Life of Matthew

^director Witold Leszczyński
^screenplay (based on the novel by Tarjea Vesaas ‘Birds’) Witold Leszczyński, Wojciech Solarz
^{director of photography} An drzej Ko sten ko
^music Ar can ge lo Co rel li (Con cer to Gros so Op. 6 Nr 8)
^with Fran ci szek Piecz ka, An na Mi lew ska, Wir gi liusz Gryń, Alek san der Fo giel, Han na Skar żan ka, Małgorzata Braunek
^{awards (selected)}  

KONRAD EBERHARDT, EXPULSION FROM ARCADIA [WYGNANIE Z ARKADII], ‘FILM’, 1968, NO. 7

Should Witold Leszczyński’s film be treated as some kind of a signum, should a new style, theme or motif of the Polish cinema follow from it? Or is it a phenomenon without consequence? I don’t know, the future will show. One thing I know for sure – it’s a masterpiece.

DARIUSZ CZAJA, WHY THINGS ARE AS THEY ARE? [DLACZEGO JEST TAK, JAK JEST?], ‘KWARTALNIK FILMOWY’, SUMMER 1997, NO. 18

This film, so many years later, continues to move, to rouse admiration and anxiety (…). ‘Life of Matthew’ is a pagan film. And it is so not only in the original (…) but also in the much deeper meaning of the term. It is pagan in the sense this word refers to sometimes, but no longer with any evaluating connotations, to the world of archaic religiousness (…) ‘Life of Matthew’ is also a metaphysical film (…). Its world, that countryside microcosmos, is founded on concrete substance: it has is a forest, a lake, grass, a field, a river, a stone, the sky, a bird… Yet, each of these beings is a particle of a bigger, overwhelming Whole.