We value Krzysztof Globisz for making earnestness believable without making a display of it. In Decalogue V, that sincerity survives writing which gives his young lawyer more convictions than personality.
Fi1m perspective
The young lawyer in Decalogue V (1989) has the proper objection ready. Krzysztof Globisz makes us believe he means it. As Piotr Balicki, he gives the character's opposition to the death penalty a credible earnestness. That matters in a film which refuses to make its central figure easy to pity: Piotr's decency cannot depend on finding someone likeable. We rate the performance, while wishing the screenplay gave him as much personality as conviction.
His early screen work included Andrzej Wajda's Danton (1983), in which he played André Amar. The lawyer brought him wider notice through Krzysztof Kieślowski's A Short Film About Killing (1988) and Decalogue V, two versions of the same story. He returned to Wajda for Major Płut in Pan Tadeusz (1999), another historical adaptation. The Kieślowski role is the one on which our judgement chiefly rests.
There is more to him than the sympathetic young idealist. His long ensemble career at Kraków's Narodowy Stary Teatr includes work with Jerzy Jarocki and Wajda. His stage reputation combines poetic delivery with rougher, more daring character work, a useful correction to any impression that sincerity is all he offers. We would be wary of using Piotr's gentleness to explain an actor whose work also takes in classical drama, contemporary writing and experimental theatre.
In Decalogue V, Kieślowski and co-writer Krzysztof Piesiewicz give Mirosław Baka's Jacek Łazar and Jan Tesarz's taxi driver, Waldemar Rekowski, more room to be difficult to account for. Globisz has the less rewarding job of making the proper objection sound like something a person needs to say. We were moved by his earnestness: he makes us believe that Piotr needs to raise these objections, however neatly the writing has supplied them. He holds his place beside performances with more human detail to draw on. Start here for Globisz, but allow for a harrowing evening.
Biography
Krzysztof Maria Globisz is a Polish theatre and film actor. Born on 16 January 1957 in Siemianowice Śląskie, he graduated from the National Academy of Theatre Arts in Kraków in 1980. He began his stage career at Teatr Polski in Wrocław and has been a member of the ensemble at Narodowy Stary Teatr in Kraków since 1981. He later served as dean of the acting faculty (2002–2005) and prorector (2005–2012) at the Kraków academy, where he is a professor of theatrical arts.
Globisz is best known for his role as the idealistic lawyer Piotr Balicki in Krzysztof Kieślowski’s A Short Film About Killing (1988) and the corresponding episode of Decalogue (1989). His other film credits include Danton (1983), The Career of Nikos Dyzma (2002), Katyn (2007), Stones for the Rampart (2014) and Jack Strong (2014).
