#bronisław oranowski

[sollannaart]

Józef Poniatowski’s depiction in movies

Part II. In the films about Napoleon-Walewska

1. This most known Polish movie on the topic is, of course, “Marysia i Napoleon” (“Maria and Napoleon”).

And prince Józef was played there by Zdzisław Maklakiewicz:

And do not let this black-and-white image confuse you, this movie, though made in 1966, was colorful! But the DVD with it I have is of such a poor quality (a screenshot from it can be seen, for example, in this post) that I prefer to look for better photos from Internet whenever possible.

Pepi with Henriette de Vauban (played by Ewa Berger-Jankowska)

Strangely, but this movie is also available on YouTube (and even in the quality better than on my DVD), but… with only Russian audiotrack (good for you, @tairin) and… with some scenes cut (( And among them, unfortunately, is the one with prince Józef - where ladies ask him to persuade Walewska to give in to Napoleon.

2. Next item in this list will be an episode of the joint French-Polish TV-series “Napoléon et l’Europe”. The episode under the name “Marie Walewska”. (A friend of mine, who was lucky enough to watch this series on TV, told me that she remembered that prince Józef’s death was also shown there, but judging the information in the Internet Poniatowski appeared there only in one episode.) And he was played by Daniel Olbrychski:

And yes, this tv-series made in 1991 was of course colorful. But because it’s neither in my collection and nor can be found in the Internet the only thing I am able to show you are these photos from the Polish National Film Archive.

Daniel Olbrychski with Jean-François Stévenin (Napoleon)

And if you, by lucky chance, know where can this tv-series be bought or watched - please-please-please, let me know! (Even if it is on VHS, not DVD)

Daniel Olbrychski with Joanna Szczepkowska (Marie Walewska)

And speaking of Olbrychski - “Napoléon et l’Europe” wasn’t the first time he “played” Poniatowski. Because in 1980 in Kraków, as part of the "Krakow Day", the "entry of Prince Józef Poniatowski to Krakow in 1809" was recreated. And in this show prince Józef was portrayed by Daniel Olbrychski.

3. Prince Poniatowski also appears in such a Hollywood classics as “Conquest” (also known as „Marie Walewska”).

C. Henry Gordon as prince Józef

And though the actor’s make-up has some flows (like side whiskers’ absence etc), and during the whole movie he utters only a couple of sentences, I was still very glad to see him here.

A screenshot from the movie. Poniatowski - on the left, in the middle - Maria Walewska (Greta Garbo).

And if you’d like to watch the movie, it can be found, for example, here on YouTube.

What else is left? Unfortunately, dear friends, the rest of the images will be just actors photos, without any make-up etc. So you’ll have to turn on your fantasy to imagine how they might have looked like playing prince Józef ))

4. In 1914 there was produced a joint Polish-French silent movie called “Bóg Wojny” („The God of War”, also known as „Pani Walewska”). Józef Ponitowski was played there by Bronisław Oranowski:

Bronisław Oranowski

5. 6 years later, in 1920 in Germany, the love story between the Emperor of the Frenchmen and a Polish countess was filmed again, under the title “Gräfin Walewska” (“The countess Walewska”). Prince Poniatowski was portrayed there by Leopold von Ledebur:

Leopold von Ledebur

Unfortunately, neither first nor second silent movies survived till our times…

6. And the last item of this list will be a British TV-series of 1974, devoted to Napoleon’s women - “Napoleon and Love”. In the episode “Maria Walewska” prince Poniatowski was played by Vladek (Władysław) Sheybal.

Vladek Sheybal

I haven’t seen this movie either, so if you know where can it be watched - please let me know!