Cold War, aka Zimha wojna (Pawel Pawlikowski, 2018)
In the 1950s, a music director falls in love with a singer and tries to persuade her to flee communist Poland for France.
Joanna Kulig, Tomasz Kot, Borys Szyc (wtf?)
Having sat through this for a second time, I think I can now understand why my two or three friends like it. It's an unusual combination of art movie and romance. Romance in the sense of Sturm und Drang, Wuthering Heights, early Beethoven ... Romeo and Juliet. And art movie in the sense of episodic narrative with a majorly indeterminate ending.
I found it irritating the second time, as the first, having to try to get a sense of where and when these people are through multiple European capitals and 20th century time periods, with the film assuming you understand all of the political background throughout.
It's shot in gorgeous black and white and in the Academy ratio, 4:3 - something else that my friends - who are nearly as old as me - remember with affection. (Cuarón shot Roma in b/w, but gave himself a 21st century screen on which to show his film.)
The main actor has no idea how to conduct an orchestra, but somehow, through the magic of cinema, he can play the most difficult Chopin impromptu. He smokes one cigarette in EVERY scene, and I think he looks like a tedious dill. The chick is very sexy, but never smiles. Actually, neither does anyone else. It's the cold war - but don't mention it. And she has a mole or something on her left upper lip, which drew my attention in all of her scenes - like Remi Malek's prosthetic teeth, which acted better than he did.
Look them up yourself. I'm going to bed.
Garry Gillard | New: 27 February, 2019 | Now: 27 February, 2019