In the 1950s, in Poland, a music director and a leading singer fell in love, but after they agree to defect to France, they parted ways.
What a year for cinematography! First time in Oscar history that three out of five film nominations were foreign films. So many production details could turn my review into an analysis. My contribution here, though, is not encyclopedic but merely an alert on why you should watch it (if you haven’t) and not miss out.
Shooting in chronological order and changing the filmmaking style over the (screen) years respectively, writer/director Pawel Pawlikowski makes the second film in his native language, after the amazing Ida (2013) – which I admired watching in a beautiful theatre in London – he recasts Joanna Kulig and Agata Kulesza but also numerous members of the crew. Needless to say, Tomasz Kot breathes his role. An amalgamation of Pawlikowski’s parents story and a real-life folk dance group, Cold War explores love, lifestyle, ambition, inflated ego, self-aggrandisement, and, in times like these, the inevitable involvement of goddamn politics in everything we do and say in our lives. Cold War is a chronicle of this perplexity called life, seeking the long-lost happiness within us, bringing to the surface our inability always to miss it when it was in front of us.
Other than photography, the acting deserves a standing ovation – the film got an 18-minute one at the Cannes Film Festival. And before I go… “It’s not a film until it’s edited” – Michael Kahn. Like the aforementioned Ida (review to follow), Cold War is masterfully put together, teaching when not to cut. Even though more obvious in Ida, here as well, Jaroslaw Kaminski meticulously cuts between action and reaction shots and builds both narrative and character, setting the pace and rhythm of the film. Ask yourselves this: how long after does the editor cut when the scene’s action is completed? Respectively, how long does the editor keep the reaction shot when there is one?
Contrasting Hollywood cinema, Cold War wins the impressions with its simplicity. It develops relatable, everyday characters living in political and social unrest who inevitably become victims of their own desires and passions; their human nature.
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Solidarity for all the innocent lives who suffer the atrocities of war!
Stay safe!
