Man of Marble (1977)

In 1976, a young woman in Krakow is making her diploma film, looking behind the scenes at the life of a 1950s bricklayer, Birkut, who was briefly a proletariat hero, at how that heroism was... See full summary »

Director:

Andrzej Wajda

Writer:

Aleksander Scibor-Rylski

Stars:

Krystyna Janda, Jerzy Radziwilowicz, Tadeusz Lomnicki

3 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jerzy Radziwilowicz	...	Mateusz Birkut / Maciek Tomczyk
Krystyna Janda	...	Agnieszka
Tadeusz Lomnicki	...	Jerzy Burski
Jacek Lomnicki	...	Young Burski
Michal Tarkowski	...	Wincenty Witek
Piotr Cieslak	...	Michalak
Wieslaw Wójcik	...	Jodla
Krystyna Zachwatowicz	...	Hanka
Magda Teresa Wójcik	...	Editor
Boguslaw Sobczuk	...	TV Producer
Leonard Zajaczkowski	...	Leonard Zajaczkowski, Cameraman
Jacek Domanski	...	Soundman
Irena Laskowska	...	Museum Employee
Zdzislaw Kozien	...	Agnieszka's Father
Wieslaw Drzewicz	...	Hanka's Husband

Storyline

In 1976, a young woman in Krakow is making her diploma film, looking behind the scenes at the life of a 1950s bricklayer, Birkut, who was briefly a proletariat hero, at how that heroism was created, and what became of him. She gets hold of outtakes and censored footage and interviews the man's friends, ex-wife, and the filmmaker who made him a hero. A portrait of Birkut emerges: he believed in the workers' revolution, in building housing for all, and his very virtues were his undoing. Her hard-driving style and the content of the film unnerve her supervisor, who kills the project with the excuse she's over budget. Is there any way she can push the film to completion?

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Plot Keywords:

year 1976 | 1970s | 1950s | krakow | lesser poland voivodeship | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

Poland

Language:

Polish

Release Date:

25 February 1977 (Poland)

Also Known As:

Man of Marble

Filming Locations:

Gdansk Shipyard, Gdansk, Pomorskie, Poland

Company Credits

Production Co:

Film Polski Film Agency, Zespól Filmowy "X"

Technical Specs

Runtime:

165 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The award Burski is flaunting at the airport on his return was Wajda's own award, hence Burski is a mock self-portrait.

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Connections

Referenced in The Lesson of Polish Cinema (2002)

User Reviews

For the party and for the nation

Ironic, tongue-in-cheek, smart and a tad too long, "Man of Marble" is a good movie that can't help being a little bit too much in love with itself, on top of being unable to know where to stop, thus ending being a little bit repetitive.

Agnieszka, a university student doing her diploma film, decides to investigate in the past of long forgotten hero of the people Birkut. Her search brings her to discover a lot about a man that was put in a pedestal to then be forgotten and erased from the history of the nation.

Wajda does not use a lot of subtlety in this film, but who needs it when the script is smart enough, the direction top notch, with some great shots and a pace that is sometimes close to an action movie, and there is really good acting (in particular our hero, Agnieszka, played with a lot of sass and confidence by Krystyna Janda). The score and the use of locations is also great.

However, the movie clocks at over two hours and a half, and the ideas behind the movie: the use of unknown people by the ones in power as little more than toys, destroying lives and dreams without a second of remorse, the difficulty to fight the system or the way paranoia extends everywhere in some regimes become undone by repetition and by a story that starts to spin on its wheels around the 1 hour and a half mark.

It is totally worth checking though. Just be sure to have enough time (you may want to have some breaks).