A cinema called desire analyzes step by step, from the perspective given by "almost thirty years" of professional experience in cinema, the various stages and elements that, once made and gathered, result in a film: from the idea that makes it arise, to its final edition and, as a culmination, the "sad day of the premiere". It could also have been called Letters to a Young Filmmaker, but Wajda preferred to dedicate it to himself or, rather, to the "incredibly innocent young man" who, according to his own confession, was in 1949, when he left painting to devote himself to cinema.

It is then a record, and there is nothing that is relevant to a film director (for a filmmaker in general), that is not delimited and broken down in Wajda's book. The examples and details are minimal, but sufficient and intentional, perhaps because there is no clearer example of the experience gained than economics in the presentation and conclusions. Written in the first person and written for himself, it was inevitable that the book would betray its author: his humor, his intelligence, his good manners, his limitations, stumbles, mistakes, longings and loyalties, go hand in hand (in a light, precise and pleasant way) with the enormous experience that Wajda acquired as a filmmaker and whose best testimony are his own films.

Recipient of numerous awards and honorary titles, Wajda and his artistic career have been widely recognized at home and abroad. It is now up to the reader to get in touch with those other qualities of his, the most basic, the most human, that made him the great artist he has been and that are not usually rewarded, but arise on every page of this book full of wisdom and bonhomie.