Janusz Majewski

Jazz Outsider (2022)

Black Mercedes (2019)

In Nazi-occupied Warsaw, an investigator tries to unravel the mysterious murder of a prominent attorney's wife. ...

Eccentrics, the Sunny Side of the Street (2016)

In late 1950s Poland, jazzman Fabian returns from England and forms a swing big band that quickly rises to fame. Their glamorous new singer, the enigmatic Modesta, becomes both the group's star and Fabian's love interest. As their success begins to resembl ...

The Rite of Passage (2010)

Ludwik starts one of the best high schools in Krakow. His life changes with a growing storm of conflicting emotions. First love infatuations, sexual contacts, a rebellion against unjust authorities and the desire to imitate his idol, Marek, an older boy wh ...

Love in an Underground Passage (2007)

Another film from the TV series "Polish Holidays", this time illustrating a holiday not entirely Polish, but already firmly rooted in the native reality - Valentine's Day. The script for it was written by Jerzy Pilch. For the famous writer, winner of the N ...

After Season (2006)

A mysterious man visits a Masurian guesthouse after the season, where he develops a closer relationship with three female residents. ...

Deserter's Gold (1998)

"Deserter's Gold", the sequel to the very popular "The Deserters", is a rich war comedy, skipping humorously around the more serious dangers of a war. Deserters Gold takes place during World War II, while the first film happened during WWI. The heroes' mis ...

Devilish Education (1995)

In a rural Catholic village, young Gosia tends cattle and lives an innocent, sheltered life. One summer day, while bathing in the river, she is unknowingly observed by a mysterious painter. When he later reveals his portrait of her, Gosia's initial shame g ...

Do widzenia wczoraj. Dwie krótkie komedie o zmianie systemu (1993)

1. A ring of retired provincial PRL dignitaries plots to steal their party's banner from the Museum of Communism as an ideological relic, only to have their scheme complicated when one conspirator's son enlists an Italian collector in a profit-seeking join ...

Mark of Cain (1989)

In 1866, as Austria faces war with Prussia, 19-year-old Ludvík Machl joins a secret Czech resistance group. When he is caught with stolen funds and a weapon, the police commissioner spares him from prison on the condition that he work as an informant. Tra ...

Powrót po śmierć (1987)

One June evening, a Krakow prostitute nicknamed Rączka is accosted by a bloody man who wants to spend the night with her. The girl agrees, but when the next day she learns that a gruesome crime has been committed near the place where the mysterious custom ...

The Rotter Case (1987)

A teenage boy from a respectable family, Stanisław Czajkowski, dies in mysterious circumstances in a Krakow guesthouse. His brother-in-law, Count Maksymilian Rotter, married to Stanisław's older sister, Ksawera, is accused of the murder. ...

H.M. Deserters (1986)

Set in 1918, this World War I drama follows a group of Austro-Hungarian soldiers—Czechs, Jews, Italians, and others—confined in a provincial barracks under German officers. Subjected to the cruelty of a sadistic lieutenant, they rebel, humiliate him, a ...

An Epitaph for Barbara Radziwill (1983)

A historical drama about Barbara Radziwiłł, whose controversial love affair and marriage with King Sigismund II Augustus defied political opposition in 16th-century Poland. The film follows their romance, Barbara's untimely death, and her posthumous retu ...

Salty Rose (1983)

The happiness that has passed away will never return - this is exactly what a young Polish man learns when, in the immediate post-war period, he recalls how he fell in love with a charming Jewish girl before the outbreak of the war. He manages to find her, ...

System (1981)

An adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's tale The System of Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether, transposed to a contemporary setting. A couple visits a remote asylum where the woman knows the staff, only to discover that the institution is overrun and the lines betwe ...

Lesson of a Dead Language (1979)

An officer stationed in a remote Ukranian outpost at the end of the First World War is dying of consumption. Suffering from feverish dreams and hallucinations, he begins to collect religious art and attends seances. ...

