El hombre de mármol

Como parte de su tesis, una estudiante de la escuela de cine monta una imagen del largamente olvidado delantero polaco Mateusz Birkut, y al mismo tiempo descubre que los iconos políticos eran fáciles de crear en los años cincuenta y aún más fáciles de derribar al poco tiempo. Este impresionante mosaico sobre el carácter de un hombre que se convirtió en una trágica marioneta del régimen es tanto un relato convincente de la inutilidad de la rebelión contra el sistema como una apreciación de ese ardiente esfuerzo. Andrzej Wajda realizó un drama complejo y audaz, que se ve embellecido por las comprometidas interpretaciones de los protagonistas y la muy excéntrica partitura de Andrzej Korzyński. En realidad es una maravilla que esta película se haya podido hacer. Es más, hay que apreciarlo. [LFŠ 2020] (02.09.2020)

From a formal point of view, it is a crystallized work, where Andrzej Wajda deals with the dark side of Polish history and describes the industrial production of strikers and heroes of socialist work. Content-wise, it is, of course, a film that reflects the time of its creation, namely the second half of the 70s, wherein Wajda evaluates recent history from the perspective of a reformist communist, so some motifs could have been even darker. The hero of the story, whom the viewer gets to know through archival materials, is a selfless idealist who takes excessively impractical positions, so even after the change in social climate, he does not want to benefit from his recent persecution and instead of accepting the offered position, he withdraws and is forgotten. Besides the well-constructed screenplay, one of the film's strengths is Krystyna Janda, the femme fatale of Polish cinema, who has appeared in several excellent Polish films. In Man of Marble, she creates a character that is a combination of Isabelle Huppert and Leni Riefenstahl. Overall impression: 80%. Unfortunately, the film is somewhat harmed by its drab ending, which somewhat diminishes the impact of its message. (19.11.2008)

It is a bit stretched, but it is conceptually so interesting that it still manages to captivate you. At first glance, it is a film about filming a movie, but on second thought, it is an exploration of the story of one person who became a major communist symbol. Every film against totalitarianism is good, and this one is also very well made. (30.10.2015)

I could hardly have chosen a more extravagant and progressive work for my first encounter with Wajda. Man of Marble is quite fascinating for its narrative system, which very effectively links two storylines through a series of conversations, with each developing its central characters and possessing a noticeably different stylistic treatment. The flashbacks are almost reminiscent of newsreels at times, while the present events of the 1970s could be mistaken for the formal modernism of American artists like Hal Ashby. The pace is a bit lethal in places, but thanks to the pyramid structure (interrogations of the characters leading gradually to the "marble man" himself), the story keeps unfolding towards the final twist and never ceases to captivate with its convincing depiction of the contrast between two morally different historical stages. 85% (09.11.2016)