The meaning is beyond the strings: epic love, epic resistance

Emery 2021-12-27 08:01:58

A cliché story, but it is extremely sublimated in emotion and art. The black and white films of 2018 are not only "Rome", but also "Cold War".

To make a black-and-white film nowadays, for a director over 60 years old, the color is dilute, but the emotion is restrained but strong. They often use this more primitive medium to pin their feelings for the past and nostalgia for the past.

"Cold War" is about the life-and-death relationship between a Polish musician and a rural female singer during the Cold War, under ideological opposition. There is no intersection between the two people's classes, concepts, and cultures, but a rare flame of love broke out between them. In fact, they are totally unsuitable for living together. The moving of this kind of love lies more in the sublimation of the tragedy caused by the oppression of the times, so this implies an attack on history. Visually impeccable, excellent folk songs run through and become the emotional clues of the story. The timeline spans a long time, but the narrative is very concise, using linear fragments to express the intersection of the lives of the two protagonists, and supporting roles. Characters and stories outside the main line are hardly willing to talk more, revealing a sense of boredom, which in itself is a kind of resistance to the big narrative. Although there is a lot of blank space in the fragmented narration, because the logic is simple and clear, the stories that are not express are traceable, and they are clear at a glance, reflecting a very clever narrative skill.

In the end, they crossed the ideological separation wall, and after torn apart each other for many rounds, in a strong spirit of self-sacrifice and pure love, they still came together, unable to stand together, but died together.

The film still showed the charm of white space until the last subtitle "For My Parents" appeared. In fact, that child is their child.

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Extended Reading
  • Electa 2022-03-25 09:01:14

    When directors in post-socialist countries deal with the relationship between individuals and the times, they can’t always find the right place to start. Either it is a simple correspondence, or it is a conceptual comparison. The worst is a national fable. The fault of this film is that it is in the form of superficial images (the framing of many scenes is close to static photography, which is not an advantage). It attempts to rely on images and the so-called power of the times to enhance the emotional tension and weight, but what I actually feel is a An unremarkable story of gathering, separation and reunion. 2.5

  • Tyreek 2021-12-27 08:01:58

    The new film directed by the Polish "Sister Ada" is still the subject of the Cold War, black and white images, and full of authorship. The director is also in his sixties. He left Poland and settled in the West when he was a teenager. In recent years, he has returned to film the works of the Iron Curtain period. He has such accurate, mature and unique grasp of history and personal, time and art. Creators who have had similar historical experiences admire and sigh.

Cold War quotes

  • Zula: Two hearts, four eyes Oh, oh, oh What cried during all day and night Oh, oh, oh That black eyes, which you cry are not able to meet you again

  • Zula: Now I'm yours. For ever and ever.