The Gorgon Case (1977)

In 1931, just before the New Year, in a house of architect Henryk Zaremba scream rips the night. The daughter of Zaremba is found killed in her bedroom, obviously killed with a pickaxe. The police arrives and starts the investigation. Rita Gorgonova, the g ...

Hotel Pacific (1975)

Set in the early 1930s, a young man finds a job as a dishwasher in a hotel and quickly works his way up the ladder. Loosely based on the novel by Henryk Worcell. ...

Lost Night (1974)

Returning from Rome, Warsaw writer Wacław Kisielecki's car breaks down late one evening on a country road, forcing him and his chauffeur, Konstanty, to seek lodging at a nearby manor house. Its owner is a young man, Jan, who has been managing the dilapida ...

Jealousy and Medicine (1973)

In 1930s, a doctor has an affair with the wife of a wealthy industrialist in Poland. ...

777 (1973)

A young bus driver's life changes after he meets a woman that later becomes a victim of a road accident. ...

The Moonlit Road (1973)

Julian, a young man who came back home after years of studying abroad finds his life in turmoil after falling for his stepmother, while his dead mother's spirit haunts the family house, intent on revenge. ...

A Hymn on the Death of the Young (1973)

A surrealistic portrait of restaurant guests as seen by an otherworldly visitor who has the ability to read people's subconscious. ...

Markheim (1972)

During a botched robbery, Markheim murders an elderly antique dealer. Consumed by guilt and confusion, he begins to lose his grip on reality until a spectral dog leads him to a mysterious figure who knows all his secrets. Based on the short story by Robert ...

The Boarded Window (1971)

In a secluded forest house, a woman tormented by anxiety and paranoia lives with her helpless husband. Their fragile peace shatters when she suddenly falls ill and appears to die, setting the stage for a tense and haunting drama of isolation and dread. ...

Lokis: A Manuscript of Professor Wittembach (1970)

A pastor and ethnographer visits a remote corner of 19th-century Lithuania where folk customs associated with the area's pagan past still have a hold on the population. ...

Podróżni jak inni (1970)

A group of Polish communists in Paris arrives in Poland to fight against the Nazis. ...

The Office (1969)

Juliusz Starzewski goes to Rome to seek justice on behalf of his father. ...

The Criminal Who Stole a Crime (1969)

Retired police captain Siwy recounts to a reporter how he undertook a final, private investigation into the suspicious death of Ewa Salm, known as "Princess." Though her testimony had secured a conviction, Siwy doubted the man's guilt and set out to uncove ...

Venus of Ille (1969)

Janusz Majewski adapts Prosper Mérimée's 1835 tale of the same name, centering on a mysterious statue unearthed in a provincial town. The figure, sculpted as a tormented woman, becomes an ominous presence during a wedding celebration. When the groom impu ...

Mistrz tańca (1969)

A mysterious man takes a writer back to the 19th century, where they meet Death. ...

First Pavilion (1968)

A young scientist is kidnapped and taken to a house where his former mentor, a professor, is conducting experiments on shrinking humans. ...

Associate Professor H. (1968)

Professor H., obsessed with replacing humans through artificial beings, has created Traumer—an unsettlingly perfect assistant whose cold efficiency conceals an unnatural origin. Believing he has found the ideal subject for his next experiment, the profes ...

I Am Burning! (1968)

Ja gorę! tells the story of a Pogorzelski nobleman who settles in a ruined castle in Samsonów, determined to restore it, only to be haunted by the ghost of its former owner. A parody of gothic horror literature and cinema, the short is based on a tale by ...

The Black Dress (1967)

A stark, two-character chamber drama about Joanna, a middle-aged woman who returns from the camps after World War II. Seeking out her deceased husband's mother, she cannot bring herself to reveal the truth about his fate. Instead, she invents a story to sp ...

The Lodger (1967)

A pleasant, open-faced young man comes to live in a boarding house with three peculiar women. ...

