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Cold War
Cold War
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Cold War

Cold War

2018
Drama, History
1h 29m
A passionate love story between two people of different backgrounds and temperaments, who are fatally mismatched, set against the background of the Cold War in the 1950s in Poland, Berlin, Yugoslavia and Paris. (imdb)

Cold War

2018
Drama, History
1h 29m
Your probable score
Avg Percentile 58.76% from 1226 total ratings

Ratings & Reviews

(1244)
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Compact view
Rated 15 Jan 2019
80
63rd
Not so much sweeping love story as portrayal of a dysfunctional, destructive relationship. The short running time left the main characters feeling somewhat enigmatic and hard to judge. To the film and actors' credit, they were still believable. Beautifully shot and involves a lot of musical moments which might have a more profound effect on others but only left me intrigued and not transported. Well made and interesting movie, that I think will be something special for those on its wavelength.
Rated 06 Feb 2019
9
92nd
A masterpiece in visual storytelling-not a shot nor a line of dialogue feels wasted, and remarkably the film is able to span 10+ years and multiple countries in 90 minutes without feeling rushed or choppy. The characters and the romance plot do lack a bit of substance, but somehow the stunning cinematography and strong, subtle turns from the two leads together are able to convey an intangible sort of depth hidden in the passionate looks of the couple and the probing, poignant eye of the camera.
Rated 21 Oct 2018
7
58th
As was evident in Ida, Pawlikowski and his DOP seem to be more keen on mood, framing and composition than proper storytelling. While the film looks and sounds classy as fuck, 85 minutes just falls short at telling a decade-spanning love story, leaving the rushed, central romance as underdeveloped as its dull characters.
Rated 11 May 2018
60
53rd
Pawlikowski uses great folkloric and period detail to tell an elliptical expat tale that suffers from its schematic and finally pathetic lead characters. Because they're not interesting beyond their situation in communist Poland, all the transcendent romantic imagery only leads to pat clichés and dubious choices. A love story has to turn on the inner lives of its protagonists, not the generalized, chilly distance the director treats his political pawns with.
Rated 11 Feb 2019
95
98th
Pawlikowski on the sheer power of love. Where love transcends rule, then where love transcends war, and eventually, where love transcends life itself. Every moment feels so exact in its gentle importance to helping us understand the presence of love without ever needing to understand the lovers themselves. I'm in awe of it's simplistic perfection.
Rated 07 Jan 2019
90
93rd
Absolutely amazing at many levels. We should think of this as the memories of a couple, remembered right before they commit suicide. Slow-paced 4:3 shots centering the expressions, images, and emotions rather than a clearly given cause-consequence structure is exactly how memories and perhaps even history works. A desiring look on Zula's face, Wiktor's hesitation on the Berlin border, a walk on Paris streets at late night, how ephemeral and yet how heavy are these beautiful moments. Lovely.
Rated 07 Dec 2018
73
80th
Beautiful to look at and with a few remarkable scenes, especially some of the singing. But the pacing feels unbalanced. Too slowly paced to begin with and rushed at the end.
Rated 08 Nov 2018
60
68th
Good addition to Pawlikowski's filmography, even if I still prefer his previous films Ida and Summer of Love. Visually it's beautiful and both leads have great faces for B/W photography; Tomasz could have been a film noir antihero while Kulig could have starred in a French New Wave film. However, the characters remained too distant and I never felt their need to be together; this is a rare exception where adding some scenes might have improved the film. Plus point for use of a Mario Bava film.
Rated 24 Oct 2018
91
94th
Mind you that this is a very very subjective review. I raced with my car to the city nearby to barely catch ladies who sold me the ticket. Only ticket, as I was alone. With one strong beer in my pocket I headed in. It was perfect - small city in a small country, empty cinema and movie about some other times of Poland. Shot in 1.37:1 aspect ratio and black and white it's simply gorgeous. The movie relies heavily on aesthetics and compostion so characters and story don't develop well. Still.
Rated 30 Dec 2019
60
50th
A sharply edited follow-up to 'Ida' which didn't really rock my boat either. However, after a somewhat rough start, it's pretty watchable (with emphasis on pretty).
