Cold War review: Following on from his triumph that was Ida, filmmaker Pawel Pawlikowski delivers an absolute masterpiece with his latest offering.
Cold War review by Paul Heath.
Cold War review
‘For my parents’, reads the closing line before the main credits start to roll at the end of Pawel Pawlikowski’s latest, Cold War. His film is a beautifully staged love story, showing the positives and negatives of a romance that spans multiple countries across two turbulent decades from the early 1940s to the 1960s. This is Pawlikowski’s first film since the 2015 BAFTA and Oscar-winning Ida, and is perhaps his best yet, those three words summing up just how personal the project is also.
Like Ida, Pawlikowski sticks to the 4:3 aspect ratio, the black and white palette perfect as a metaphor for this tempestuous romance between beautiful young Zula (Joanna Kulig) and pianist Wiktor (Tomasz Kot). Wiktor is a musical director for a travelling folk band, and early-on we see him auditioning local singers for the troupe. It is here where he meets the attractive and aurally talented Zula, and soon they are together having fallen in love. They begin a journey that will take them across Europe, through the Iron Curtain of the Cold War of the title, while on a deeply personal one also, the film focusing upon their stormy, passionate on/off affair at various points in time across the continent.
Cold War review
Cold War is undoubtedly the film of Cannes 2018 so far, an absolute contender for the prestigious Palme d’Or. Not only is it beautiful to look at – the monochrome imagery so perfectly composed you could absolutely grab any still from the movie and display it on your dining room wall (its D.O.P. is Ida and Loving Vincent’s Lukasz Zal – but its intrivately spun narrative is a thing of beauty to behold as well.
Loosely based on the relationship between the filmmaker’s parents – hence the by-line at the start of the closing credits – Cold War, which obviously has multiple meanings here, is a motion picture to sink into and embrace its grace and elegance. The camera-work creates an intimate atmosphere throughout, helped by that magical ratio, is enforced by a pair of engulfing performances in Kulig and Kot, both lighting up the screen in every frame. And then there’s the sound – the film could almost be billed as an all-out musical with its folky beginnings, absorbing 1950s Parisian jazz and even rock ‘n’ roll.
Innately gorgeous, visually and ardently encapsulating, Cold War may not just be the film of the festival, but one of the most absorbing, engaging and indeed emotional and intellectually stimulating films of the year so far. Bravo.
Cold War review by Paul Heath, May 2018.
Cold War was reviewed at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival.
