MovieChat Forums > Czlowiek z marmuru (1977) Discussion > Liked the movie, but....

Liked the movie, but....

posted 17 years ago by TheRationalist
4 replies | jump to latest

TOO MUCH SMOKING!! Not that I disapprove of smoking or anything, but there were just too many scenes with Agniezka lighting up and inhaling, which drag out the scenes and don't advance the story line. If you want to characterize someone in a movie as a chain smoker, fine, show her doing it once or twice and have someone kidding her or admonishing her about it, but you don't need to have her constantly smoking in every scene. We know people use restrooms, but that doesn't have to be shown in a movie and neither does smoking when it has nothing to do with the story.

Otherwise...good story line, several fine performances, an entertaining movie. A little hard for a non-Pole to understand the nuances of political oppression and upheaval of the time, maybe, but we got the idea well enough.

My favorite opera is Die Valkure. I've always loved horses.

[–] spacecommander_travis 17 years ago

what?!

Ever seen any other films from the 70s, the 60s, the 50s? It doesn't sound like it. My god, you have to be american don't you, and from california? There are some very striking things in the film that haven't aged so well, and they aren't to do with the political content of the film or cigarette puffing. The female lead Janda appears to have been on speed. And her cameraman has had a dose too. Much of the 1976 footage is like over-posed t.v. It doesn't have any of the visual punch of Ashes and Diamonds. It's as if the film itself is troubled with the culture of propaganda it's trying to uncover. The other folk who've left comments make sense I think, only if they're Polish and written back in the 70s. There are lots of anachronisms - in the opening few minutes what on earth is Wajda doing with the music and the cuts to the different characters in the mini-bus? Is this supposed to be Leone in 1976 Warsaw? However, the main hook of the narrative is very compelling; the Birkut story in the 50s is free from the affectation and thankfully makes up most of the film.

[–] Lemoen 13 years ago

Hahahaha I thought she was very speedy kinda gal who enjoyed her smoking.

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[–] henrimaine 12 years ago

Liked the movie but it was a bit too long. Some of the scenes could have been cut shorter. I rather liked the 1970s bits and the older documentary footage, but the parts about Birkut's personal life dragged for too long in some cases.

[–] 12 years ago

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