Man of Marble

An ultimately optimistic film.

Man of Marble, a 1977 Polish film by Andrzej Wajda, evokes the comic creation, and tragic desecration, of a national hero with savage brilliance.

Audiences less anxious to help the film say things they want said will find this point obscured by the clumsy celebrity-fan approach employed as a dramatic device.

[Wajda] smells a turning point in Poland’s history. He connects the fate of the Stalinist-era workers of Nowa Huta with the struggles of their sons and daughters. It is startling that such an overtly political film got past the censors of the time