Pawel Pawlikowski

Nella Polonia alle soglie degli anni Cinquanta, la giovanissima Zula viene scelta per far parte di una compagnia di danze e canti popolari. Tra lei e Wiktor, il direttore del coro, nasce un grande amore, ma nel '52, nel corso di un'esibizione nella Berlino orientale, lui sconfina e lei non ha il coraggio di seguirlo. S'incontreranno di nuovo, nella Parigi della scena artistica, diversamente accompagnati , ancora innamorati. Ma stare insieme è impossibile, perché la loro felicità è perennemente ostacolata da una barriera di qualche tipo, politica o psicologica." (fonte: Retro del dvd)… (meer)

A brilliant film! Released in 2014 it is set in 1960s Poland. It is shot in black and white; any music apart from the last minutes are integral to the scene, i.e. not superimposed afterwards.
The story-outline: A young girl, an orphan, brought up in a catholic convent is about to take her vows. The mother-superior insists that she talks first to her aunt she has never met, her only known relative. They meet and are confronted with both their past and the events during the war and the German occupation of Poland. No simple stories here. What fascinates and convinces are the complexities of the characters and situations.

Much can be found online but is perhaps best left after watching the film. Interesting is an account by Pawlikowski how the film was made: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/nov/21/pawel-pawlikowski-making-of-ida-pol... and the hostile reaction in Poland: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jan/30/pawel-pawlikowski-ida-criticism-fil... . Unusually, the film was largely improvised, not filmed to the usual locked-in schedule; this caused difficulties with funding but the film gained from it: comparing it to Vittorio de Sica’s masterpiece I watched again recently and that deals - to some extend at least - with a related theme, The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, in my eyes Ida wins exactly because of a spontaneity it communicates and also because of the brilliant performance of Agata Trzebuchowska in the lead-role who had no acting experience. This film of de Sica may also just be too beautiful… (II-21)… (meer)

I really wanted to like this book. I loved the description and the first 20 or so pages. Interesting premise. What would it be like if someone showed up out of the blue telling you that they had loved you for two years? But, sadly I couldn't stick with this book. I stopped reading about 1/3 of the way in.

The intensity of the relationship between the two main characters was too over-the-top for me, unrealistic and made me feel quite uncomfortable. It certainly wasn't written as a healthy relationship - in spite of the constant references to them being "normal teenage boys" who just expected to have sex all the time. I found it difficult to believe that two teenage boys would be discussing marriage, a house and children the first week they were together.

I stopped reading about the time that they began having a discussion about "Supernatural" and one of the characters from the show. It pulled me out of the story completely and I got the feeling I was reading fanfiction rather than a novel! Sorry!… (meer)