Celebrating images over image, Lodz hosts its festival

When veteran cinematographer William Fraker arrived in this industrial city to receive a Life Achievement Award at the Camerimage film festival, he asked his hosts about the screening to be held later, in his honor. “Think there’ll be a full house?”

“Worse!” one of the festival organizers replied, laughing. “It will be doubly a full house -- twice as many people want to get in as will fit!”

Such wicked good humor at the prospect of turning people away might sound cold in Los Angeles, but here at the Camerimage festival it’s a reward for years of hard work.

The Camer-who festival, you ask?

Cinematographers the world over know. And more and more, so do directors, stars and aspiring filmmakers.

Camerimage, devoted primarily to honoring masters of cinematography, has occurred annually every first week of December since 1993. Amid a wide range of other events, the honor accorded Fraker (cinematographer of “Rosemary’s Baby,” “Bullitt” and 1978’s “Heaven Can Wait,” among others) places him in a company of previous honorees, including legendary cinematographers Sven Nykvist, Vittorio Storaro and Laszlo Kovacs.

And though few places could be further from the main roads of the movie industry than Lodz, Poland, since the festival’s inception guests have included an ever-swelling roster of filmmakers of every stripe from America, Western Europe, China and Australia. Peter Weir, David Lynch, James Ivory and Mike Figgis head the list of directors in attendance this year.

Previous fests have seen visits by the Coen brothers, John Schlesinger and Conrad Hall, who was handed his Life Achievement Award in 1995 by Krzysztof Kieslowski, in the last public act of that Polish master director’s life. And this year a special message was forwarded to Marek Zydowicz, founder and director of the festival, through cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, from Steven Spielberg: “Keep doing what you’re doing, and your festival will become one of the most important in the world.”

Zydowicz, a filmmaker as well as a scholar of Renaissance art, is deeply touched by this sentiment, but not surprised. “We are providing a forum for the greatest practitioners of the visual craft of film to meet and discuss excellence in its own right, without the pressures of commerce, or cutthroat competition.”

Even though 13 of the 30 films showing will compete before a jury headed by James Ivory, there is, Zydowicz stresses, a different character to these debates than usually ensues in jury rooms. “Because our emphasis is on the visual, as opposed to the literary” and theatrical properties of cinema, discussions gravitate toward the true heart of film, which is the image.”

A dazzling festival lineup

Whatever else one might say about them, the lineup of films showing is a feast for the eyes. In addition to the poetically terrifying high seas of “Master and Commander,” photographed by Russell Boyd and directed by Weir, there is “Girl With a Pearl Earring,” in which Scarlett Johansson, in the title role, is molded into a visually ravishing figure out of Vermeer, through the camerawork of Eduardo Serra.

There is also “Hero,” a psychedelic cousin of “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” starring Zhang Ziyi and photographed by Christopher Doyle for director Zhang Yimou.

Doyle is in town for Camerimage too, having slipped out of Shanghai while in mid-shoot on a new picture for director Wong Kar-wai. After a visit of under 12 hours before his flight back, he jokes in a stage whisper: “Don’t tell him I was here!”

Lodz, located midway between war-hammered Warsaw and medieval Krakow, has long been a gold mine of talent in the world of film. Directors Andrzej Wajda, Roman Polanski and Jerzy Skolimowski were all educated at the renowned film school here. So were cinematographers Kris Malkiewicz (who teaches at CalArts and is the author of a bestselling textbook on cinematography) and Adam Holender (“Midnight Cowboy,” “The Seduction of Joe Tynan,” “Smoke”), both of whom are on this year’s jury.

The city itself, which was built by Jewish entrepreneurs in the 19th century, had a pair of tragic times in the 20th, suffering prolonged visits by both the Nazis and the Soviets. Since the collapse of communism, the place has become ghostly, abounding in ruined lots, flaking facades and spectacularly empty factories.

Those factories sing to the very soul of “Eraserhead’s” creator, David Lynch. “It does make me dream, being in Lodz,” he says over breakfast, looking forward to the daylong photo shoot he’s about to conduct. “They’ve got three factories waiting for me, and 30 nude women. It’s a great life.”

He fell in love with the city on his first visit to Camerimage in 2000. Indeed, he was so taken with it that he has proposed converting its empty structures into film studios, though nothing has come of this yet. Lynch doesn’t rule out the notion of making a film.

“This is a place of rebirth,” Lynch says of the atmosphere in Lodz these days. “Right now, we’re here when it’s happening.”

Weir could not agree more. “Filmmakers have enormous sympathy for what’s being accomplished here,” he says.

“The creators of Camerimage are so full of energy and enthusiasm now after having been under this tyrannical Soviet system. You feel you want to respect and reward them in return.”