Bodo bodes well for Poland
One of the most expensive dramas ever produced in Poland chronicles the life of celebrated entertainer Eugene Bodo. DQ finds out more about the ‘Polish Rudolph Valentino.’ He was a star of stage and screen who captivated Polish audiences during the years between the First and Second World Wars. Now, 73 years after his death, modern audiences are being introduced to Eugene Bodo through a new 13-part drama airing on Poland’s public broadcaster TVP. The series, called Bodo, follows the showman from his birth in 1899, through his childhood, when his stage career started at his father’s theatre, and throughout his fascinating adult life. He went on to become an actor, director, producer, businessman and celebrity – a star of scandal and gossip, loved by women and idolised by men. The show looks at the Bodo’s intense social life, the twists and turns in his life coloured by love and betrayal, and his death in 1943 – an event that is still shrouded in mystery following his move east to the Soviet Union at the outbreak of the Second World War. “It’s a very powerful story,” says Jan Pawlicki, director of TVP1. “Bodo was a great star of cabaret and cinema. He’s a little bit forgotten and now he’s come back. We have many sad stories about war and bad things, but this story is about cinema, music – it’s a very nice story. “In Poland, the inter-war period is some kind of Arcadia because we have only 20 years of independence between … Continue reading Bodo bodes well for Poland
