Archive
Jan A.P. Kaczmarek, 1953-2024
Composer Jan A.P. Kaczmarek died on May 21, 2024, at the age of 71. He had been in hospice care for several years, after being diagnosed with multiple system atrophy in 2022.
Jan Andrzej Paweł Kaczmarek was born in Konin, Poland, in April 1953. Originally intending to be a lawyer, he graduated from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań with a law degree, specializing in legal theory and philosophy of law. However, he switched careers to focus on music in the 1970s, and spent several years working with experimental theater companies, and writing music for stage productions. He and his first wife Elżbieta moved to Los Angeles in the 1980s, where he wrote music for the Mark Taper Forum and Chicago’s Goodman Theatre. In 1992 he won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music in a Play for his incidental music for director JoAnne Akalaitis’s new version of ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore.
Kaczmarek had written music for a handful of small-budget features and TV movies in his native Poland in the 1980s and early 1990s, but he first came to international attention in 1995 with his score for director Agnieszka Holland’s Total Eclipse, about the life of poet Arthur Rimbaud, played by Leonardo di Caprio. He continued to work on a series of acclaimed films throughout the 1990s and early 2000, including arthouse dramas like Bliss (1996), Washington Square (1997), Aimée & Jaguar (1999), and The Third Miracle (1999), and more mainstream fare like the horror thriller Lost Souls (2000), and the erotic drama Unfaithful (2002). He often worked with Polish directors making English-language films – Holland, Janusz Kamiński, Yurek Bogayevicz – and he invariably wrote music that was elegant, technically masterful, emotionally poignant, but subtle, conveying a distinctly European sensibility. Read more…
PAUL: APOSTLE OF CHRIST – Jan A.P. Kaczmarek
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
It’s interesting to note that, for quite some time now, Hollywood has been out of love with the biblical epic. It’s not that long ago than an adaptation of a bible story was a film studio annual cornerstone, guaranteed to bring in the crowds and the money. Some of the greatest and most lavish films in cinema history – Ben-Hur, The Ten Commandments, Quo Vadis – drew their inspiration from the most important parts of Christian scripture, while a whole raft of others focused on ‘minor characters’ from the bible but were no less successful – Samson and Delilah, David and Bathsheba, The Robe, Sodom and Gomorrah, The Story of Ruth, Barabbas. However, at a certain point audience enthusiasm for these films dwindled away, and for many subsequent years biblical films were considered passé, a relic of the over-stuffed studio era. Read more…
THE VISITOR – Jan A.P. Kaczmarek
Original Review by Clark Douglas
If you missed “The Visitor”, I strongly suggest giving it a look. It’s a very fine independent drama starring the wonderful Richard Jenkins, who gives one of the finer performances of his increasingly compelling career. The film also receives a score from Jan A.P. Kaczmarek, who won an Oscar for his pretty “Finding Neverland” score. The win didn’t appear to do Kaczmarek any favors, as he hasn’t exactly received many high-profile scoring assignments. While I don’t think Kaczmarek deserved an Oscar win in the first place, he’s certainly a talented composer who typically provides very pleasant albums of music. For “The Visitor”, Kaczmarek provides a low-key chamber music score that is sentimental without ever getting too soppy. Read more…
EVENING – Jan A.P. Kaczmarek
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
A thoughtful film about life, death and regret, based on the popular novel by Susan Minot, Evening stars Vanessa Redgrave as Ann Lord, an old woman at the end of her life, being cared for by her two daughters, Nina and Connie (Toni Collette and Natasha Richardson). As Ann lies in bed, waiting for the inevitable, her mind wanders back to a pivotal moment in her life: the summer of 1955, when as a young woman (Clare Danes) she attended the Rhode Island wedding of a friend, and was forced to make a decision which ultimately shaped the rest of her life. But was it the right one? As she ponders her choices, she imparts a long-held secret to her enthralled daughters, the repercussions of which are felt far and wide. With a stellar supporting cast that includes Glenn Close, Meryl Streep, Patrick Wilson, Hugh Dancy, Eileen Atkins, and Close’s real-life daughter Mamie Gummer, Lajos Koltai’s film is a moving and dramatic character study that is much more than simply a “chick flick”. Read more…
UNFAITHFUL – Jan A.P. Kaczmarek
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Jan A.P. Kaczmarek, the least-known of the triumvirate of Polish film composers that includes Wojciech Kilar and Zbigniew Preisner, continues to make in-roads into Hollywood with his score for Unfaithful, the latest film by maverick director Adrian Lyne. Kaczmarek has had an interesting career to date, scoring mainly art house fare such as Total Eclipse and Bliss, but dabbling in the mainstream with things like Lost Souls and Washington Square without being widely recognized. I have a feeling that Unfaithful could change all that. Basically a three-way character study about the emotional effects of infidelity, Unfaithful stars Richard Gere and Diane Lane as Edward and Connie Sumner, a happily married couple living in the New York suburbs with their precocious young son Charlie (Erik Per Sullivan). One stormy autumn day, Connie makes a trip to the city, and literally bumps into handsome French book dealer Paul Martel (Olivier Martinez). Cleaning her grazed knee in his apartment, Connie obviously feels an attraction to Paul, but ignores her instincts, dismissing them as mere juvenile lust. However, Connie and Paul’s feelings for each other gradually grow too strong to ignore, and eventually they embark on a stormy, passionate affair. Meanwhile, the dependable Edward begins to notice subtle changes in his wife’s behavior, and hires a detective to find out about her illicit daytime liaisons. What transpires thereafter begins to tear at the fabric of the Sumner family, culminating in anger, betrayal and murder. Read more…
Shop at the Movie Music UK Store
Member of the
MOVIE MUSIC UK 