Cold War (2018)

Impression: I saw this film because I remember seeing Ida by the same director,  Paweł Pawlikowski, a couple of years ago and liking it. I liked this one even more. Also shot in black and white, it’s like a 1940’s and 1950’s Romeo and Juliet set in Poland (and abroad), but where the forces keeping the lovers apart are themselves and sometimes political realities or social norms of the countries they reside in. The film opens with a scene of a Polish winter and snow that was so bleak and realistic that my husband commented how cold it was in the room. Granted, we soon discovered the window was open, so I guess it’s possible it had nothing to do with the stark realism of the movie.  I also loved the early scenes of a group of ethnomusicologists travelling the Polish country side collecting traditional music.

Visually, Pawlikowski’s work is very interesting. Other than the obvious rejection of color, he uses interesting camera angles which especially became obvious towards the end of the film. He frames his characters in the bottom half of the frame and leaves the top of the frame there for you to interpret. Weight of circumstances? God? I don’t know. He is also keen of abrupt endings in both his films, and he loves long black screens between acts. And each act leaves you waiting for more. The transition between the church walls and the mud on the road was striking, and it took me a while to notice there was a mirror in the dance hall scene. On a personal note, it’s also one of very few major movies to feature scene from my very photogenic hometown.

The acting is especially good from both leads. Joanna Kulig feels like a Polish Jennifer Lawrence. Not only because there is a bit of a physical similarity, but because of the acting style, and in that I could very easily have imagined Lawrence playing this role as well. Tomasz Kot feels like a classic leading man from that era of Hollywood films.

In addition to all of this, the backdrop of post World War II era political climate in Poland and France is presented in interesting ways.  The film doesn’t fall into the easy trap of most films which portray that era as East=bad West=good. Instead, it shows that even hanging out in smoky bars with libertine Parisians is not all its cracked up to be. The more I think about this film, the more I like it. It’s the best film I’ve seen in a while. I would say, almost a perfect film. 

Facts: Black and white rendering of a love story in the late 40s and early 50s in Poland and abroad. 

My Buddhist reading:  I guess, as most tragic love stories, it’s about our inability to escape samsara, our inability to get what we want, no matter how much we want it. The causes and conditions always conspiring to not allow us to have permanent happiness.

Blue Jay (2016)

Impression: I love the Duplass brothers! So even if a description of  one of their movies doesn’t sound like something I would normally watch, I watch it, because I have yet to be let down. And this one sounded like something that would have been a Lifetime Special in the 90s. And I am not saying that I am above Lifetime Specials, or that I didn’t watch my share of them in the 90s, it’s just not the type of thing I seek out at this point in my life. But of course, it was so much more than a 90s special: incredibly well acted, and well written, and that’s what made it worthwhile. It’s still a lot of emotion, so if that’s not your thing, this may not be a movie for you. But it’s basically just the two leads almost the entire time. There is the old man at the liquor store who has 2 lines, but it’s all them the entire rest of the time. Many years, later on visits to their home town, Jim and Amanda run into each other at the grocery store. At first they are awkward, the conversation is halting, and they almost leave each other without exchanging more than a few words, a couple of times. Eventually we discover that they were once very close and in love. They spend the whole night talking and reminiscing of the past and re-enacting some of it. Some scenes are cute, some are even a little too uncomfortable and awkward. But it is not until the end that we find out what caused them to separate. And nothing about this story is something that hasn’t been told before, it’s all in the acting and how the two leads relate to each other, the pauses and looks, and how realistic their characters are. One thing that I found a little odd is that it was shot in black and white. Since it’s not cheaper to do that anymore, and I am not sure that it added much to the film stylistically, I am not sure why they picked to do that. In any case, it’s not an amazing film, but it’s worth watching. Especially if you are a sucker for love stories not meant to be.

Facts: Jim and Amanda unexpectedly reunite on chance visits back to their home town… in black and white.

Wages of Fear (1953)

Impression: This is probably the most dudely movie I have ever seen! I am not a dude, but I really enjoyed it. What’s more I am pretty sure, this is what Gloria Steinem had in mind when she wrote about prick flicks in her recent New York Times opinion piece. ( I have to admit, I’ve been itching to write a review that references that article ever since reading it a week ago, and what better movie than this!) In Wages of Fear, the men are manly… although they wear low cut wife-beaters and high waisted pants (and Yves Montand with that kerchief around his neck). The opening 45 minutes is basically the dude version of Casablanca: a bunch of guys, all speaking different languages are stuck in an  outpost town, and they all hang out at the same bar. Sure, this place is a lot more dusty and gritty than Rick’s Cafe, but a similar sense of desperation permeates. Tension runs high as the men are desperate enough to compete for a job that could easily kill them: transporting nitroglycerin in old trucks over gravel roads. Dangers abound: from the original ‘Speed’ sequence, where you have to drive a truck under 6 mph or over 40 not to set off the explosives), to a very precarious rickety wooden platform where the trucks have to reverse, to driving through a lake of spilled oil, to figuring out what to do with a giant boulder in the middle of the road. And each time a new obstacle presents itself, the nail biting anxiety factor is amped up. The source of tension is so obvious, the explosives in the back of the truck could go off any second, yet the tension is on and increasing for over an hour. The film is black and white and there are a few memorable visuals that stick with you. But it is the situation and the acting more than the cinematography that build the tension.

Facts:  Somewhere in Latin America, a bunch of foreigners are stuck in a small dusty town with no work and no money to get out. A chance to make good money comes when 4 of them are picked to drive rickety trucks full of nitroglycerin on very bad roads to an oil refinery, run by a shady American oil operation.

Extra: I just read the director of High-Rise is writing a remake of this movie. What a strange, strange film that will be!