Films this gorgeous should really have something to say. Honestly, you aren’t going to find five films in all of 2018 that will match the beautiful black-and-white sultry of Cold War. A superior film to his Oscar winner Ida from 2013, Pawel Pawlikowski has once again shown mastery of the art form while making the viewer guess the story he’s trying to tell. I’m pretty sure this one had to do with romance. Like 80%-85% sure … maybe.
World War II has ended and in light of the new Cold War, Poland is as anxious as anybody to show just how much unnecessary propaganda their country can generate. Irena (Agata Kulesza) and Wiktor (Tomasz Kot) have been tasked with putting together a national revue of sorts highlighting the best talent of rural Poland. If you’ve seen any American comic film with a montage tryout session, try to imagine that only extended, humorless, and set in war-torn b&w. Perhaps it’s just my ear, but all the acts sound terrible … until Zula (Joanna Kulig). Oh, and she’s the only looker in the whole bunch, too. What were the odds?
Wiktor, one of those guys who constantly looks like he’s loan from GQ magazine, is immediately smitten. It’s only a matter of time before he and Zula have a sexual relationship. Cold War goes almost straight there; it’s not much for small talk. On film, Wiktor and Zula get to know one another through the landscape of composer/student with others present. One cutaway and suddenly the two are humping in a back room. While it is easy to tell how Wiktor feels, Zula’s emotions are much further below the surface. It seems they will be tested when the two attempt to defect to the West.
There’s a lot that’s unclear in Cold War. I feel like this beautiful-to-view-but-tough-to-comprehend film was about five scenes shy of brilliance. But those scenes are kind of key. A similar Daniel Day-Lewis project would have been twice as long with an extra hour of exposition. Nobody needs that, but a common middle ground would have been nice. In Cold War, not only were Zula’s feelings a big secret until the climax, there were also a number small issues the film never settled, like was the Wiktor/Zula relationship taboo? How taboo? Was it taboo for political or teacher/student reasons or both? How difficult was the defection? People didn’t just “walk out” of Soviet bloc countries in the 1950s. For that matter, how were the politics of the time? Perhaps it’s not relevant to you exactly, but this revue was entirely engineered by a “YAY Poland! YAY communism!” group. Don’t tell me that Wiktor and Zula didn’t have opinions about such matters.
I absolutely adore the look of this picture. It’s smoky and intimate with furtive glances and unseen thought bubbles. It’s like a classic 1940s spy thriller with neither spies nor thrills. Joanna Kulig and Tomasz Kot are the noir version of Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper. I can see where this film floored critics. It’s the way you picture romance in your dreams. I just needed a little more [read: a lot more] explanation to find the picture believable. I’d call this film “all hat no cattle,” except it’s Polish, so how about “all kielbasa, no sauerkraut.”
♪I want a man with a Pole hand
I want a lover with a Slavic touch
I want somebody who knows pickled brine
Not just invade in a heated rush
I want somebody as bleak as the land
When it comes to love, I want a Pole hand♫
Rated R, 89 Minutes
Director: Pawel Pawlikowski
Writer: Pawel Pawlikowski & Janusz Glowacki
Genre: The kind of film that makes you wish smoking weren’t bad for you
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Critics
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Pragmatists
♪ Parody Inspired by “Slow Hand”
