Raging Bull

The evening screening of Raging Bull on April 12 at Muranów cinema will be preceded by a 15-minute TEDx-style talk led by Maciej Jarkowiec.

“Star Wars was the film that ate the heart and soul of Hollywood. It created the big-budget comic-book mentality,” said Paul Schrader, the writer of, among others, Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, Martin Scorsese’s biggest films. George Lucas’ 1977 production marked the beginning of the end of an era. Three years later, Raging Bull – the tale of a boxer on a journey from the Bronx to the top, and from the top down to the gutter – can be considered the last masterpiece of the Hollywood new wave. Soon after, Reagan and easy cinema for grown-up children would take hold. 

Here – on black and white film – we can still relish the best of everything. Humanity instead of paper-thin characters. Moral ambivalence instead of a happy ending. “Did you fuck my wife?” This single question, posed by a man to his brother, is a call for help in the face of violence, loneliness, and oblivion. “Cinema is worth dying for,” Robert De Niro once said. Together, he and Scorsese delivered ten films that ensured their immortality. Raging Bull is the perfect expression of their artistic chemistry.

Maciej Jarkowiec

Martin Scorsese (born 1942) is one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, a master of storytelling and visual artistry. His films, such as Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980), and GoodFellas (1990), redefined gangster and psychological cinema. He won an Oscar for The Departed (2007) and later impressed with the epic The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) and Killers of the Flower Moon (2023). Blending grand spectacles with intimate storytelling, he explores themes of guilt, redemption, and violence. His work is driven by passion, precision, and a deep understanding of human nature.