Con’s Score: 3.5 cigarettes
Some of the best films are the ones that say the least. The ones that leave gaps wide enough for you to fill in the silence, because that’s what your brain can do. Where characters can say more with a look than a monologue. Or a love story that says more about the Cold War, than a war story about love.
Wictor (Tomasz Kut), Irena (Agata Kulesza) and Comrade Kaszmarek (Borys Szyc) scour the cold Polish countryside for peasants who can sing and dance. They want to put together a troupe celebrating their identity inside the post-WWII USSR.
During casting Wictor falls for Zula (Joanna Kulig) who has something. I couldn’t see much through her hard exterior, but it’s after the war, and she’s been to goal for knifing her father. He had ‘mistaken her for his wife’, so she thought she’d ‘show him the difference.’ She’s likable.
Their troupe is so good, Russian ministers notice them, and soon they’re singing under banners of Stalin and Marx. It’s time for the lovers to head west, but Zula chokes. It’s a tortured love story, so I won’t go into the details, but you can be sure they’ll reunite, be jealous, fall apart, reunite, is she really going out with him? etc etc.
As trite as it sounds, it’s a metaphor (as an artist tells Zula) about Poland’s struggle with the USSR, through these lovers’ tragic struggle. The acting is muted and the dialogue is sparse.
The power of this film is in Pawel Pawlikowski’s direction. It’s shot in black and white and many of the scenes are beautifully lit and shot. The scenes in Paris are evocative of that period and you can smell the stale smoky bar. You can see why it won him the Best Director Award at Cannes, but it’s more about the visuals than the depth of characters.
The leads are hauntingly good but Kulig didn’t quite engage me. Kit showed more of his pain with subtlety. There is chemistry but Kit shows his anguish, while Kulig made me wonder. I did find the ending very satisfying.
The Poles sure know how to do bleak with a rich shade of black. It’s an odd Boxing Day choice, but it’s still a quality one.
Con Nats: TN On The Screen
