A Cold War Romance

Rating: 10/10 (7 October 2018)

Pawel Pawlikowski's Cannes hit is a tragic romance in background of the Cold War. After winning the Oscar for Best Foreign Language film for Ida (2013), the Polish director pays tribute to his parents with a love story threatened by historic conflict. Its rather poignant for me to be seeing and hearing outrageously positive things about Pawlowski's latest film, as my own university; Oxford Brookes has been once been home of teaching for the director. Although I haven't myself had the pleasure to be lectured by the man himself, his education in film is reaching me through his craft and non-more superbly shown then through Cold War.
While recruiting a group of Polish citizens to perform communist propaganda songs in a traveling concert, composer Wiktor Warski (Tomasz Kot) becomes infatuated with a peasant girl Zulu (Joanna Kulig) rumored to have killed her father. As their secret love is kept hidden during the tour, Warski and Zulu struggle to find true happiness in their bond while the events of the Cold War unfold over 15 years.
Loosely based on the lives of his parents, Pawilowski takes us on an powerful journey into war and love simultaneously. As Zulu and Warski cross paths over different sides of the Iron curtain their attraction to each over is invaded by their political contexts that prevent them from being together. You could easily mistake this couple for Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman from Casablanca (1943).
Its not just the central romance that rings the bell of Rick's CafÃ©, but indeed in the look and feel of the film the golden age of cinema is seeping out. Pawel Pawlowski's takes us back to a more traditional form of cinema with a 1:33 ratio, black and white, and more classical cinematography from Lukasz Zal. We are transported back in time, with Zal's camerawork with movements and stills that could very well have come from films from the same era.
The central performers of Kulig and Kot bring authentic and immersive energy to their roles, building a beautiful relationship that we are engrossed by for the entire film. But its Joanne Kulig's electrifying performance that's the stand out. From her journey to small peasant girl to a concert star is a natural as the flourishing of a flower. One sequence with Kulig's Zulu dancing in a bar is poetry itself.
Cold War's jazz soundtrack is narration of the story itself with an early melody about a forbidden love already foreshadowing the star crossed lover's tale. With some unforgettable music sequences in the dark smoke room clubs with glimpses of tormented eyes of Zulu as she sings. You can almost see a lot of Damien Chazelle's La La Land (2016) in the nightclub scenes.
Pawlikowski's portrayal of love in war is a masterful construction of beauty and melancholy, led by the wonderful central performances. A tale that says much more with its visual than dialogue another pure testimonial to cinema itself as well as the director's parents. Marvellous.