Jerzy Kosiński
Jerzy Nikodem Kosiński , born Józef Lewinkopf, was a Polish-American novelist and two-time President of the American Chapter of P.E.N., who wrote primarily in English. For several decades, Kosinski was famous as a wit, a great raconteur, and a media celebrity. His first three novels were big hits. However, in June 22, 1982, "Jerzy Kosinski's Tainted Words," an article by Geoffrey Stokes and Eliot Fremont-Smith in The Village Voice, accused Jerzy Kosinski of plagiarism and dishonesty. 'The Painted Bird' was widely considered to be autobiographical; the Voice showed that this shocking tale about a brutalized childhood during the Jewish Holocaust was not after all about Jerzy, who actually lived rather comfortably during the war years. 'Being There', which was adapted as a successful film, was shown to have been plagiarized from an earlier Polish novel. Jerzy Kosinski appeared in two feature films a few documentaries and a large number of talk shows. His parents, Moses (Mojzesz) and Elzbieta (Liniecka) Lewinkopf, were well off, resourceful and cultured—though Elzbieta was an amateur musician, not a concert pianist as her son maintained, and Moses was a manager skilled in languages but not a professor of linguistics. The Lewinkopfs, secularized Jews, recognized the Nazi threat to their native Poland, and in late 1939 they acquired papers changing their last name to Kosinski and the father's first name to Mieczyslaw. Kosinski was their only biological child.
Reds
(1981)
An account of the revolutionary years of the legendary American journalist John Reed, who shared his adventurous professional life with his radical commitment to the socialist revolution in Russia, his dream of spreading its principles among the members of the ... (more)
An account of the revolutionary years of the legendary American journalist John Reed, who shared his adventurous professional life with his radical commitment to the socialist revolution in Russia, his dream of spreading its principles among the members of the ... (more)
Lodz Ghetto (1988)
The Polish city of Lodz was under Nazi occupation for nearly the entire duration of WWII. The segregation of the Jewish population into the ghetto, and the subsequent horrors of the occupation are vividly chronicled through newsreels and photographs. The narration ... (more)
The Polish city of Lodz was under Nazi occupation for nearly the entire duration of WWII. The segregation of the Jewish population into the ghetto, and the subsequent horrors of the occupation are vividly chronicled through newsreels and photographs. The narration ... (more)
A Fool and His Money (1989)
New York advertising executive Morris Codman seems to have it all - lots of talent and a beautiful girlfriend, Debbie. When he loses his job he decides to use his advertising expertise to create, package and market a shady product that will make him millions. ... (more)
New York advertising executive Morris Codman seems to have it all - lots of talent and a beautiful girlfriend, Debbie. When he loses his job he decides to use his advertising expertise to create, package and market a shady product that will make him millions. ... (more)
The Statue of Liberty (1985)
Sex, Lies and Jerzy Kosinski (1995)
The making of Jerzy Kosinski. The BBC documentary on the life and art of enigmatic novelist Jerzy Kosinski. Through interviews with his second wife Kiki von Fraunhofer-Kosinski, friends and fellow authors, and Polish villagers who knew Kosinski when he was a child ... (more)
The making of Jerzy Kosinski. The BBC documentary on the life and art of enigmatic novelist Jerzy Kosinski. Through interviews with his second wife Kiki von Fraunhofer-Kosinski, friends and fellow authors, and Polish villagers who knew Kosinski when he was a child ... (more)
The Painted Boy (1995)
"Malowany chlopiec" - The first major mystification of the Holocaust was the novel "The Painted Bird" by Polish Emigrant Jerzy Kosinski, who in his book describes himself as an abandoned child who became mute, ended up in an orphanage and only later discovers his ... (more)
"Malowany chlopiec" - The first major mystification of the Holocaust was the novel "The Painted Bird" by Polish Emigrant Jerzy Kosinski, who in his book describes himself as an abandoned child who became mute, ended up in an orphanage and only later discovers his ... (more)