Reviews

Kamil Nozynski is great. So is the cinematography, which at last makes Warsaw as striking as it should have been on screen, for a long time. Watch it for that, because the plot is boring. Why do we care about an endless cycle of foul-mouthed arguments, coke deals, beatings, and debt collection without any particular suspense, character development or major compelling outcome at stake? Maybe this impresses teenagers who think cocaine, hip hop, swear words and gangsters are so amazing, but most of us have seen this backdrop before, and want a compelling story. I base this comment on the first two episodes alone. It might be that plot and characterization will take several episodes to develop: if so, then that's too slow.

Update for episode three: Marta Malikowska is totally brilliant as Pazina. What an actress! Her glances, her gestures, her slight hints of smiles and frowns. This is masterful acting work; it is about understatement and subtlety but also detail and careful choices about when to be what. I want to see her in more because based on this performance, the sky is the limit.

The plot is getting slightly more interesting, but I'm still not impressed by the lack of story seemingly compensated for by the adolescent fascination with drugs, guns, swearing an hip hop. It's not like I'm a prude, I have lived in a place where there were needles on the street. This stuff is really not that impressive, "man". It's also far more prevalent in Los Angeles or London than it is Warsaw.

This depiction it rather gives a slight impression of a teenager trying too hard to look tough and thereby making a fool of himself.

Warsaw is one of the safest cities in the world, it is the greenest city in Europe, it is full of city bicycles and relatively friendly, prosperous people. Consequently this story is not "real" - it's "fake real" as many screen stories have been, starting with Film Noir.

That would be fine, if we cared about the hero's journey. Unfortunately, because his journey is interrupted by so many scenes that are pretext for fake tough guys to shout at each other, we really don't care about the hero's journey.

Episode five: The plot is now up to speed. First three episodes definitely could have been cut into one.

There is consensus forming that this film is a technical masterpiece with imperfect plot. I won't go into the already lauded shots and design, casting and performances; although I will say that this is the first time in my life that a film has made me actually gasp at the power of a cut. It's a masterclass in editing.

Personally, I wish this great film did not end with a suicide pact. I've read in interviews that Pawlikowski took a while to come round to this ending, so there must have been others. He's also said that there is 30% more footage which has gone unused. I would love to see an alternate ending, and a longer version of the film.

Many British and American viewers will see the lovers in Cold War as mentally ill and thoroughly tedious, while many Poles will see them as magically and transcendentally in love. It's about culture clash. I should know because I have Polish blood and I know Poland as well as I know England, America and the 'West'.

So I want to get into what I believe is the reason why many Anglophone audiences have a problem with the characters and plot.

This is empiricism versus voodoo.

First an illustration. Why is it that you can walk down London's Oxford Street in rush hour, and nobody walks into you? And then you arrive in Warsaw and you are walked into by three separate people who are not looking where they are going, on your first day there? The reason is that Londoners are looking a few meters ahead, they're aware of the consequences of their actions, that they have an effect on the world around them, that control of destiny is in their hands and think that awareness is important. Poles often have little confidence in their own effect on the world around them, there is no point looking where they're going because taking initiative has no effect - and besides, they are not responsible, and it doesn't matter anyway because there are more powerful forces such as god and love. Just look at the way the drive, too: the highest number of road deaths in Europe, because life is not in the driver's hands but god's.

In England the stereotype of emotional repression is still valid; it has perhaps been moderated by decades of influence from American self-help books, talk shows and rising awareness of psychology and psychotherapy. Many Brits still can't really express what they really feel, or need to get drunk to sort of get around to doing so. There is a sense of independence and responsibility for one's emotions, and that this is something to aspire towards. A Brit can remain polite while hating you. And emotional responsibility can get pretty boring; if you want passion, you have to go on holiday. In this environment, suicide seems to be an utterly idiotic and self-indulgent response to being in love.

By contrast in Poland, still to this day, there seems to be a far greater culture of psychological dependence between people, there are fewer personal boundaries, there is less of a sense of personal responsibility. Reckless acts of romantic love, 'co-dependence', outbursts of devotion and rage are all accepted as entirely normal parts of life. Emotional blackmail is a standard, everyday form of persuasion. Many Poles do things with little assumption that they are responsible for their own behavior - "it's not my fault" is a pervasive phrase used in Poland; the powerful force driving the individual is presumed to be the boss, the priest, the state, the parent or the spouse. Many Poles wait to be told what to do rather than take initiative - somebody else is thought to be in control, somebody else is going to look after them. The idea that you can teach your children independence by empowering them to feed themselves instead of their parents feeding them, or encourage them leave home, is often abhorrent and framed as neglect. It's not unusual for young entrepreneurs to be told they are being arrogant, they can be laughed at or put down by their (threatened) elders rather than encouraged and praised. While "independence" has become a buzzword amoung women and young people in England and America, it's a relatively strange concept to be preoccupied about in Poland. By extension, a suicide pact can be viewed as intensely romantic and even admirable, it's the ultimate proof of a love than can transcend life and all its banality.

*Small spoilers included.

For the first time in years, I left the cinema physically stunned. My heart raced and my eyes watered. This is a masterpiece.

The depiction of the 'Good Russian' was a very clever touch, and avoided making the film too one-sided or nationalistic.

And at last, this film explains to the world what Catholicism means to Poles: it is not just some medieval fanaticism, it is the only thing they had to keep them going through the lies and genocide of history.

As a British man of Polish descent I connected with the film in a personal way and understood all of the historical references with ease.

But I do fear that many of the references in the film will be lost on non-Polish audiences. Certainly, British and American knowledge of the history of Eastern Europe is generally bad. Wajda knows this. Just a couple of lines of dialogue could have been used from time to time to explain the Russo-Polish war of 1921, or the Polish partisan activity 1945-1949, or how and why some Poles joined the Soviet forces in 1943. Wajda drops these facts in as if the audience is only Polish and will understand immediately. I wish Wajda could have tailored it slightly more to the international audience, as this is an important film for the Polish nation and Polish emigrant communities to communicate with the rest of the world.

Hollywood frequently discusses the Jewish Holocaust. Again, Wajda knows this, and he could have taken the opportunity to at least touch on the subject to set the record straight. Polish Catholic prejudice against Judaism exists, just as prejudice exists in every country in the world. But there were many more Polish Jews saved by Polish Catholics than were harmed by them. There were Jews in the Polish army who felt Polish first, Jewish second, and strictly anti-Soviet. In this film, showing a Polish Jew as one of the victims of Katyn would have shown that Polish Jews and Catholics were more often than not united against the Soviets and Nazis.

But the main point, just as with the 'Good Russian', is that it doesn't matter about your identity. There are good and bad people in the world, opportunistic or moral, liars or honest, cowards or heroes. And they can be any race, colour or creed. Eventually, the opportunists, liars and cowards lose the fight. For me, that is the message of Katyn.