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Man of Marble

Play trailer Poster for Man of Marble 1977 2h 40m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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75% Tomatometer 8 Reviews 85% Popcornmeter 500+ Ratings
In repressive mid-1970s Poland, documentary filmmaker Agnieszka (Krystyna Janda) begins work on a film about Mateusz Birkut (Jerzy Radziwiłowicz), a bricklayer who had briefly been hailed as a hero of the proletariat in the 1950s, but then disappeared into obscurity. In piecing together details about the bricklayer's mysterious life, she discovers that his involvement in organized labor had been viewed negatively by party bosses, and that her own investigations could put her in danger.

Critics Reviews

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Jan Dawson Sight & Sound 03/17/2020
An ultimately optimistic film. Go to Full Review
Michael Blowen Boston Globe 04/28/2018
Man of Marble, a 1977 Polish film by Andrzej Wajda, evokes the comic creation, and tragic desecration, of a national hero with savage brilliance. Go to Full Review
Judith Martin Washington Post 05/09/2017
Audiences less anxious to help the film say things they want said will find this point obscured by the clumsy celebrity-fan approach employed as a dramatic device. Go to Full Review
Giuseppe Sedia Kino Mania 07/26/2023
4.5/5
[Wajda] smells a turning point in Poland’s history. He connects the fate of the Stalinist-era workers of Nowa Huta with the struggles of their sons and daughters. It is startling that such an overtly political film got past the censors of the time Go to Full Review
Fernando Trueba El Pais (Spain) 02/08/2018
The plot is not bad, but the characters are non-existent... [Full review in Spanish] Go to Full Review
Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews 02/07/2013
A-
Superior political pic. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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Tony S 10/22/2021 A very interesting and well shot look at Soviet propaganda about quotas and workers in 50's Poland, through the eyes of student filmmaker trying to make an indepth film about a cast down bricklayer icon. An investigation type approach to the story and the contrast between movies and reality, is what makes it really stand out and grip you because just like the character you only get snippets of truth, sometimes in isolation. It really is a standard story, about a man trying to not betray his conscience in the face of his country's policies and other people's nature. It also is a first part of a split narrative, with a really lackluster cliffhanger. See more s r @ScottR 07/24/2021 1001 movies to see before you die. An ambitious and important film. However, it dragged for me. I also didn't care about any of the characters. The female was unique, but I didn't identify with her stubbornness and the Statue man was aimless (just like communism). The funky song at the beginning and end was memorable. Regardless, it was reasonably well made and is an important work against communism. It was on youtube. See more 01/02/2016 A brilliant study of the self-defeating evil nature of Communism. See more 06/08/2013 A Polish film student decides to film her final project on the working class heroes of 50's Poland, and particularly on Birkut, a man whose image was exploited for propagandist reasons and who seems to have disappeared. Wajda once again explores the horrors that Socialism brought to Poland in the fifties - he does this in a stylistically rich way, with different stock footage that makes the film look effective and authentic with its close resemblance to a documentary. Both lead characters in the parallel storylines are very interesting, the brave young film student eager to unearth the truth and complete her film, and the figure of Birkut, a seemingly normal man, yet political rebel. See more 01/06/2013 Still seems a masterpiece.. Like many, imperfect.. but few films capture so much about a country and culture and the realities of living in Eastern Europe during the "HIgh Stalinist" years. the two lead characters are totally engaging ( though they exist across a 25 year divide). Captures too some of the vague hopes of communism... All is so human. the lack of heavy irony is so appreciated. Really close to a masterpiece and one that hold up because it provide so much of increasingly (but always pretty hidden) histroy See more 10/09/2012 Adopting a narrative and structure not dissimilar to "Citizen Kane", Andrezej Wajda's landmark Polish film "Man of Marble" deconstructs the myth of a communist porter boy and proletariat bricklayer Birkut through the investigative documentarianism of a determined film student (the iron-forged Krystyna Janda). Though intermittent flash back recreation of days of Stalinist communism and politically conscious present day dramatization (present day being 1976), Wajda is uncannily able to both scathingly disect Poland's political past while simultaneously anticipating its future. Old newsreel footage is seamlessly edited into the mix, while the cast deliver naturalistic performances fitting this type of docucrama. *** out of **** See more Read all reviews
Man of Marble

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Movie Info

Synopsis In repressive mid-1970s Poland, documentary filmmaker Agnieszka (Krystyna Janda) begins work on a film about Mateusz Birkut (Jerzy Radziwiłowicz), a bricklayer who had briefly been hailed as a hero of the proletariat in the 1950s, but then disappeared into obscurity. In piecing together details about the bricklayer's mysterious life, she discovers that his involvement in organized labor had been viewed negatively by party bosses, and that her own investigations could put her in danger.
Director
Andrzej Wajda
Screenwriter
Aleksander Ścibor-Rylski
Distributor
New Yorker Films
Production Co
Zespół Filmowy "X", Film Polski Film Agency
Genre
Drama
Original Language
Polish
Release Date (Theaters)
Feb 25, 1977, Original
Release Date (DVD)
Oct 28, 2003
Runtime
2h 40m
Sound Mix
Mono