Rated 21 Feb 2019
74
63rd
Needed to be like 2 hours longer and more strippped down and directed by Antonioni
Rated 11 Feb 2019
55
50th
Glorious runtime! You have to respect the ambition of telling an epic love tragedy in 85 minutes. Unfortunately it doesn't really work. I didn't believe in their initial love which is the foundation for the rest of the film. I still enjoyed the closely trimmed, almost abrupt, storytelling technique.
Rated 26 Jan 2019
85
89th
The story is subtle, communicating meaning in looks, silence, and music. This—enhanced by absolutely exquisite cinematography—benefits the soft, delicate tone of the whole but diminishes the power of the central romance, its entire development delivered in a moment or two of subtext. Yet, though not an intimate portrait, it remains a beautiful picture.
Rated 24 Jan 2019
78
81st
It's an experience, visually gorgeous, very good music. The love story is very touching. The sporadic reunions while the musician is out of Poland can be seen as an image of how little they've seen each other during that period. The end, on the other hand, is disappointing, it just looks like they didn't know where to take the script to.
Rated 10 Jan 2019
81
78th
A beautifully shot romance that has little mercy for its characters (or its audience) as it ruthlessly jumps from country to country and from decade to decade, leaving precious little time to stop and smell the roses.
Rated 18 Sep 2018
8
92nd
Beautifully put together doomed love story in stunning black and white cinematography with superb use of music, set against interesting political times
Rated 09 Jul 2023
50
48th
komunistler, sosyalistler sizi öpsün. o çocukları. şu filmin aynısından ronald reagan dönemine anti propaganda yapan bir tane abd filmi yok. ama bizim beyinsiz doğu avrupalılar yüzlerce böyle film çeksin. yazık ya
Rated 11 Mar 2019
72
77th
Love has no borders; countries have.
Rated 11 Feb 2019
80
68th
Love always wins! Beautiful visuals throughout.
Rated 11 Feb 2019
88
83rd
A subtle display of love's true capacity between two hearts. Without saying much, it's heavy visuals build on this desirable war that deems one brutal, clear escape. Perhaps one of my favourite cinemas aesthetically in 2018, and although I wasn't personally entwined with it, I can appreciate how simply beautiful this is as a whole.
Rated 03 Feb 2019
86
78th
Jaw droppingly gorgeous. The fluidity of the images (even in the jarring cuts to black) makes it an entertaining watch. I like the lean-ness of the runtime in theory. But I don’t get a sense of who Zula is. The film is in the pianist’s POV, but I’m not sure it’s in the design of the film to think she just kind of sucks. But I have to grade this highly for the beauty, emphasis on tone, and amazing music.
Rated 20 Jan 2019
25
6th
ben bu kadar ajite edilmeyi hak edecek ne yaptim? asik olmak disinda
Rated 20 Jan 2019
6
40th
Very moody, and pretty, and slow, and one of the longest 88 minute movies you will ever see, hopefully. Directed the hell out of it, that guy. Great camera angles.
Rated 17 Jan 2019
24
3rd
gender klişelerini yerine getirmek için elinden geleni yapan çiftimiz acılı yolculuklarını kendilerine pek tabii yakışan iradi bir seçimle karşı tarafa geçerek noktalamayı başardı. düşünmeden edemedim: aşk kadraja anıtsal bir bönlükle mi girecek hep? tutku bunun neresinde? ve çocuk kimseye benzemiyordu. küçüktü henüz. hatları oturmamıştı. kumpel eleme aracı oldu bir nevi. bu arabesk çukura gönül düşüren herkesi listeden çıkardım.
Rated 14 Jan 2019
60
51st
Second Pawlikowski I have watched and again I can't reach the subject of the movie. Everthing seems so superficial. Yet again everything also seems very beatiful and I question myself if I don't get the issue. The latter is very possible but what can I do sometimes??
Rated 20 Dec 2018
82
70th
It is more austere in the passion and romance side of things, but this relationship works excellently in personifying a divided Europe throughout this era. In a sharp run-time, covers just over a decade and shows the cultural progress effectively, particularly through the music and stage performances, all of which are wonderfully performed, shot, edited, and presented through the sound design/mixing -- I'm more in love with the music than the lovers (and I'm sure the film feels similarly).
