This must have been the only year to see two foreign-language films Oscar-nom’d for Best Director. Alfonso Cuarón winning for ROMA against Pawel Pawlikowski here. With the same two films up for cinematography, both b&w with ROMA besting COLD WAR’s Lukasz Zal’s exquisite Academy Ratio lensing. ROMA also copped Best Foreign-Language Pic. No matter, both films worthy, the two hardly comparable. Pawlikowski following his previous award-winner, IDA/’13, with another sui generis achievement, a politically-minded l’amour fou on a perfectly-paired Polish mismatch. (Pawlikowski elaborating a story out of his parents’ volatile relationship.) The willful woman in question, strongly played by Joanna Kulig, a blonde ambition type in post-WWII Communist Poland, scrambling to succeed in a new-formed musical organization working up a touring repertoire of nativist folk songs & dances, given professional polish by music director Tomasz Kot. (And where has this sexy beast been hiding? Somebody grab the guy while he’s still in his 40s.) The two, instantly combustible though his sophisticated ambitions point toward freedom & The West; hers, more instinctive/goal oriented in spite of her bold, risk-taking nature, hold her in place, at first. Over a decade, they’ll split and reunite a few times, crossing borders and trampling other relationships, unable to make a go of it or decisively split. Pawlikowski running a hop, skip & jump narrative with wrinkle-in-time continuity to move things along. It keeps you on your toes! (Watch the neon signs for clues to the year.) While also touching on East-vs-West issues of personal & artistic vision, and just what freedom consists of. Spectacularly well-made, dazzling period recreation, spot on perfs, and not an ounce of fat in its hour & a half running time.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Kulig’s brief unsatisfying stint in Paris has her successfully launched as a ‘Cool Jazz’ Peggy Lee French chanteuse. Nice. Pawlikowski no doubt pulling from his own hit-and-miss sojourn in London & Paris. Specifically his D.O.A. Ethan Hawke/Kristin Scott Thomas starrer THE WOMAN IN THE FIFTH/’11 (not seen here).
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: As mentioned, IDA/’13. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2014/11/ida-2013.html
No comments:
Post a Comment