Review: Cold War

Image courtesy of Amazon Studios.

Director Pawel Pawlikowski follows up his haunting award winner "Ida" with another tragic tale set against the backdrop of the mid-20th century in Poland that has been shot in gorgeous black and white. But while "Ida" was somber, "Cold War," although often sad and bleak, is a smoky, jazz-scored drama about amour fou that spans several decades.

Inspired by the tumultuous relationship of the director's parents, "Cold War" follows the story of Wiktor (Tomasz Kot) - whose appearance gives him the look of a protagonist from a 1960s French gangster noir - a musical director who is traveling across Poland in the late 1940s and early 1950s, searching for musicians to take part in a concert centered around Polish folk traditions. Wiktor often finds himself at odds with the government officials who want him to include positive songs about communism and Joseph Stalin in the concerts.

While visiting a small village, he is impressed by the musical talents and aura of Zula (Joanna Kulig). Wiktor is told that Zula had spent time in jail after having stabbed her father. "He mistook me for my mother and I explained the difference with the help of a knife," she notes. Before long, the two have become lovers. Their fraught relationship, which includes its share of betrayals and reconnections in a variety of countries over a period of years, is the focal point of the picture. After fleeing Poland, they meet up again in Paris and, much later, Yugoslavia, but their travels also take them to Berlin and Russia during the duration of the concert tour.

One of the most convincing elements of "Cold War" is not only the excellent performances by the two leads, but also their undeniable chemistry, which remains intact even as their relationship frays. Wiktor lives in a state of perpetual sadness, with the jazz music he plays at night in Paris clubs acting as an appropriate soundtrack, and accepts the trials he faces, while Zula is more of a fighter. Eventually, she'll come to resent him for his submissiveness that he has found in exile, while he loses patience with her freewheeling attitude toward sleeping with others.

And yet, their love lasts over a period of decades as they make their way in and out of - and often attempt to remain on the other side of - the Iron Curtain. The picture culminates with a haunting moment of sadness, and much of the picture is filled with gorgeous shots - a massive tree swaying by an empty field, views from a boat on a canal of Paris denizens hiding in the shadows, lonely landscapes - that set the movie's tone.

At its brief 89 minutes, "Cold War" covers a lot of ground and spans a significant amount of time. Pawlikowski does a good job of condensing this story into such a compact little film and not losing any of its emotional impact in the process. The film exists in the classic mold of tragic love stories, and makes its case to rank with some of the finest of them. It's one of 2018's best movies.