Rated 01 Dec 2018
69
35th
Feels like a spare, restrained, arthouse version of the Hollywood epic historical romance (think DR ZHIVAGO by way of Bob Rafelson) - frustratingly brief, and not really able to come to grips with either the historical events/changes depicted or the tempestuous romance at its core. Chiefly interesting for Kulig and Kot who bring electricity to their moments of passion; Pawlikowski's exacting direction is impressive, but never really engaging. Beautiful b&w cinematography.
Rated 10 Oct 2018
72
47th
beautiful poster though
Rated 30 Sep 2024
87
85th
audiovisual 90 acting 88 overall feeling 84 avg 87; a jaki to piękny film, zarówno wizualnie jak i muzycznie, świetnie zagrany, wciągający, szkoda, że taki krótki
Rated 03 Mar 2024
53
30th
The love story is sweet and well paced but doesn't amount to much, and the cold war background that gives it a title is mostly set dressing.
Rated 24 Oct 2023
85
92nd
lindo filme
Rated 28 May 2023
86
88th
This is kind of art house for people who aren't normally that into art house, an absolutely beautifully made tragedy with strong performances and a lean run time that doesn't waste a moment. There were a couple of narrative beats I found a bit confusing. The performances of the two leads are not necessarily flashy, but contain a lot more depth than they seem to on the surface. It has shades of Bresson at times in its aesthetic and efficiency, but less cold. Fantastic.
Rated 13 Dec 2022
80
85th
This is just such a beautifully shot movie. The crispness of the black-and-white, the way in the very beginning you're looking at the walls of a rundown church and then realize in the next shot you're looking at a dirt road, instead. There's a profound feeling to every frame and scene that I really enjoyed. Zula is my favorite character with her various nuances and ideals and inner strength that makes her strive for the things she wants, even if in the end, they might lead to her death.
Rated 06 Aug 2021
70
45th
????????????/??????????????
Rated 15 May 2021
76
62nd
I mean you could of just put Joanna Kulig in those smokey bars and with that lighting and called it a day. The cinematography is a show stopper, to be sure, but you also have two leads that really sell a tumultuous affair between two artists. The iron-curtained Poland and swanky bars of Paris provide ripe settings for these characters to discover their craft and themselves.
Rated 04 Jan 2021
75
75th
compact, barren, yet completely magnetic and beautiful
Rated 24 Oct 2020
5
18th
shot beautifully but the story was kind of boring oy yoy yoy
Rated 27 Sep 2020
75
45th
A stunningly beautiful film, filled with passionate acting, and outstanding musical performances. Unfortunately the screenplay isn't long enough to develop much more than basic ideas. Good enough for what it is, but the film had the potential to be so much more. ...................................................... Honestly though, the shot at the train station where he arrives in Yugoslavia (modern day Croatia?) is what really grabbed me and made me take notice of the cinematography.
Rated 04 Sep 2020
70
66th
It looks and sounds great, but the story and characters are a bit lacking. It's good for how short it is.
Rated 13 Mar 2020
60
18th
Absolute shit-fest of a story, if there is one. If you want viewers to empathize with "eternal-suicidal" love you can't do it in such a short time length and with a cold-objective attitude. Cinematography is cool though.
Rated 21 Jan 2020
43
29th
Felt, to me, that film was the wrong medium to tell this story. I think it would have been much more digestible as a novel. It's comedic, when considered abstractly, but the situations of our leads are so dire that I feel the absurdity of their situation and their actions are lost in us pitying them.
Rated 17 Jan 2020
75
36th
Film özellikle siyah-beyaz olan olağanüstü sinematografisi ve yönetmenin usta kadrajlarıyla teknik anlamda çok başarılı.Folklor ve solo şarkı icra edilen sahneler oldukça iyi ve seyirci de duygu uyandırmayı başarıyor.Filmin en büyük sorunu zaman yayılan bu aşk hikayesinin oldukça boşluk barındırması ve seyirciye birçok cevapsız soru bırakması.Çok fazla zaman sıçraması içeren film,bu yönüyle karakterlerle yeterince derinlik kuramamamıza sebep oluyor.
