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‘A friend,’ recalls director Jerzy Skolimowski, ‘told me a story about a diamond that was lost for ever after being dropped in snow. I thought: “But you could grab the snow, melt it and get it back.” It seemed a great idea for a film’I had problems in Poland with my film Hands Up! It had a strong anti-Stalinist message and the government withdrew it from the Venice film festival and banned it. I was told I couldn’t make that kind of film any more in Poland. So I took the first available project, just to make a living. This was an expensive comedy, The Adventures of Gerard, shooting in Rome with Claudia Cardinale and Peter McEnery. It was going terribly and it was my fault: I just didn’t know how to make a film like that. Continue reading...