Cold War

Rating: 7/10 (28 February 2019)

I think I saw film critic Mark Kermode talking about this Polish film on one of his programmes, it looked interesting, it was getting positive reviews, and then it received nominations during Awards Season, I hoped it would be good, from Oscar and BAFTA nominated Pawel Pawlikowski (Ida). Basically the story is set in the ruins of post-war Poland, and also in Berlin, Yugoslavia and Paris, during the 1950s. It is about a pianist/composer/music director, Wiktor (Tomasz Kot), who presides over an audition to set up a traditional folk-dance troupe to tour. During this process he meets and falls in love with beautiful free-spirited, changeable singer, Zula (Joanna Kulig). They are two people with different backgrounds and natural predispositions, who are fatefully mismatched but condemned to be with each other. As performing musicians, they are forced to play into the communist propaganda movement, they long to escape and find creative freedom in the West. They one day get the opportunity to make a break for freedom to France but fall out with each other and make a decision that will change their lives. It is ultimately an impossible love during impossible times, as Wiktor and Zula are separated by politics, character flaws and unfortunate twists of fate. Also starring Borys Szyc as Kaczmarek, Agata Kulesza as Irena, CÃ©dric Kahn as Michel, Jeanne Balibar as Juliette, Adam Woronowicz as Consul and Adam Ferency as Minister. Kot does well as the lead male musician, but it is Kulig who stands out, channelling a likeness to young Bridgette Bardot, looking vivacious and with a beautiful singing voice, the two leads make a believable, flawed couple who are living during austerity in the Soviet-controlled times, it is made much more entrancing by the use of black-and-white colour, it is slow at times, but the love story and the music throughout is most watchable, overall it is a worthwhile historical period romantic drama. It was nominated the Oscars for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year and Best Cinematography, and it was nominated the BAFTAs for Best Film Not in the English Language, Best Original Screenplay and Best Cinematography. Very good!