Rated 15 Jan 2020
80
71st
Beatiful acting and a beatiful love story. Passionate chemistry.
Rated 15 Sep 2019
82
69th
Beautifully shot film that reveals the personal (and not just societal) tragedy of cold war politics in Poland. The style of the film carries with it a bit of distance from the characters, with the film drawing much of its emotive power through the exquisitely framed black and white photography.
Rated 30 Jun 2019
61
80th
Wow, that was extra-ordinary. But perhaps a little bit too "extra-ordinary"... An incomprehensible love story. Love may be a mysterious thing and art doesn't always have to tell us the "typical" phenomena. Here we don't understand personal motives, yet feel the bleakness that occur as a result. Neither do we see any real social context of "cold war". It remains just an accidental decor. It could happen anywhere as well. Yet, it's still a touching madness...
Rated 21 Jun 2019
75
50th
Olaylar çok hızlı ve üstü kapalı işlenmiş. Daha detaylı olup duygular daha açık aktarılabilirdi. Müzikler ve görüntü iyi. İzlenir.
Rated 13 Jun 2019
80
80th
S
Rated 30 May 2019
70
76th
I didn't really understand the romance. The singing was great. I liked the passage of time and seeing how they grew throughout the entire movie, though the last part was a huge time jump. Joanna Kulig is gorgeous. Borys Szyc fit his part perfectly. Fav scene: Kulig running back to kiss Tomasz Kot. The bathroom scene is nice too.
Rated 08 May 2019
81
86th
We learned more from a three-minute folk song romanticizing doomed love and death, baby, than we ever learned from communist re-education.
Rated 22 Apr 2019
63
54th
Pawlikowski knows what he is doing, even if he seems overly concerned with creating a 'classy' impression. Shot in stark B+W like Ida, its frames aren't as reliant on negative space, which makes it less compelling to watch, and the story of doomed love set against a turbulent political backdrop pushes it closer to conventional awards territory, but it's certainly well shot and acted. Shame that the compressed timeline ensures that it's never terribly involving (emotionally).
Rated 22 Apr 2019
78
70th
Joanna Kulig steels the show, an impressive performance in a very well made movie. excellent cinematography, directing and everything. And oh yes, the blackandwhite… it actually works.
Rated 23 Mar 2019
70
56th
Now that's some extremely sweet use of 4:3 B&W. Suffocating, intimate, but still vast and sweeping when necessary. Unfortunately though I do have to agree with the folks that had a hard time getting invested into anything beyond the aesthetics - the romance leaping from crossroads to crossroads didn't leave much time to get acquainted with either character.
Rated 20 Mar 2019
85
93rd
Utterly brilliant shots in this movie that will be stuck in my mind forever. The poetic fatality of the storyline is remarkably moving and exquisitely developed.
Rated 08 Mar 2019
70
46th
Is mutual understanding possible between two crashing inner worlds, bounded to a hierarchical scale of power? Two hearts never make one. Love is not the safe haven people are seeking for.
Rated 03 Mar 2019
50
38th
Escorpião
Rated 02 Mar 2019
81
82nd
I can think of few directors whose command of historicity matches that of Pawlikowski's -- through set design, through score, through costuming and frame ratio. Every shot is thoroughly crafted with an unyielding eye for smouldering beauty and minute detail; every shot is, in essence, a love story to Eastern Europe.
Rated 21 Feb 2019
4
51st
More like blah blah land amirite folx
Rated 18 Feb 2019
70
61st
A great movie with excellent visuals and surprisingly engaging music performances. My favorite part of this film though is how the historical setting is perfectly integrated into these lovers' lives so that it emphasizes, and not overshadows, this intimate narrative. I will say though that both of the lovers could have been characterized better - the motivations (or lack thereof) for their actions is not always effectively communicated to the audience.
Rated 17 Feb 2019
3
36th
Beautiful storytelling, incredible how he accomplishes it in 90 minutes. Anyone who doesnt understand why they went back is a cop.
