Cold War (director of Ida)

johnny_ultimate

Out now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvPkDdFeTk8

It really feels like a while since the impeccable Ida - something of a crossover success story by arthouse standards, and wholly deserved - was released, but finally we have Paweł Pawlikowski's follow-up. It's worth the wait.

This is an epic dark romance told in less than 90 minutes. Our two leads are musicians who fall for each other in post-war Poland. The film jumps across Europe over more than a dozen years, following the couple's encounters in various different cities. I say romance, but it's also a very dark film at times, as the characters attempt to find meaning and purpose across a fractured continent.

Stylistically, we're in familiar territory here - more absolutely outstanding black-and-white-cinematography, framed in Academy ratio. Goes without saying that pretty much every composition is a knock-out, like a gorgeous photo when the camera isn't moving. But it's more than just surface level prettiness. The photography actually does an superb job at emphasising the tone and emotions of the film. Characters are often completely isolated in the lower-half of the frame, underlining their loneliness, even when surrounded by other people. There's also a repeated circular dolly shot that is quietly devastating - again someone performing to a crowd, but also basically in a different world entirely.

Oh, and it’s also a top-tier film about music as well, and how people express themselves (or fail to) through it.

The film may be short by most standards, but it wastes little time - it's a vast, stunningly-crafted journey. It achieves an extraordinary balance between the beauty and the bleak, as inviting as it as frigid. One of the year's best, from one of Europe's best.