ALIAS ALEXANDR FORD or, “The Life and Times of Moishe Lipshutz”

PROPOSAL for a possible screenplay on the life, career and death of the famous Jewish-
Polish film director ALEXANDR FORD.

WORKING TITLE:
ALIAS ALEXANDR FORD
or, “The Life and Times of Moishe Lipshutz”

The salient facts of Ford’s life are here presented in roughly chronological order.

1. Ford born, 1908 in Lodz. Little is known of his youth in the Lodz Jewish community and needs to be researched. Of prime importance in the screenplay would be what was his motivation for changing his name from “Moishe Lipshutz” to "FORD" and precisely when and how this occurred. One can envision a young man very much wanting to Dis-identify with the Jewish community – Yet strongly enough tied to it so that he made at least TWO films of directly Jewish content.

“SABRA”, 1931, deals with new Jewish immigrants to what was then “Palestine” and their conflict with Arab neighbors – therefore, very relevant to the present – bardzo aktualny! – It was shot in Palestine… His second Jewish film in the mid thirties was about the Medem Institute for tubercular Jewish children – and was made IN YIDDISH! – Prints of both of these films exist and are easily available.

2. His activities as co-founder, at age 28 of the START FILM COMMUNE and relation to other members such as Director, Wanda Jakubowska. Then comes the war.

3. THE WAR YEARS. Making documentary films for the military film team in Russia. Ford becomes a Communist.
4. The immediate post war. The making of “ULICA GRANICZNA” – ("Border Street", the first film about the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising) -- , a gigantic hhit at the time. One member of the cast, Maria Broniewska, who played the young Jadwiga (Jadza) in the film is still alive and available for consultation. I have met her and spoken with her about her personal relationship with Ford, which was very negative. He kept her from getting further jobs.
5. The peak years – Piatka z ulica Barskiej, Mlody Chopin, (YOUNG CHOPIN), and finally the giant hit film, KRZYZACY –(THE CRUSADERS) --Ford is now the “Czar” of Polish film ….

IT SHOULD BE NOTED THAT Ford was a man of small stature with a small moustache. Like many little men he had a gigantic ego and a kind of Napoleon complex, when he was at the top of the heap as the "czar" of the Polish film world in the sixties until the wave of Anti-Semitism which struck in 1968..

6. OSMY DZIEN TYGODNIU (The Eighth Day of the week) and the fall from grace with the Communist establishment -– relations with Comtroversial writer Hlasko, the legendary actor Zbigniew Cybulski and Jewish-Polish producer Arthur Brauner – (the latter, still alive and active in Berlin) --

7. I968 – THE EXILE – first to Copenhagen – there is still a Polish Jewish community in Copenhagen, some of whom will surely remember Ford in Copenhagen, as will the people who worked with him at NORDIC FILM.

8. THE CONFLICT with influential Polityka film critic Kaluzynski, and his rivalry with him over the affections of the Jewish American beauty queen whom Ford finally married. A son from this marriage (unfortunately, alcoholic) still lives in Lodz.

9. Ford goes to Israel to make a KORCZAK film which is not successful.
"Jestesz wolny, Dr. Korczak") –

10. In 1980 Ford, at the end of his rope, travels to Miami, there hoping to effect a reconciliatuion with his American wife who divorced him -- (when? – need to research the details of the marriage – surely much was written about this couple at the time in the Polish ‘Boulevard Press’ ) -- The ex-wife refuses to see him and he commits suicide – a forgotten man – however – Somewhere in Florida a police record of this death must exist and it may have been reported in some local paper as a "fait divers".

Among people still alive who would have very clear memories of Ford would be, inter alia – Jerzy Kawalerowicz, and a number of other people who may have worked with him. Also, there must be people on the wife’s side – or perhaps SHE HERSELF – still alive in the States and available for consultation.

In any case, this would make a remarkable film which could easily be of interest to the non-Polish world for the Jewish and Political overtones -- as well as – oczewiscie – for the Polish audience.
What needs to be emphasized in the film is:
The early Jewish years in the thirties – The making of the Jewish films – The making of "Ulica Graniczny" ('Border Street', the very first film about the Warsaw Ghetto, made almost immediately after the war, and for many years the Polish box-office record holder) -- and the Cannes film festival where it won a director’s prize –
The Fall From Grace with the Communist establishment connected with “Osmy Dzien Tygodnia” – ("Eghth day of the week" and everything concerning the relationship with the American Jewess from New York, who, apparently, caused quite a stir when she arrived in Warsaw – as a model or something like that – (this needs to be researched) –
Finally, The Events Of 1968 – the official persecution of Jews (which caused almost all of the remaining Jews to flee Poland for good), and the conditions under which Ford is forced to resign as head of Film Polski – his exile in Copenhagen, then in Israel – his final demise in Miami, Florida – April 4, 1980.

ALEX DELEON-PEWNY
Warszawa, 7 Listopada, 2002