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#440 - Ida
Pawel Pawlikowski, 2013
In 1960s Poland, a novice nun is about to take her final vows when she is sent to meet a long-lost relative who knows the truth about her past.
The most recent recipient of the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film is a brief and monochromatic venture where the 1960s setting and focus on religion is enough to conjure easy comparisons to the work of Ingmar Bergman, differing nationalities notwithstanding. Ida is substantial enough to define itself outside of that particular frame of reference, but not quite enough to come across as a truly great film. It has an interesting enough premise with the titular novice being urged to visit long-lost aunt Wanda who reveals the truth about Ida's background - that she is actually of Jewish descent and that her parents were killed during World War II. Thus begins a road trip where Ida and Wanda have different goals - Wanda wants to give Ida a chance to experience more of life before taking her vows, while Ida wants nothing more than to find her parents' remains and give them a proper burial.
Ida maintains an appropriately bleak aesthetic with uncomplicated cinematography and a lack of non-diegetic music, while its cast give naturally understated performances. You don't have to have the greatest knowledge of Poland's history during World War II to properly comprehend the drama involved, though it does kind of become a bit too familiar with its "one last trip" narrative that naturally ends up vastly changing its odd-couple participants. That being said, it handles that familiar set-up reasonably well and the film's brevity is also a point in its favour. It is most definitely not a waste of what little time it takes to watch, but it's not hard to feel like it doesn't bring anything especially new to the table aside from its stoic-faced yet emotional treatise on post-WWII Poland.
Pawel Pawlikowski, 2013
In 1960s Poland, a novice nun is about to take her final vows when she is sent to meet a long-lost relative who knows the truth about her past.
The most recent recipient of the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film is a brief and monochromatic venture where the 1960s setting and focus on religion is enough to conjure easy comparisons to the work of Ingmar Bergman, differing nationalities notwithstanding. Ida is substantial enough to define itself outside of that particular frame of reference, but not quite enough to come across as a truly great film. It has an interesting enough premise with the titular novice being urged to visit long-lost aunt Wanda who reveals the truth about Ida's background - that she is actually of Jewish descent and that her parents were killed during World War II. Thus begins a road trip where Ida and Wanda have different goals - Wanda wants to give Ida a chance to experience more of life before taking her vows, while Ida wants nothing more than to find her parents' remains and give them a proper burial.
Ida maintains an appropriately bleak aesthetic with uncomplicated cinematography and a lack of non-diegetic music, while its cast give naturally understated performances. You don't have to have the greatest knowledge of Poland's history during World War II to properly comprehend the drama involved, though it does kind of become a bit too familiar with its "one last trip" narrative that naturally ends up vastly changing its odd-couple participants. That being said, it handles that familiar set-up reasonably well and the film's brevity is also a point in its favour. It is most definitely not a waste of what little time it takes to watch, but it's not hard to feel like it doesn't bring anything especially new to the table aside from its stoic-faced yet emotional treatise on post-WWII Poland.