|
 The
director who won the 2015 foreign language Oscar for "Ida", also
set in the Communist era, is vying for the Palme d'Or at the
Cannes Film Festival with "Cold War" a romance that moves from
the peasant farms of Poland to Paris jazz clubs and back from
the 1940s to the 1960s.
Zula is a tough, beautiful woman who wins a place at a school
for traditional performing arts set up to promote a wholesome
nationalistic image of post-war Poland, where the handsome
Wiktor is musical director.
Early in their clandestine affair, she admits to spying on him
for the authorities, the first, and perhaps least, of many
problems that the political climate throws at the relationship.
In his five-star review, The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw called
"Cold War" a "mysterious, musically glorious and visually
ravishing film" with "an exquisite chill".
Asked why the cold war made a good backdrop for a romance drama,
Pawlikowski said: "There were a lot of obstacles around at the
time, and love is, to a large degree, a matter of overcoming
obstacles."
The movie is also inspired by personal experience.
Pawlikowski, 60, lived in exile from Poland from the age of 14
when his ballerina mother escaped with him to the West. The
protagonists of "Cold War" are named after his late parents.
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"There are a lot of things in common between this couple and my
parents," he said.
"They were kind of a disastrous couple who fell in love, separated,
fell in love again, married other people, got together again,
changed countries, fell apart, came together again and so on.
"It's not their portrait but there are quite similar mechanics to
their relationship."
Critics praised the film's black and white cinematography, musical
score and sense of humor, with IndieWire comparing Joanna Kulig's
performance as Zula to a young Jeanne Moreau: "an alcoholic hellcat
who thrusts herself into the embraces of other men – quite
literally, in a reckless spree around the dance-floor of a
rock'n'roll club.
"It's a terrific, high-showmanship sequence, as if Pawlikowski had
the urge to unleash his inner Scorsese."
The Cannes Film Festival runs from May 8 to May 19.
(Reporting by Robin Pomeroy; editing by Andrew Roche)
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