Blue Room (1965)

In 19th-century Poland, a young couple sets out for a weekend in the countryside. On the train they meet a mysterious Englishman traveling to the same destination, whose presence arouses their suspicions. Choosing to lodge in the room beside his—the fate ...

Avatar: The Exchange of Souls (1964)

Count Olgierd Łabiński lives in Paris with his beloved wife, but their quiet life is disturbed by the arrival of Octavius de Saville, a former admirer of the Countess from her days in Florence. Obsessed with possessing her, Octavius seeks out Dr. Cherbon ...

Jazz in Poland (1964)

Performances by Poland's most acclaimed jazz bands, punctuated by short interviews conducted by German music journalist Joachim-Ernst Berendt. Appearing consecutively are: Warsaw Stompers, Namysłowski Quartet, Andrzej Trzaskowski Quintet, Krzysztof Komeda ...

Duel (1964)

"Duel" describes the clash of two athletes, shot putters David Davis and Alfred Sosgórnik. ...

Opus Jazz (1963)

A documentary portrait of the Kurylewicz Quintet at work in the recording studio, Opus Jazz captures the stop-and-start process of rehearsal before the musicians lock into rhythm and achieve full improvisational flow. Majewski's film highlights both the di ...

Hospital (1962)

Confined to a hospital room, a seemingly healthy man endures a surreal night as his space is invaded by a procession of bizarre, dreamlike visitors—many linked to the imagery of railroads. Blurring reality with hallucination, the film transforms the ward ...

Fleischer's Album (1962)

A documentary short constructed from the photo album of a German officer, tracing his movements across multiple World War II fronts. The film transforms private souvenirs into stark testimony, exposing how personal mementos intersect with the broader histo ...

Rzeczywistość (1961)

The 1937 trial of communist journalists, working for the same student magazine in Vilnius, is shown through the tragic life of the paper's young collaborator Julek Szulc. ...

Play (1961)

A boy plays alone in a well of a big city yard. His mother, being in their tenement flat, passes him an empty bottle using a string. The boy has to go to a shop. His alcohol fun begins – at an off-licence shop, at a purchasing centre, at a gate. ...

Kapelusz (1961)

A Silent broad comedy about upper class life ...

Bridge (1960)

A tense, compact adaptation of Ambrose Bierce's "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," Bridge (Polish title Most) recreates the surreal final moments of a condemned man awaiting execution during the American Civil War. In Majewski's hands, the familiar twist ...

Kalosze szczęścia (1958)

Two fairies, Terencja and Felicja are in posession of the Lucky Rain Boots, which they intend to give to the most deserving person in the city of Kraków. However, they consistently fall into the wrong hands, creating a multitude of absurd and comedic situ ...

Roundabout (1958)

A man enters a restaurant and, after trying and failing to attract the attentions of the waiter, an absurd battle of wills commences. ...

Szkice węglem (1957)

The dark drama of a peasant family from the second half of the 19th century: Seduced by a municipal clerk (in exchange for a promise to release her husband from military service), the woman dies at the hands of her jealous husband. ...

Uśmiech bez sensu (1957)

Nadziei za dwadzieścia złotych (1957)

Samosiuk. The Independent Film Republic (2012)

The film is a portrait of Zygmunt Samosiuk, a great forgotten cinematographer, who died in 1983. As a director of photography he worked on such films as The Birch Wood, Landscape Afterthe Battle and Austeria. He introduced, among others, hand‑held camera ...

I Have Lived Seventeen Times (2009)

The main character of "Żyłem siedemnaście razy" reflects on his childhood in Gwoździec and tells a story about the beginning of his career as a filmmaker. ...

Capital, or How to Make Money in Poland (1990)

A sociologist nearing middle-aged returns to Poland after several years of giving lectures abroad. The changing economy of the country and business successes of the people around him inspire him to venture out into the deep and unpredictable world of capit ...

Night Train (1959)

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 ...

Koniec nocy (1957)

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. ...