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★★★★½
29 July 2018
A movie review of COLD WAR. |
“Don’t worry, he didn’t die,” Zula (Joanna Kulig)
COLD WAR is nearly a five-star film, but I kept thinking of other movies when watching. Bar the minor criticism, it is a compelling story of ardour and politics. Lovers pummel each other, and the state pummels its citizens. The two leads’ love affair straddles decades, and is the sort rarely witnessed in real life. It is the kind paintings and poems are born from. That does not mean it is not relatable. Even mainstream pop such as from U2 sing, “I can’t live/With or without you… Nothing to win and/Nothing left to lose,” which sums up the whole film.
COLD WAR is nearly a five-star film, but I kept thinking of other movies when watching. Bar the minor criticism, it is a compelling story of ardour and politics. Lovers pummel each other, and the state pummels its citizens. The two leads’ love affair straddles decades, and is the sort rarely witnessed in real life. It is the kind paintings and poems are born from. That does not mean it is not relatable. Even mainstream pop such as from U2 sing, “I can’t live/With or without you… Nothing to win and/Nothing left to lose,” which sums up the whole film.
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Poland, 1949, a population moved from Nazism to Communism. How much the Polish people suffered in the 20th century. Wiktor (Tomasz Kot) is a conductor of a government project to put together a traditional Polish folk music troupe. It is stated, “They want it peasant-style.” Folk music is what authoritarianism wants – a hark back to a past mythological golden age that never existed. COLD WAR damns authoritarianism and damns it repeatedly.
The film moves from folk to jazz, the latter is mostly portrayed pretentiously (maybe because it is? *LOL*), but here thankfully it is at a minimum and used as a metaphor for freedom.
It’s bad enough when parents get in the way of love (which so many films are about). When the state does, it is beyond the pale. Whatever your view of the role of government, no one of sound mind surely wants bureaucrats meddling with romantic couplings? Authoritarianism is the absence of mercy and empathy.
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Zula is on probation after stabbing her father, for him mistaking her for her mother, she comments dryly. Note who was punished. Not the father. Zula’s irony should not be lost on an astute audience. Where there is a patriarchy, there will be injustice towards women. Inequality hampers a prosperous society. Vibrant France is contrasted with a stifling Poland.
Attending an audition to join the folk troupe, Wiktor (and the audience) are drawn to Zula’s confidence. When Wiktor and Zula begin their romance, one wondered about the purity of their intentions towards each other. No need to doubt. Their love picks up a head of steam that spans years and nations.
Wiktor and Zula are addicted to drama, and to each other. Think LOVE ME IF YOU DARE (2003), starring Marion Cotillard and Guillaume Canet. Funnily enough, it also reminds of French director Cédric Kahn’s REGRETS (2009); here he stars as a French director. All three movies are about incandescent passion and mutual destruction that we cannot look away from.
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