Rated 08 Feb 2019
75
18th
The cinematography was amazing! But somehow the script went a bit weird for me. Maybe this much anti-communism ruined it, if you ask me.
Rated 04 Feb 2019
91
96th
Absolutely brilliant from Pawlikowski. Shooting, directing, acting, writing, all top notch.
Rated 03 Feb 2019
79
46th
Not so good and strong. @ev 3rd February 19
Rated 03 Feb 2019
84
90th
Possibly the coolest looking movie of 2018.
Rated 29 Jan 2019
50
33rd
It's written "high art critic about communism" all over it as two musician lovers drift through Europe along two decades living the ups and downs of forced exile. Beautiful music, pleasant cinematography but all filled with that good taste alarm that makes this precise if not just distant and meaninglessly elegant.
Rated 27 Jan 2019
73
47th
i had to look at the dictionary to briefly spell out the problem of cold war and it is "to cut off nose to spite face."
Rated 18 Jan 2019
78
57th
It's a fitting death for her, but not for him.
Rated 10 Jan 2019
75
77th
Going by the partially hysteric reviews, I was expecting more. The soundtrack is indeed amazing, but the cinematography is only solid, and the story totally unremarkable.
Rated 04 Jan 2019
80
69th
Cold War, 2018 yılında çekilmiş en iyi sinematografiye sahip film olabilir fakat bunun bu kadar üst düzey çalışılmış olması ile birlikte filmde verilmeye çalışılan duyguların ve anlatılmaya çalışılan aşk hikayesinin önüne geçmesi, filmi sonlara doğru sekteye uğratmış.
Rated 03 Jan 2019
90
96th
Yönetmen, bilindik bir konuyu alaycılıkla da anlatsa da başarılı. Ben imkansız aşklar için yaratılmışım modunda ilerleyen film, yer yer ağır ilerlese de biz büyükleri izlettiriyor. Filmin estetiği, görüntüleri ve cazibesi de olağanüstü. Şu kopuk sahneler olmasaydı, tam bir başyapıt olabilirdi. Anam beni evlendirmedi oy oyoy oyoyoy.
Rated 31 Dec 2018
63
13th
Very poor characters, indecisive plot, but wonderful cinematography. A shame it came after Ida. very high expectations, but it not deliver.
Rated 15 Dec 2018
50
16th
visually stunning but incredibly boring.
Rated 14 Dec 2018
73
83rd
Not as elegant as Ida but a beautiful story about being an European immigrant.
Rated 13 Dec 2018
4
77th
Cold War är inte inte Ida, men bra ändå. Handlingen är ganska enkel - jag vill inte säga banal - men samtidigt återspeglar utvecklingen centrala delar av östeuropeisk historia. Och så är det bildsättningen! Filmen är en fröjd för ögat, samtidigt som bilderna mer än något annat bär historien.
Rated 04 Dec 2018
85
90th
tanıdık hikayeyi, eskimiş çerçeveler ama görece yeni bir hassasiyetle anlatıyor pawlikowski. kurduğu atmosfer, hikayeyi sündürmeyişi, samimiyeti; her şeyiyle türev filmler enflasyonunda bir şaheser olarak beliriyor.
Rated 02 Dec 2018
76
40th
cinematographically captures , but it could be more strong.
Rated 17 Nov 2018
40
39th
I remember the first part of the movie, with the reverent and academic, yet passionate, approach to regional music, being amazing
Rated 20 Oct 2018
70
46th
Burada filmekimine gevrek derler
Rated 17 Oct 2018
70
36th
Rexx
Rated 14 Oct 2018
78
66th
Pavlikowski nin neredeyse "ozet" sayilabilecek kurgu tarzi, filmin motoru olan karakterler arasi duygu yogunlugunu ve bazi anlardaki motivasyonu tam olarak anlayamamamiza sebep olabiliyor. Cok bilindik bir hikaye, fakat cok siradisi bir setting ve harika gorsellik. Ister istemez Savas sonrasi dogu blokunda Jeux D'enfants cagrisimlari yapiyor.
Rated 21 Sep 2018
85
90th
Everything works wonderfully except the ending. Better than Ida.

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