It’s the early spring of 1990—Warsaw MDM Hotel lobby. When visiting the capital, he always chose this address – he estimated that he spent a total of several months there. This time he came to Warsaw to play in Robert Gliński's film “ Superwizja” ("Supervision"). And to the undersigned, the editorial office of “Ekspress Wieczorny” (the Polish "Evening Express" newspaper) - where I apprenticed professionally while still being a student of journalism at the University of Warsaw - commissioned an interview with the actor who then celebrated his fiftieth birthday.

Intimidated, I waited at the reception counter. The interlocutor was late. Instead of a hat – his statement garment - he wore a headband holding his hairstyle. He gave me an interview despite – euphemistically speaking – very stereotypical questions. And he didn't even want authorisation, which is definitely not the norm for many artists. This was the beginning of my acquaintance with Jan Nowicki.

Truancy he spent in libraries. He was expelled from school

The subsequent episodes of my acquaintance with Jan Nowicki took place in Krakow. At the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, I happened to be there for the Vistula matches, the strongest football club in Poland at that time. The other day I accompanied my high school classmate Olaf Lubaszenko (the Legia Club fan) and his father Edward (the Vistula Club fan). At the stand, we met Nowicki, who also sympathised with the "White Star", (which is another name for the Vistula Kraków Football Club). Nowicki’s passion dated since the time of his higher education studies, as he revealed…

… since his studies at the Kraków Theatre School (AST National Academy of Theatre Arts in Kraków), because earlier, he also studied at the Leon Schiller National Film School in Łódź, which he was ... expelled from. And even before that, he had to go through as many as six different schools to get the coveted high school diploma. Among them, there were such original institutions as the Industrial and Pedagogical Technical School in Radziejów, the Cultural and Educational High School in Bydgoszcz, the Economic Study in Włocławek and the Agricultural School in Aleksandrów Kujawski. He did not stay there for long because he was still looking for his life path.

He used to say that he got into the Leon Schiller National Higher School of Film, Television and Theatre in Łódź somewhat by accident - because "he didn't like counting, drawing, or poring over textbooks at all." “I loved reading, of course, but only when I could choose the reading myself. There were times when I was playing truant in libraries! In such circumstances I became acquainted with a large part of the world's famous literary classics - he added.

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  Why did he choose acting? – “Mainly because the only things required from the candidates were a good memory and imagination, which were my strengths. I was especially good at daydreaming,”- he joked. He was accepted as a student, but because he did not submit to academic discipline, after reminders, exhortations and reprimands, finally and with regret he was asked to leave. “ - Actually, after one semester, I had had enough. The teaching staff turned out to be so kind that I was able to repeat the first year, which supposedly never happened before or after. I will say more - the professors collected money for my food, but I splashed the cash by playing poker passionately at night time”- he recalled. Did it help him later on the “Big Shar” set?

The miner, who went down to the “The Cellars under the Rams” [”Piwnica pod Baranami”]

The threat of military service hung over the young man who was unemployed. So, to avoid being sent to the barracks, he decided to work… underground. The hard coal production in one of the mines in Bytom guaranteed that army recruitment would be postponed.

He was accommodated in a Silesian workers’ hostel: “A four-people room with traces of previous tenants on the walls, floor and ceiling. Two battered bunk beds, a creaking wardrobe, a crooked table, dilapidated chairs, a washbasin with a leaking faucet, a toilet that one often needed to queue up to … A common room with a misaligned TV set, equipped with a colour overlay on the screen, thanks to which it offered an illusion of colour television. By the way, it was in such circumstances - during a snapshot from some athletics meeting - that I probably first saw Barbara (de domo Lerczak, primo voto Janiszewska, secundo Sobotta, the leading Polish sprinter - note by the author of TZZ), the mother of my son Lukasz. And a surprising soup kitchen... On my tongue, I can still feel the taste of Silesian noodles with red cabbage and black pudding, when sipping a pint of Tyskie beer.”

He usually started his shift at the crack of dawn. After work, exhausted, he would fall asleep, interrupted by the noise of the “kolkhoznik” - the loudspeaker placed above the room door. The device broadcast mine announcements and also the Polish Radio Katowice program: “… at that time, lavishly inlaid with hits by Maria Koterbska, Natasza Zylska and Janusz Gniatkowski, often opening a window to the world for my generation. Ah…! All those songs… »Indonesia«, »Mexicana«, »Cuba«, »Paris is dreaming«, »Arrivederci Roma«,….”

