Known for his erotically charged thrillers and idiosyncratic approach to storytelling, Polish film director Andrzej Zulawski gathered a loyal fanbase and was known for getting great work from his actors. He has died, aged 75, after being diagnosed with cancer.
Zulawski was born in Lvov, which is now part of Ukraine in 1940, but moved with his parents to France when he was five and received his main film education there, where he would also make the bulk of his work.
Having gotten his start as an assistant to fellow Polish director Andrzej Wadja, he directed two short films for Polish television before making his feature debut with The Third Part Of The Night in 1971, which was co-written by his father, poet Miroslaw Zulawski from the elder man's novel. The film met with acclaim in Poland, but he ran into trouble with the Polish Communist authorities over his second, The Devil, and the government banned the film. The director went to France, and made the award-winning That Most Important Thing: Love in 1975.
He faced more trouble with the authorities when he returned home and began to make On The Silver Globe, adapted from his great-uncle's book. Prevented from completing the film (which he would go on to finish in 1987 using voice-over for the missing footage), he relocated for years back to France, and continued a career filled with striking, violent and cautionary films including Possession, The Public Woman, My Nights Are More Beautiful Than Your Days, The Blue Note and Fidelity. Fans would have to wait more than a decade for his next film, last year's Cosmos.
Following in his creative family's footsteps, Zulawski also wrote several novels, but filmmaking was his primary passion and he inspired it in those who watched his work. He's survived by sons Xawery and Vincent, the latter of whom Zulawski had with actress Sophie Marceau, with whom he'd worked four times and lived with for 16 years until 2001.