Cold War (2018)

There is perhaps no greater example in recent memory of a film that so successfully makes the political personal. It is moving without ever once feeling contrived. This deserves the next Foreign Film Oscar by a longshot.

Fmovies: I had the good fortune to see this excellent film at the Pod Baranami film house in Kraków in July... at the (heartbreaking) end of the film the audience sat in silence while the credits rolled. At 88 minutes it is a short film, it is in a subtle black and white, there are no fancy effects, one scene follows another with a brief blank screen between, and yet the film grips from beginning to end. The ensemble performances are strong, the two leads are magnificent and the sense of place and period are perfect. What is extraordinary is the way in which the film creates a potent reminder of the ways in which the human spirit and love can survive the worst that a totalitarian state can inflict on its people. In our time, while far right politics rears its ugly head, there is also a timely warning in this extraordinary achievement in European cinema.

Great movie, very efficient in delivering the most content with minimalist means. Everything is perfect: top acting, top direcing, fabulous photography, incredible music and the writing... The writing is the best. The writing provides the essence of what Cold War was about historically. You needed to read between the lines all the time, nothing was given to you straight.

Cold War fmovies. I had forgotten what it was like to be surprised and enraptured by a film, to be taken to another place visually and aurally.

Maybe it is because I knew nothing about this film before I watched it - I found it, an old recommendation on my 'to watch' list and say it was available, and so pressed play, so tired was I of looking for something to fit my mood - but I cannot understand why some people didn't connect with this movie. Maybe they had some expecations that were unmet.

For me though, I was pulled along, telling myself 'it is too late, I'll watch it tomorrow' before being dragged into another beautiful and perfectly timed (in length) scene.

Originally I was just enchanted by the music, composition and the hint of a story unfolding, but as it unfolded I was surprised to recognise and be involved in the distantly viewed and stilted portrayal of emotional damage and love.

I haven't seen this good a film for years, and it will stick with me

From the Academy Award-winning director of Ida comes another cold, stark & emotionally distant feature, this time centred around a couple that can neither stay together nor live apart. Taking inspiration from his own parents' turbulent history, Pawel Pawlikowski's latest is a tale of cursed love in cursed times.

Set in the ruins of post-war Europe, the story concerns a musical director who discovers a young singer and helps her refine her talent. The plot follows their romance over the years as their different backgrounds, varying temperaments & politics of the era keep separating them apart & bringing them back together.

Co-written & directed by Pawel Pawlikowski, the film definitely benefits from its splendid camerawork & wonderful music but the romance aspect is both stale & soulless. Watching the same episode repeated time n again in different places & years gets old & boring real soon, plus we never even grow to care about them.

The two lovebirds have no individual lives of their own. The story never digs into that aspect, for it only shows us the segments that brings them together before driving them apart again. And the repetitive nature of it makes sure that we are never invested in them or their relationship or the troubles they find themselves in over the years.

Difficulties of living in exile or under totalitarian regime are only glimpsed at but never explored. Joanna Kulig & Tomasz Kot do well with what they are given and while their work looks impressive, it doesn't truly resonate on an emotional level. It's a good thing that the film is only 85 minutes long and ends before it becomes an ordeal to sit through.

On an overall scale, Cold War is beautiful to look at but its story doesn't stimulate the senses the way its arresting imagery does. The frame composition, greyscale photography, crisp camerawork and excellent musical choices actually turned out to be its saving grace, for without them, this Polish drama would be no less than an absolute chore. In a word, underwhelming.

The first thing to state about this beautiful movie is that it's monochrome. So stunningly so that at times you feel you are in a photographic gallery rather than a cinema. The quality of the cinematography is quite extraordinary thanks to Lucas Zal.

It's also in 4:3 format. Not the square format of Instagram, but close.

We don't see 4:3 very often these days but Wes Anderson used it to immense effect in Grand Budapest Hotel and so did Lazslo Melis in Son of Saul.

It's an engaging format that draws you in. It suggests a time before cinemascope (16:9 etc) and only really works in period cinema of a time.

This time.

But it also lends itself to incredible framing, such as when our female protagonist floats down a river gradually disappearing out of shot, and later in the movie when the chief protagonists leave a bus and walk out of frame in a composition that Henri Cartier Breson would be proud of.

It's one of the most beautiful movies I've seen in many years.

In truth that's probably its biggest strength.

It is, but it isn't really, narrative driven. More episodic than story driven but it does tell a tale about director Pawel Pawlikowski's parents' love affair set against the Cold War backdrop in his native Poland.

It's fairly sordid in a way (his mother was abused by her father as a child) but without anything shocking to see.

Imagine, yes.

The two leads ( Joanna Kulig and Tomasz Kot) are magnificent. Brooding, beautiful (although unconventionally so) and real.

Lucas Zal has a great time dwelling on three particular things. Crowd shots. Amazing, Dance sequences. Amazing. Joanna Kulig (the lead). Amazing.

In particular, Joanna Kulig has a stand out performance. She's not one to show her enjoyment in life. Sullen most would say. But it is an immense performance.

It's a love story, set against the challenges that Cold War Poland put in front of people of artistic belief where communist doctrine made creativity very difficult.

What Pawel Pawlikowski achieves is a mood piece of exemplary, peerless really, detail.

And it's a musical.

I was constantly drawn to comparing it to La La Land, yet it is so NOT La La Land. Partly it's down to Kulig who shares the unorthodox looks (beauty) of Emma Stone. Partly it's the framing of Zal.

And the music fuses from Polish country folk to French basement jazz (which La La Land would have been so comfortable with).

This is an Oscar nomination shoe in. It's absolutely brilliant.

And, at 88 minutes, certainly does not outstay its welcome.

Bravo!

A Straight 10 from me.