director Andrzej Wajda
screenplay Aleksander Ścibor-Rylski
director of photography Edward Kłosiński
music Andrzej Korzyński
with Jerzy Radziwiłowicz, Krystyna Janda, Tadeusz Łomnicki, Jacek Łomnicki, Michał Tarkowski, Krystyna Zachwatowicz, Leonard Zajączkowski
awards
FIPRESCI Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, 1978
Grand Prix and prize for Jerzy Radziwiłowicz at the Belgrade Documentary and Short Films Festival, 1979
Crystal Star for Jerzy Radziwiłowicz at the Brussels International Film Festival, 1979
Special Critics Award at the Cartagena Film Festival, 1980
Journalists Award at the 4th Polish Film Festival in Gdańsk, 1977
TADEUSZ LUBELSKI, WAJDA, WROCŁAW 2006
In the middle of the shoot, in June 1976, workers rebelled again; in September, the Workers Defence Committee was founded. Thus, the events of a few years earlier acquired a new significance. (…) At the end of October the film was ready. Deputy Premier Józef Tejchma appreciated the value of the film and decided to fight for it, he recommended just a few rather cosmetic changes (softening of the trial scene and the scene in front of the Security Force Headquarters). After the film was viewed by Secretary Łukaszewicz, we were ordered to remove additionally the scene at the cemetery. (…) The opening night was set for February 25, 1977; at first – at the insistence of the authorities – only a handful of prints were prepared. They expected that if ‘Man of Marble’ would not be allowed any publicity, and all reviews – as ordered by Premier Piotr Jaroszewicz – would be negative, the film would not catch the public attention and the problem would be hushed. But things turned out to be quite different. (…) The famous scene during the Gdańsk Festival – Wajda receiving a brick bound up with a ribbon – became a manifestation of unity of the whole community, filmmakers and critics.
WIKTOR WOROSZYLSKI, ‘WIĘŹ’, 1977, NO. 5-6
First I wasted a few days trying in vain to get a ticket for one of the shows at the ‘Wars’ cinema; on Friday someone called me and said in an excited voice that tomorrow the film would probably be released in three other theatres; at dawn my doorbell rings, it’s my neighbour who tells me that at the entrance to the ‘Wisła’ cinema some nice young people are keeping a list; thus I happened to be number sixty in that extraordinary community of people wishing to see ‘Man of Marble’. (…) In leader Birkut from Nowa Huta I recognised my own generation with its black-and-white (like on the screen), faith, enthusiasm and gullibility. (…) After all, I had been there in person, unloading bricks at night, fighting my way through the mud, sleeping with the young members of labour brigades in a large common bedroom, writing a poem about them – which was as primitive as themselves. (…) I look back on our youth – in life and in the film – with mixed feelings, among which I find fondness, but also, and more acutely, self-irony, shame, bitterness…
history periods
