Camera Buff

Camera Buff is in any way a reflection of the dilemma of film or life, as film and life can co-exist. They can be reconciled – or at least you can try to reconcile them. It’s difficult, of course. But, on the other hand, what’s easier? Work in a textile factory isn’t any easier. Forever being together with your family can end badly, too, just as rarely being together can. It’s really not a question – or not only a question – of how much time we can devote to each other. Time and attention. You can probably devote more attention to your family if you work in a textile factory than if you work in films. But then, if you work in films, perhaps the attention you give to your family is more intense, more explicit. Because you feel – I feel – guilty that I don’t give them enough time and attention. So when I do have the time, I devote it to family matters with exceptional intensity. I make up for the time I’m away and for not having enough patience by making tangible this feeling of guilt and living with my family. When I have a bit of time, I give it very intensely. So I don’t know what’s best in the end. I think both solutions – either forever or rarely being together – are possible and that love is possible in both just as a lack of love is possible in both, and harmony is possible in both – some general sort of harmony – and a general consent to such a fate; and in both solutions disharmony and hatred are possible.

Kieślowski on Kieślowski, Danusia Stok, Londra: Faber