Man of Marble (1977)

A young Polish filmmaker sets out to find out what happened to Mateusz Birkut, a bricklayer who became a propaganda hero in the 1950s but later fell out of favor and disappeared.

Director:

Andrzej Wajda

Writer:

Aleksander Scibor-Rylski

Stars:

Krystyna Janda, Jerzy Radziwilowicz, Tadeusz Lomnicki

4 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?

---

Plot Keywords:

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

---

Genres:

Drama

---

Did You Know?

Trivia

Included among the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider.

---

Connections

Featured in Fejezetek a film történetéböl: A lengyel film (1990)

User Reviews

It's not radio

So many film students have wasted their time trying to study "Kane" as a character study and as a satire. But it wasn't really either of those things, but an experiment in depth for the camera and narrative structures. The frequent comparison between that film and this one makes a lot of sense superficially; the newsreel footage, the interviewees made up to look 20 years older.

But Agniezcka is making a film, rather than a piece for a newspaper: journalism vs. art, capitalism vs. socialism. Although the journalists in "Kane" said otherwise, they were never seeing "who he was" rather "what he was like" ie. his behaviour, how others perceived him etc. Here we have something broader, examining a man confronting society, confronting his friends, and confronting himself all at the same time. Newspaper journalism tells us what something is like. Good documentary strives to really define what or who something was.

This is a highly intelligent structure, moreso than his previous works and moreso even than "Kane." As a meditation on film-making, it moves gracefully from the shots captured by Agniezcka's cinematographer, and the shots of Wajda himself, forcing us to draw parallels.

It's a shame Wajda remains largely unknown. Perhaps the up-coming Criterion set of his "War Trilogy" will change that.

4 out of 5 - An excellent film

Details

Country:

Poland

Language:

Polish

Release Date:

25 February 1977 (Poland)

Also Known As:

Man of Marble

Filming Locations:

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