I’d
previously seen the trailer (check it out here… once you’ve read this post!)
and had decided that it was definitely a film I should see but, somewhat
strangely (but rather touchingly), I got chatting to an elderly couple earlier
in the week while I was out sketching. They’d stopped and were very
complementary about my drawings and we ended up (for some reason) discussing
films at the Watershed (I know)… and they strongly urged me to see Pawlikowski’s
film. Indeed, the man went as far as telling me that it was probably in his top
15 of films he’d EVER seen (strange to select the number fifteen, but hey!).
Well, I wasn’t disappointed. I
thought it was quite, quite brilliant too.
Anyway,
back to the film…
The
Watershed’s blurb describes it as “an impossible love story in impossible times”
and I think this gets it absolutely right. You sense from the start that things
aren’t going to work out well, but the characters (wonderfully acted by Joanna
Kulig, who plays Zulu, and Tomasz Kot, as Wiktor) simply grab your attention in
a mesmerising, spell-binding way.It’s stunningly shot in black+white and the music was superb too (the trailer gives an excellent flavour) - musician Marcin Masecki was a key collaborator with Pawlikowski for the film – and ranges from rustic folk songs of Poland to the sultry jazz of a Paris bar.
This gorgeously crafted, heartbreaking film also has strong links to the director’s own parents (the main characters are named after them). The story is loosely based on their relationship: “they split up, got together, betrayed each other and then got together again; then split up again and eventually ended up together”.
I don’t normally check out reviews before I’ve written my blog post, but I’ve just read Mark Kermode’s 5-star review from The Guardian… so don’t just take my word for it!
This is a film you should DEFINITELY see.
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