Rough Treatment

Rough Treatment takes up where Man of Marble left off, with its exploration of the contemporary (1978) political situation in Poland and its pursuit of the relationship between the individual and society. The film follows the downfall of an urbane and well-known political correspondent (a phenomenal performance from Zapasiewicz), who steps out of line during a TV interview and simultaneously discovers that his wife is leaving him. The cold, grey society of which he's part is discovered in the grim attitudes of those around him; at the same time his own faults and inadequacies build with every scene. Working in the wake of the censorship problems which beset Man of Marble, Wajda had this to say on its release: 'I worked on this film in a blind rage...it has no flourishes. Its impact was to come solely from a logically constructed chain of events'. The end isn't entirely satisfactory, but that doesn't matter - the rest is fascinating, and he's already made his point.