director Kazimierz Kutz
screenplay Kazimierz Kutz
director of photography Stanisław Loth
music Wojciech Kilar
with Olgierd Łukaszewicz, Łucja Kowolik, Franciszek Pieczka, Jan Englert
awards
Golden Globe at the Milan International Film Festival, 1972
Grand Prix and Best Direction at the International Film Festival in Panama, 1972
prize at the International Industrial Film Festival ‘MEDIODRAMA 73’ in Antwerp, 1973
Grand Prix at the Film Festival in Blankenberg, 1973
Grand Prix, Golden Grape, for Best Actor in a Leading Role awarded to Franciszek Pieczka and prize awarded by the Polish Association of Film Critics Club, the Don Quixote, at the Lubuskie Film Summer in Łagów, 1972
KAZIMIERZ KUTZ, ‘PEARL IN THE CROWN’ – SCREENPLAY [‘PERŁA W KORONIE’ – SCENARIUSZ], ‘DIALOG’, 1971, NO. 11
His wife knelt down in front of the stool, put the bowl on the floor, checked the temperature of the water, took a handful of salt and poured it inside. She stirred the solution. Jasio wanted to stroke her hair but noticed that his two sons, standing shoulder to shoulder, were watching him closely. He felt embarrassed, put up his bare feet and dipped them in the salty water. His wife washed them with attention and rubbed each part. Her hands moved from toes to heel, until her fingers met, and returned the same way. She rubbed delicately at the swollen veins and he sat there with a pained expression on his face like a saint.
KRZYSZTOF MĘTRAK, VEIN OF GOLD [ZŁOTA ŻYŁA], ‘KULTURA’, 1972, NO. 8
‘Pearl in the Crown’ is a story based on several counterpoints. There is the overground aspect (the family picture, festivities in the mining settlement) and the underground one (the mine and the strike). There is the juxtaposition of moral values (…), a fight for jobs and human dignity, male solidarity, and tradition: family and plebeian rituals. In its visual aspect, the counterpoint is based on the feast of colours at the festival and the ever stronger bond of people and coal during the prolonged strike. Kutz needs these aesthetics of counterpoint to present his characteristic lyrical attitude to history. In his films, a man meets with history in everyday life. (…) In this film, as in other Kutz’s films, humour and pathos stand next to each other.
history periods
