Hacker Cinema
Man of Marble
Człowiek z marmuru
1977 · Film · 153 min
Part of Solidarity Collection
Directed by Andrzej Wajda
A young Polish filmmaker sets out to find out what happened to Mateusz Birkut, a bricklayer who became a propaganda hero in the 1950s but later fell out of favor and disappeared.
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5 comments on Hacker News
>(Obchod na korze, Sedmikrásky, Ostře sledované vlaky, Hoří, má panenko, Marketa Lazarová, Ucho) and Polish (Popiól I Diament, The Saragossa Manuscript, Człowiek z marmuru, Człowiek z żelaza)
Excellent! You've watched some brilliant Slavic films already then, especially Marketa Lazarova and The Saragossa Manuscript. I have these two in my favourite films of all time list. I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did.
Here are some of my favs: Ziemia obiecana (1975), Sanatorium pod klepsydrą (1973), Pociąg (1959), Kanal (1957), Holubice (1960), Slnko v sieti (1962), Zlaté kapradí (1963), Údolí včel (1968), Csillagosok, katonák (1967), A Pál utcai fiúk (1968), A tanú (1969), Kárhozat (1988), Két félidő a pokolban (1961), Szindbád (1971), Szürkület (1990), Dacii (1967), Danton (1983), O slavnosti a hostech (1966), Pădurea spînzuraților (1965), Reconstituirea (1968), and Добро пожаловать, или Посторонним вход воспрещён (1964).
Sure, please list.
FWIW, the "1001" has introduced me to a number of Czech (Obchod na korze, Sedmikrásky, Ostře sledované vlaky, Hoří, má panenko, Marketa Lazarová, Ucho) and Polish (Popiól I Diament, The Saragossa Manuscript, Człowiek z marmuru, Człowiek z żelaza) films.
I'm only up to the 1980's though, there may be a few more.
I'm not aware of having seen any Hungarian films (yet).
Try some movies by Andrzej Wajda, he's one of the most accessible directors (while still being great), so it might work well in the post-work time slot. For example "Man of Marble" (https://35mm.online/vod/fabula/czlowiek-z-marmuru). It's about creating myths of superhuman workers in the Stalinist times to get people to work more/harder.
One thing I noticed watching the "Man of Marble" film, which has some scenes in 1950s Poland, is that hats and elegant(ish) suits are worn by the communist party members, secret police etc. Maybe it's just visual language of the film, which is from 1970s so it's aware of counterculture tropes. I'm not sure what lowly office workers and intelligentsia wore. But it might be that this type of dressing came to be associated with the class of oppressors.
If you buy a membership for a month you can download (as opposed to stream-only) any movie you like with all the subtitles!
My favorite so far has been Wajda's 1977 Man of Marble. An oddly magnetic and fast-paced film that captures the spirit of unbridled, unrealistic optimism (the Soviet, communist variety) and its detriments. You will fall in love with Birkut's herculean brick-laying powers!
I also love Daisies and Pearls of the Deep (both Vera Chytolova) - solid gems of the Czech New Wave. Anyone who loves reading magical realist novels - Murakami, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Kundera - would also enjoy these films.