Critic’s Choice: Oscar winner Pawel Pawlikowski makes another run with ‘Cold War’
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One of the positive aspects of the long and grueling Oscar season is that terrific films get extended theatrical runs, and if you haven’t seen the gorgeous “Cold War” on a big screen, you still have the opportunity to do so.
The latest by Poland’s Pawel Pawlikowski, whose previous “Ida” took home the foreign-language Oscar, this is a black-and-white film that smolders and even burns with the gorgeous, intoxicating atmosphere of star-crossed romance.
Set between 1949 and 1964, at the height of the East-West political standoff that gives it its name, “Cold War” stars top Polish actors Tomasz Kot and the knockout Joanna Kulig as a tempestuous duo whose emotions are so large and so contradictory they could be characters in an opera.
Yet so assured is Pawlikowski’s direction, so convincing is the filmmaking across the board, that the entire story unfolds with a happening-right-in-front-of-us immediacy that is dazzling.
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