OBIT - ANDRZEJ ZULAWSKI

Director, writer and novelist Andrzej Zulawski, one of Poland's most notable, idiosyncratic artists of recent times, has died. He was 75, and had been suffering from cancer. A master of feature films, his screen career was devoted to them, lacking in the shorts, documentaries and TV work which many of his contemporaries often indulged in. Prolific through the last three decades of the 20th Century, his most famous output includes 1972's The Devil, banned in his native Poland upon release, That Most Important Thing: Love, the 1981 horror classic Possession with Isabelle Adjani, La Femme Publique, On the Silver Globe, La Note Bleue and Fidelity - his last film for 15 years, before returning last year with his much-anticipated Cosmos. Alongside Adjani, his collaborations with Romy Schneider and Sophie Marceau were much celebrated among international arthouse audiences. Zulawski contributed some of the most influential works of cinema of the 20th Century's latter half during his career, and was honoured during his lifetime with a Special Prize of the Jury from the Montreal World Film Festival, two Camerimage awards and the Best Director award at last year's Locarno International Film Festival. After such a lauded return to film, it is with much sadness that I report this great artist's passing.