faced with serious consequences of their reckless behaviour.

Koniec nocy

1957
Night Train
7.6

Two strangers, Jerzy and Marta, accidentally end up holding tickets for the same sleeping chamber on an overnight train to the Baltic Sea coast. Also on board is Marta's spurned lover, who will not leave her alone. When the police enter the train in search of a murderer on the lam, rumors fly and everything seems to point toward one of the main characters as the culprit.

Night Train

1959
Love at Twenty
6.8

Love at Twenty unites five directors from five different countries to present their different perspectives on what love really is at the age of 20. The episodes are united with the score of Georges Delerue and still photos of Henri Cartier-Bresson.

Love at Twenty

1962
Innocent Sorcerers
7.0

A young doctor is tired of being sought by women. One night he meets a young girl who all but forces herself into his room where they talk of morals and love.

Innocent Sorcerers

1960
Penguin
6.3

A shy Warsaw university student is in love with a girl who pays no attention to him. Change comes after her intimate love letters are read publicly at a party.

Penguin

1965
Silence
6.6

Set in a small Polish town just after the war, the story of an unruly teenager who constantly taunts the old priest. One day the youth has a horrible accident, which the villagers call divine punishment.

Silence

1963
Good Bye, Till Tomorrow
6.6

Jacek is a handsome, charming young Pole who belongs to a drama company. One day, in the streets of Gdansk, he meets Marguerite, a beautiful, charming French girl. He falls for her but the young lady is whimsical...

Good Bye, Till Tomorrow

1960
Jowita
6.8

Marek is a promising athlete having his share of affairs with women. One day at masquerade ball he meets a an enigmatic Jowita and becomes obsessed with her, even when he finds seemingly true love in Agnieszka.

Jowita

1967
The Eighth Day of the Week
5.6

Zbigniew Cybulski and Sonja Ziemann play lovers struggling to find happiness and privacy in overcrowded Warsaw. The movie shows an honest picture of life in a war-damaged city, contrasting the characters' difficulties with their dreams of a better life. It was banned in Poland in 1958 and would not be seen anywhere until its European release one year later.

The Eighth Day of the Week

1958
Tomorrow Mexico
7.5

A disqualified trainer of water jumpers starts work in the province, where he discovers Majka's talent.

Tomorrow Mexico

1966
The Doll
5.7

An avant-garde political satire that takes place in a mythical country in South America. The dictator has been replaced by a look-alike revolutionary, and the dictator's wife has been replaced by a robot.

The Doll

1962
Trzy starty
7.0

Three separate short stories about young athletes who lose their chances of success. Young swimmer - because of unhappy love. Boxer because of a fight with hooligans, for which the judges will disqualify him. But the cyclist must decide for himself what is more important for him: victory or friendship.

Trzy starty

1955
Spóźnieni przechodnie
7.0

Five short stories. (1) “Czas przybliża, czas oddala” – Edward recalls his unfulfilled love for Anna and, years later, writes to her sister Zofia, mistaking her for Anna. (2) “Krąg istnienia” – A girl falls for Wacek at an ice rink; pressured by family, she marries a soap manufacturer. (3) “Paryż 1945” – A Polish refugee soldier and an American woman share a fleeting wartime bond before she leaves at dawn. (4) “Stary profesor” – Two men seek an old professor to fulfill a dying prisoner’s last wish; Roger impersonates a former pupil. (5) “Nauczycielka” – Neglected wife Zofia accepts film tests, only to find the director seeks an ordinary woman.

Spóźnieni przechodnie

1962