Cold War

With Ida, Pawlikowski tested my patience with his intimate approach a while ago, but my first encounter with his work was definitely not unpleasant. Cold War is a film of a different caliber in that it is easy to watch without any issues, and it is accessible and pleasant in its own way. The question is whether this characteristic would please Pawlikowski. After all, he clearly wanted to make a drama that would make a more significant statement about his time period and the systems that dictated the direction in Europe back then. The title itself testifies to that. He wanted to show the malice of the great events that dictate the fate of the loving couple, exposing the unfortunate individuals. Unfortunately, he failed to do that, and if you want films that significantly reveal the mechanisms of social movements, you have to look elsewhere, primarily because Pawlikowski chose the wrong protagonists. In order for them to miss each other, they don't need the adversity of political systems because they are perfectly capable of creating obstacles themselves. They are the kinds of people who can keep an entire army of relationship coaches occupied and driven to despair, and at the end of their journey, they have a series of love acrobatics and probably several failed marriages behind them. They confuse love with infatuation and fail in a number of basic skills necessary to maintain a long-term partnership. Cold War is worth seeing because of its cinematography and especially for its musical dimension. Pawlikowski knows the craft of filmmaking, and he also chose solid performers for the main roles. It's just that it lacks the depth he wanted to work with. Overall impression: 75%. (05/11/2020)

Cold War is a wannabe artsy melodrama in which the central duo, instead of being together, repeatedly and VOLUNTARILY choose different life paths so that they can regret it later. And then they just happen to meet occasionally over the years to ask each other how they are doing. Plus, it’s an emotion-free movie that looks like it doesn’t want you to experience their love and does not need you to understand all of the decisions they make. A melodrama about a pair as black and white as its pretty 4:3 aspect ratio, for which I’m giving it the third star. Cold War is a cold film. [Cannes] (05/12/2018)

At the first fleeting glance, Cold War is the opposite of Ida. Though it could seem that Pawlikowski, following the success of his inconspicuous breakout film, is banking on festival success and awards, Cold War is surprising in how it differs from Ida in every respect, except for the basic foundation of a purely personal theme and the reflection of Polish historical and moral tragedy through that theme. Nevertheless, this level lies rather on another plane this time and the screen belongs predominantly to a destructive yet elemental romance. It cannot be denied that Pawlikowski has Cold War thought out in detail, thanks to which he does not slide into mannerisms or mere copying of Ida. The storytelling through music, linking the romantic and socio-political storylines with the central motif of music, and the conceptual use of the classic format and primarily the interplay of all of the above-mentioned elements in the interest of the work’s dramaturgy and its narration prove that Pawlikowski is a brilliant director who has matured in the course of his own creative renaissance. Of course, the question arises as to what he will come up with next and whether he will go in a new stylistic direction, or if he will continue to stand at the fore of festival nostalgia following the peak era of auteur filmmaking (at which Marhoul’s The Painted Bird also stands). However, it is also necessary to recognise that Cold War (like The Painted Bird) cannot be viewed in a limited way as a mere assemblage of allusions, as these represent the absolute last of the merits of this refined and emotionally pulsating film. (04/13/2020)

Absolute perfection. I'm not sure if there's anything else worth saying. I could find a lot of superlatives. From the very beginning, I enjoyed the visual aspects of the shots immensely, which is why I am grateful for the black-and-white treatment of the subject because in color all the impact would have been lost. In terms of music, I would be hard-pressed to search across world cinema for something so beautiful and coherent. The story of the fateful love of two people longing not only for each other, but also for freedom, in a time that did not exactly favor freedom and dreams, set in such tastefully elaborated realities, could not have turned out badly. Pawel Pawlikowski simply couldn't mess it up when he had such wonderful sets in reserve. The performances were also good, and the couple in love was perfectly suited to the 1950s and 1960s. And the ending? It couldn't have been wrapped up and filmed any better. I thus have no choice but to compliment the Poles on this cinematic treat. (100%) (08/03/2020)

This is a visually attractive melodrama about two people fated to love each other, set during the times of Stalinism in Poland. It is beautifully shot, but the screenplay does not shed enough light on the motivations of the two main characters - especially why they both keep saying how much they love each other, and yet every time they briefly live together they can hardly stand each other, constantly on and off, which means they, therefore, can not stay together. The "adversity of fate" seems like quite a convenient excuse there. It reminded me of the old Finnish drama Something in People, where there is a peculiar romance going on over a period of several years between the two main protagonists, who were also attracted to each other in a tragic way. (03/02/2019)