Cold War (Sydney Film Festival Mini Review)

For all the things this movie does well it’s held back by another. By looking at Cold War as a whole has to lead me to perceive it as an American indie film disguised as a European art-house film. The film opens in 1949 where Wiktor Warski (Tomasz Kot) looks for singers and performers from farming families for his musical company. He discovers Zula Lichoń (Joanna Kulig), a girl from a small farming town, and makes her the lead in the next production. As the company becomes more popular the government wants them to make more political work. Wiktor believes he should be making work for the people and not sing about trivial stuff such as trade, tax and diplomacy so he leaves the company. Wiktor and Zula fall in love but have opposing views on what the working class actually care about. The couple encounters each other throughout Europe over the next ten years as the political turmoil serves as the backdrop. The first reason I think this is an indie disguised as an art house film is the cinematography. While it’s undeniably a gorgeously shot film I don’t think it ever tries to convey ideas through more than one shot edited together in one scene. Shots work alone but edited together they don’t add up to more than the sum of their parts. I could never get a sense of what the film was trying to tell me emotionally through individual shots. Some scenes do work, the one with Rock Around the Clock is an example of one. It has an energy between the two leads that’s captured with a precision that the film could use more of. Because the story is told over 10+ years but only in 90 minutes transitions between periods feel rough. They don’t emotionally flow the way it should. I get that over long distances and long periods of time that a couple might not start thing left off but the film never seems to account for this. The emotion barely gets across. The distances between the two are never felt as we only meet them when they are together. A longer running time, while off putting for most, would actually aid the film. We could gain a better sense of the isolation they each face when separated. The backdrop for the film, during the American-Soviet cold war, helps define circumstance and barriers for our lead couple. However, it’s always either in our face or forgotten about. Never used to its full advantage in a way that it seethes into the subtext and becomes ingrained into the film. Early on I got a sense this film would go for a globalism vs individualism moral context but it doesn’t go this route or any other.

The music of the late 40s to early 60s is used throughout the film and it’s probably the best way to gauge the time period for each chapter. The individual components are effective but once again the film could use a longer running time. This could see the separate periods of music bleed into one another and to explore the progression of traditional to jazz to pop music. Combined with political turmoil it could’ve been an interesting take on the cold war. Cold War’s ideas are well presented but not well executed. It’s a film that often promises something but doesn’t deliver. The moving pieces of the film are intriguing in their own right. However, they could work together more efficiently to create something that flows more. I don’t know if the film should have another 40 minutes (or even become an epic) or alternatively hone in on something that’s already crammed into the film.

Overall Score: 6/10

Cold War is playing at Sydney Film Festival and will be distributed by Palace Cinemas in Australia. What do you think of Cold War?

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Director: Pawel Pawlikowski

Writers: Pawel Pawlikowski & Janusz Głowacki

Starring: Tomasz Kot, Joanna Kulig, Borys Szyc

Cinematographer: Łukasz Żal

Editor: Jaroslaw Kaminski