Saw it on the big screen at the Golden Apricot Film Festival.
Every shot is masterful. Looking forward to seeing it again.

Interesting seeing the film with an Armenian/Russian crowd. The first song that Joanna Kulig sings in the film is from the famous 1934 Russian film Moscow Laughs. (This is what I was told - not confirmed) This went over well with the audience being that most recognized it.

CIFF 2018: film #4

“i’ve been waiting for you”

a far more engrossing love story than i was expecting. the kind of sickening love between two people who often can’t stand to be together, but  can’t bare to live apart. there’s no real happy, no real answer to their problem. the fleeting excitement of reuniting time after time is the height of their long shared journey, and the rest is as much a mystery to us as it is to them

the final act wraps up kind of fast, but besides that, it’s an incredibly solid film. the song she sings and how it develops and changes like a theme song throughout the years really helps keep track of time: like an ever present ghost in the character’s lives, always looming a little too close. and by the time this thing ended, i realized how invested i was, and the credits felt like a punch in the gut

or: La Dolce Zula

major, major, MAJOR. a story and love as fragmented as the titular conflict that our characters are bound by. communication in relationships and the tension of time on a virulent collision course. spatial awareness vs the desperate need for touch. this gave me such a cinematic high that i felt all my surroundings melt, and this film was all i saw. i dont wanna hear shit about there being no good films released this year btw, or for any recent year for that matter; filmmakers are still making films of this kind of quality, of care, of love, and pain. a masterpiece has been ordered and Paweł Pawlikowski is delivering.

A story of a rocky and complicated but genuine relationship told with all the gentleness in the world. Absolutely lovely, can’t wait to see it in a theater.

TALENTED, BRILLIANT, INCREDIBLE, AMAZING, SHOW STOPPING, SPECTACULAR, NEVER THE SAME, TOTALLY UNIQUE, COMPLETELY NOT EVER BEEN DONE BEFORE

((i also went on the curzon film podcast to talk about it))

Beautifully shot with piercing jabs at cultural suffocation enforced by Soviet régimes and a unsentimental, bittersweet love story in the center. This is the kind of critical historical cinema I expect coming out of former Warsaw pact countries.

Almost. But so much beauty.

I kind of thought they don't make films like that anymore but maybe only America doesn't.
This film was absolutely stunning. From the plot to the cast and the music and the pictures and the black and white and the setting.
I thought it would be more political but i am glad it wasn't. Even though it happened fast, the love story got me from the very fist second. They made my heart ache and it was all so beautiful.
A wonderful, authentic love story, about two people who cannot be seperated no matter what life throws at them.
and i really liked the ending, i think it was the only way it could have ended.

Beautiful, Mesmerizing, Energetic, Phenomenal.
Has the ingredients of a perfect love story highlighting the ups and downs of a relationship during the Post World War II era.
The music is poetic and absolutely takes your breath away.

this was so beautiful. films like this one remind why i love cinema so much.

Probably one of the best musicals I’ve ever saw.
It’s the very raw, cold, dark, reallistic version of La La Land.

Thoughts in a few weeks.

أقل بكثير من فيلم إيدا، أقل بكثير مما توقعت، تحية فقط للتصوير.

I’m miserable without you, and I’m miserable with you. 20 years of melancholy heartbreak, packed into 88 gorgeous minutes, as two individuals try to survive transfers of power in both pop and politics, drifting apart before coming back together. Contender for the best closing line of 2018.