Man of Marble

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Tony S @RT94004908 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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