Pola Negri – an Extraordinary Woman with Polish-Slovak Roots

A lecture by Dorota Łańcucka featuring a multimedia presentation detailing the life and career of the outstanding actress, Pola Negri—a woman admired by the whole world. The most important period in the young Pola’s development were the years spent in Warsaw, where she honed her dancing talents, ballet skills, and stage performance at the Warsaw Government Theatres, and then her acting craft at Aleksander Hertz’s SFINKS film studio. She quickly achieved star status. The “Warsaw phenomenon” was noticed by European, and then global cinematography. In Warsaw, she first lived in the poor Powiśle district, then on Bednarska Street, before soon renting elegant salons on Senatorska Street. She inherited her abilities and predispositions largely from her parents—her father Juraj Chalupiec, a talented Slovak, and her mother Eleonora Kiełczewska.