Cold War
The greatest piece of cinema I’ve witnessed. In a scorched Poland by the conquest of Germany and then shred to pieces by the Soviet beasts the movie takes you to one of the most depressing and miserable places and shows you the most hopeful and beautiful people. The suffering and the character of the country is shown through the characters- the soft and elegant and yet strong and fearless faces of the women, the tormented and serious, but also bold and intelligent look of the men and their shared fate in enduring Communist slavery and overcoming it through their culture, through their beliefs, beauty and values perfectly tells the very story of Poland itself.
I disagree with the label of “musical”- the movie is it’s very own song that tells you a story. The clear and soft voices of the rural folk which fuel you with inspiration and joy for life and humanity are always so strong and deviant of the Soviet tyranny. One of the most heartbreaking moments of the movie as an Eastern European was seeing how the bureau forces the singers to add elements of Marxist and Stalinist garbage that totally contradict the nature of the songs. Its a travesty to watch talented and beautiful people in beautiful villages to sing about “the Party” and “dictatorship of the proletariat” and disgusting commie blocks.
The movie is shot in an amazing way- every shot looks like a painting. The depth of every close shot gives me chills and I especially appreciate the different ways black and white are used throughout the story. It can be hope/misery or fragility and strength or trueness versus weakness or simply purity/wickedness. It’s also noteworthy that the film begins and ends in the war-torn church but with entirely different premises.
By far the strongest themes and the ones I value the most are the ones regarding love. We are shown a love story that spans throughout 20 years and you don’t even notice a slight difference in the attitudes of the main characters towards each other. Because it doesn’t matter. Nobody cares how they got to France, how they went to Yugoslavia, how did they survive in Poland. It only matters that they love and respect each other. Their love towards each other, towards their craft and towards life itself transcends all trivial details and unimportant garbage. Even in hardships and through long periods of time their love does not evaporate. I love this amazing contradiction of the movie of bring simultaneously avant-garde and rejecting minimalism. Details don’t matter and more is more- very much hammering the point of the entire plot. It doesn't matter how their lives are, it doesn’t matter if you are recognised by the Party, it doesn’t matter if you have “better material conditions” (an ideology that is shown to not only be a part of the Soviet block, but also very relevant and widespread in France too with their objectifications and commodifications of people) . The only thing that matters is your love, soul and values. Absolutely brilliant film!