Truly excells in breathtaking visuals and sound, but is lacking A BIT in drama...

Rating: 8/10 (14 June 2019)

The cold war period is used as a backdrop for a story about 2 passionate lovers, who get separated at some point. Is their love strong enough to survive the separation?
Unfortunately this love story is A BIT lacking in drama. Just a bit. It only lasts 1 hour and 15 minutes. That's extremely SHORT for a dramatic story and I really missed the buildup in drama, storywise speaking. Lots of plot turns happened too quickly. And especially the dramatic relationship between the 2 lovers didnt get enough screen time in my opinion. The director admitted in an interview that he cut out 30% of the scenes and although it didnt hurt the movie, the dramatic devellopment felt a bit rushed at times. You have to really pay attention to get the dramatic cues, because many dramatic plot turns happen in merely seconds.
The actors, who portray these 2 lovers deliver good performances, but they dont ooze charisma. A dramatic love story is at the core of this movie, but I am not experiencing any truly dramatic romantic scenes, which should have brouhgt me to tears or should have swept me off my feet. I missed the usual intense emotions that go along with such a story. The director made a deliberate choice to portray it this way and it has it's peculiar charm, but I was baffled by the absence of emotions as well.
What is truly impressive about this movie though are the visuals and the music. Only a few genius directors are capable of creating such heavenly, beautiful images, which are almost physical in nature. I could almost touch, smell and feel the images, they are THAT powerful and breathtakingly beautiful. I still get goosebumps thinking about them. The music score is truly magnificent as well. I havent been so pleasantly seduced with truly heavenly sounding music in years! Both visuals and sound are truly oscar worthy! Just for these brilliant sound and visuals alone, one should give this movie a try...
Concluding: this is one heck of a gorgeous black and white portrait of 2 lovers. Although a bit lacking in drama, it did truly mesmirise me with it's brilliant visual beauty and heavenly sounds...