After a year, he came to the conclusion that mining was tough work for him and applied again to acting studies. Only this time, it was the Ludwik Solski Academy for the Dramatic Arts in Kraków. He graduated with honors and on time, then started lecturing there. Nowicki settled near Wawel Royal Castle for almost half a century. He joined the Helena Modrzejewska National Stary Theatre in Kraków for a little less than that - just like The Cellars under the Rams /Piwnica pod Baranami. With its founder, Piotr Skrzynecki, and another pillar of this extraordinary cabaret, Wiesław Dymny, he was connected for a lifelong friendship. The Polish actor left the city of kings in 2006.

For Jan Nowicki, Tarnów was another important spot on the map of Poland. He visited the place regularly - for the Tarnów Film Award - a festival of Polish cinema productions held annually since the late 1980s. Although, for the artist, undoubtedly the most important was his Kujawy Region hometown, the communal town of Kowal - where he was born on November 5th, 1939 – he loved the nearby, picturesquely situated village of Krzewent, surrounded by a forest and waters of three lakes, adjacent to a nature reserve. Incidentally, here in Kowal, 600 years earlier – then in the royal city of The Crown of the Kingdom of Poland - the outstanding ruler Casimir III the Great was born as well, and from here he went to Wawel. Nowicki had his home in this settlement. He found excellent conditions for his literary work there because - as he emphasised - at the age of over seventy, only occasionally he happened to be an actor. As he said with regret, his memory failed; he kept forgetting. He died on December 7th in Krzewent. In Kowal - on December 14, he will be buried in the family tomb that he built and where, according to his will, the following inscription is to be found: "You can live anywhere, die where your home is".

Thoughts written in black ink

Nowicki's path to literature led through... the journalistic genre - publications. He published his columns in „Przekrój” Magazine, daily newspaper „Gazeta Krakowska”, „Dziennik Polski” newspaper and „Zwierciadło” journal. Then, there was his time for prose. He made his debut with the novel "Grażyna", illustrated by Andrzej Mleczko. Later, he also published "Piosenki"(“Songs”) - a book of poetry provided with scores by composers of such calibre as Zbigniew Preisner, Jan Kanty Pawluśkiewicz, Piotr Rubik and Zygmunt Konieczny. “Dwaj Panowie” ("Two Gentlemen") contains a selection of his correspondence with Piotr Skrzynecki. And finally, in my opinion, the most mature position: "Droga do domu" (“The way home”), the penetrating miniatures about passing, old age and death written together with Rafał Wojasiński. He published his last books in 2020 – „Spotkania w Raju” ("Meetings in Paradise"), and in 2021 – „Szczęśliwy bałagan. Część I” ( "Happy Mess. Part I”) …

Jan Nowicki willingly participated in the author's evenings and literary festivals. I was honoured to moderate one of such open-air writers' meetings in Szczecin. I took notes with a black-ink ballpen, which he praised because that was the only colour he used - except that he wrote with a pen. Today, I'm going back to my old notes.

– If you live next door to death, then beer, wine or vodka tastes differently. Penultimate emotions are perceived in another way. Passions in the context of the prospect of the end of your days are the unique experience. After all, everything that has strength, taste, that results in elation, delight and success leans towards the end - he said.

The audience also asked him about contemporary Polish films. – I will not comment on soap operas and sitcoms, because I see children in the audience, and as for cinematography, I know it more from hearsay than I know by sight – he replied.

And he summed up his screen achievements in this way: "I don't like to look at my roles, because I notice mainly shortcomings in them". He commented on one of the most famous roles, Big Shar: “Since its premiere, it has been following me everywhere I go. In the Third Republic of Poland, it became enfranchised and transformed into Fashionable Shar. Still, it went bankrupt (this is a reference to the clothing brand existing in Krakow in the 1990s - TZZ note). The next incarnation of this character had a musical dimension. Nevertheless, I do not remember the "Return of Big Shar" (musical staged at the Sabat Theatre - TZZ note) with flying colours. However, it is possible that the continuation of Shar will occur. Because it seems indestructible. Anyway, Shar will certainly outlive me."

– Tomasz Zbigniew Zapert

TVP WEEKLY. Editorial team and journalists

– translated by Katarzyna Chocian