4:45pm, Saturday 16 March, Opera House
Year: 2018
Running Time: 1 hour 30 mins
Director: Pawel Pawlikowski
Genre: Romance, Drama, War
Language: French, Polish (English subtitles)
Awards: Best Director, 2018 Cannes Film Festival and nominated for 3 Academy Awards
Paweł Pawlikowski directs the stunning film Cold War, starring Tomasz Kot as Wiktor a music director who falls in love with singer Zula played by Joanna Kulig. This is an epic romance set in the 1950s against the backdrop of Europe after World War II. Sumptuously shot in luminous black and white, it spans decades and nations to tell a love story that is as tragic as it is moving.
In the ruins of post-war Poland, Wiktor and Zula fall deeply, obsessively and destructively in love. As performing musicians forced to play into the Soviet propaganda machine, they dream of escaping to the creative freedom of the West. But one day, as they spot their chance to make a break for Paris, both make a split decision that will mark their lives forever. As the years march on in the wake of that moment, Wiktor and Zula watch the world changing around them, always struggling to find their moment in time. Cold War is a passionate love story between two people of different backgrounds and temperaments, who are fatefully mismatched and yet condemned to each other.
Winner of the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival 2018, Pawlikowski melds the personal with the political to exquisite effect. Set to a soundtrack that takes you from the rustic folk songs of rural Poland to the sultry jazz of a Paris basement bar, it’s a wistful and dreamlike journey through a divided continent – and a heartbreaking portrait of ill-fated love.
Tickets £5
Book before 14 Feb for a 20% early bird discount.
5 star reviews :
- “Ida director Pawel Pawlikowski’s exquisitely chilling soviet-era drama maps the dark heart of Poland itself.” Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
- “A beautifully composed tone poem to doomed love.” John Bleasdale, Cinevue
- “A glorious throwback…made with a verve and lyricism which rekindles memories of the glory days of european new wave cinema.” Geoffrey Macnab, The Independent
- “Kulig, as effervescent in her way as the young Jeanne Moreau, is the film’s life force.” Tim Tobey, The Telegraph
