Posted on 03/11/2005 9:50:11 AM PST by lizol
Jan Kaczmarek: Anti-Communist Protester, Now Oscar Winner The Life of 2005's Oscar Winner for Original Score
By Anders Mahlen The Epoch Times Mar 04, 2005
Musician Jan A.P. Kaczmarek (R), winner of Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score) for Finding Neverland, poses with actor John Travolta backstage during the 77th Annual Academy Awards on February 27, 2005 at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood, California. (Carlo Allegri/Getty Images)
Although the movie Finding Neverland, with its mixture of Peter-Pan magic and emotional relationship content, received somewhat mixed reviews in media, its music has achieved more acclaim. At the Oscars last Sunday, Polish composer Jan A. P. Kaczmarek won the Original Score award for his music score in Finding Neverland. Although his grandfather, Kazimierz Macinski, played violin at silent-movie houses in Poland, and although he now lives and works in LA, Kaczmarek’s background is an unusual one for a famous Hollywood composer. Born in 1953 in Konin, Poland, he originally educated himself in Law and Politics and was headed for a career as a diplomat, but big societal changes and calls for freedom of expression drew his attention from his studies in the early 1980’s.
The whole reform movement that would eventually end Communism in East Central Europe actually began in Poland, and Kaczmarek was one of many people involved in this historical movement. People were rising up against Communism, and the students were in the forefront.
When Poland’s Communist authorities declared martial law in 1981 under pressure from Moscow, and arrested leaders from the Solidarity social movement, the movement went underground. The Poles organized their own civil society, beyond the strict control of the Communist system. It was in this environment of underground civil resistance that Kaczmarek discovered his love for music and the power of music as an agent for change.
He started to play rock and jazz in different groups, and composed music for underground theatres. After making his first composing experiences with the underground Ósmego Dnia Theatre, he then created a mini-orchestra with the name “The Orchestra of the Eighth Day”, which performed during protests against the Communist government. He touched American soil for the first time in 1982 when his band/orchestra made its first American tour, while martial law was still imposed in Poland. At that time, Kaczmarek also recorded his debut album, Music for the End.
During the 1980’s, Kaczmarek became exposed to film composing in Poland and did some work towards that end, but it really was The Orchestra of the Eighth Day that eventually would make him known in wider circles. The band survived after the tumultuous years when Communism fell, and Kaczmarek continued touring and making albums with The Orchestra of the Eighth Day in the late 80’s and early 90’s, gaining international exposure as a consequence. After some albums and several tours in Europe, Kaczmarek moved to the U.S. to continue his creative endeavors.
There, he again was drawn to the theatres and started to compose scores for scenes in Chicago, LA and New York. Soon, he became recognized as a composer with big talent and potential. In 1992, Kaczmarek won the Obie and Drama Desk Award for his music for The New York Shakespeare Festival's production of John Ford's `Tis Pity She's a Whore, starring Val Kilmer and Jeanne Tripplehorn.
From there, the step to movie scores was not far. After gaining more experience in composing for the big screen by doing music for a few horror movies, he got his first opportunity to work on a big budget film in 1995. The movie was Total Eclipse directed by Polish director Agnieszka Holland and starring Leonardo DiCaprio.
After that, he collaborated with Holland on a number of projects that made his name more and more recognized in Hollywood and led to more jobs in big budget productions. Before scoring the music for Finding Neverland, he composed the music for the 2002 relation drama Unfaithful starring Richard Gere.
As in several of his other works, solo piano performances are frequent in the Finding Neverland soundtrack (performed by the Polish pianist Leszek Mozdzer). Together with strings, woodwinds and boys-choirs, he has built up a musical texture which both expresses the magic of fairytales and the suffering from tensions in relationships. In interviews, Kaczmarek has expressed that this combination of two major themes in Finding Neverland was the big challenge in the composition process.
Other Polish composers who have made names for themselves as movie composers include Wojciech Kilar and Zbigniew Preisner. In a 1999 interview with Jonathan Broxton and James Southall from Movie Music U.K., Preisner attributes the fact that Poland has many skilled composers to the former lack of freedom in the country: "In the Communist regime, music was the only thing that wasn't censored- how do you censor music?"
This was both Kaczmarek's first nomination and first Oscar win. He was competing with, amongst others, the musical legend John Williams, who this year was nominated for his score for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkban. Williams has already five Oscar Academy Awards on his bookshelf (and has been nominated an incredible 43 times), so he probably will not feel too sad losing this one to Kaczmarek.
Although Kaczmarek has become famous through musical scores for major big-budget Hollywood productions, he still goes back to Poland to do work for the Polish film industry sometimes.
Is he any relation to actress Jane Kaczmarek ?
That's the mom from Malcolm in the Middle right? I don't know what it is about her, but I just find her to be totally gross.
Owl_Eagle"You know, I'm going to start thanking
the woman who cleans the restroom in
the building I work in. I'm going to start
thinking of her as a human being"
O_E
Hah, I thought so too but I guess it's not- the article refers to "him" and "his".
But yeah, she's no MILF.
I'm just gonna go out on a limb here and say "I'll bet this isn't the response lizol had in mind when he/she posted this."
Owl_Eagle"You know, I'm going to start thanking
the woman who cleans the restroom in
the building I work in. I'm going to start
thinking of her as a human being"
I think she's hot.
But I also think she's a bitch on that show.
Could be I like 'em bitchy :-)
Hey, that's why they make chocolate and vanilla, right?
I had... well... still have a thing for Rose Marie from the Dick Van Dyke Show.
And again, probably not the original intent of the thread, but hey, it's Friday, right?
Owl_Eagle"You know, I'm going to start thanking
the woman who cleans the restroom in
the building I work in. I'm going to start
thinking of her as a human being"
Don't think so.
We're talking about Malcolm's TV mom, right?
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