Celebrity Biographies
witold sobocinski
In Roman Polanski’s “Frantic,” Harrison Ford plays a surgeon whose wife suddenly disappears. It is perhaps the most internationally widespread title photographed by Witold Sobocinski. The Polish operator, who in addition to this director also worked with Andrzej Wajda, the most prominent filmmaker in his country, died on November 19, 2018 at the age of 89.
Born on October 15, 1929, in Ozorków, in the center of the country, Witold Sobocinski graduated from the National Film School in Łódź. In his student days he became a member of Melomani, a jazz band in which he played bass.
After leaving the center, he started working as a cameraman at Polish Television and at the Czolowka film studios. He made his debut as a cinematographer in 1967 with Jan Batory’s drama Dancing w kwaterze Hitlera . He then worked with prominent directors such as Wajda ( Everything for Sale , The Wedding , The Land of Great Promise , The Shadow Line ), Krzysztof Zanussi ( The Murderer’s Mistress ), Jerzy Skolimowski ( The Year of Torrential Rains ) , and Polanski, with whom, in addition to the aforementioned Frenético , he filmed Pirates . He retired in 1999, after Wrota Europy , by Jerzy Wójcik.
A few days before his death, Witold Sobocinski had received the Career Ensemble Award at Camerimage, the annual festival in Bydgoszcz, Poland. He inherited his talent from his son, Piotr Sobocinski , who dedicated himself to the same trade, in titles such as Three Colors: Red or Hearts in Atlantis . But he passed away prematurely, at the age of 43.