Man of Marble
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Man of Marble | |
|---|---|
 Polish poster advertising the film |
|
| Directed by | Andrzej Wajda |
| Written by | Aleksander Scibor-Rylski |
| Starring | Krystyna Janda Jerzy Radziwilowicz Tadeusz Lomnicki |
| Release date(s) | February 25, 1977 |
| Running time | 165 min. |
| Language | Polish |
| IMDb profile | |
Man of Marble (Polish: Człowiek z marmuru) is a 1976 Polish film by Andrzej Wajda. It chronicles the fall from grace of a heroic Polish bricklayer, Mateusz Birkut (played by Jerzy Radziwiłowicz), who became the symbol of the worker in Nowa Huta, a new (real life) socialist city near Kraków. Agnieszka, played by Krystyna Janda in her first role, is a young filmmaker who is making her diploma film on Birkut, whose whereabouts seems to have been lost two decades later. The title refers to the propagandistic marble statues made in Birkut's image. It is somewhat of a surprise that Wajda would have been able to make such a film, sub silentio attacking the Stalinist Realism of Nowa Huta, and presaged the loosening grip of the Soviets that came with the Solidarity Movement, in 1976.
Agnieszka has trouble making the film from archival sources and museum collections, until her father suggests that if he were making a film on someone, he would like to find that person first. With this inspiration, Agnieszka finds Birkut's associates, and tracks down his son, Maciej, in the Gdańsk shipyards—a fortunate coincidence for Wajda, who later used the same characters in his 1981 film Man of Iron. Agnieszka also reappears in Man of Iron.
 |
This 1970s drama film-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
