As I said
in my initial Oscar-nominations reaction post, this movie has made quite an
impressive showing. In addition to the
more-expected Best Foreign Film nod, it’s also up for Best Director and Best
Cinematography. It’s neat to see both Roma and Cold War getting so much recognition this year outside the Best
Foreign Film category.
In Poland
in 1949, Wiktor, a musician, is involve in efforts to create a traveling music
show that showcases rural folk songs and dances. One performer who instantly catches his eye
at the auditions is Zula, a determined young woman with a troubled past and an
“it” factor he can’t quite explain. Over
the years, Wiktor and Zula slip in and out of relationships (but never, it
seems, out of love) on both sides of the Iron Curtain.
It’s
certainly a beautifully-made film. The
scenes in Poland have a desolate loveliness to them, the sleekness of 1950s
Paris is brought to life quite handily, and all the music scenes are
wonderfully done. Pawel Pavlikowski does
really nice things with the direction without it drawing attention to itself.
I’m not
as drawn in by the story. Part of the
problem is that I’m really taken by the whole undertaking of the music show,
the way it comes together and takes off, and especially the way Communist Party
officials see an opportunity to use it as a propaganda vehicle as it becomes
popular. However, that’s used more as a
jumping-off point for Wiktor and Zula’s love story, and while I do like that
well enough – it’s clear that they’re both deeply in love with each other, but
the circumstances of the war keep pulling them apart in a number of ways – it’s
not as interesting to me as the premise that got it started in the first place.
The
central performances by Tomasz Kot (Wiktor) and Joanna Kulig (Zula) are both
strong. In particular, I think Zula is a
tricky needle to thread as a character.
In some ways, she’s a character we’ve seen a million times before, a
strong-willed woman that a man falls head over heels for due to an undefinable
something, one who’d probably be able to be happy with him if it weren’t for
the choices she makes contrary to her own happiness. But between the writing and Kulig’s
performance, she feels like more than that boilerplate description. Kulig shows Zula’s damage and how that
affects her actions, and she recognizes when her motivations are for pure
survival and refuses to apologize for doing whatever she thinks will give her
her best chance.
Warnings
Sexual
content, language, drinking/smoking, and strong thematic elements.
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