171 reviews
Saint Ida
This film is recommended.
Anna grew up in a Catholic orphanage, never knowing her parents. Deeply religious, she is slated to become a nun within a few weeks. However, before taking her vows, Anna must leave the convent and visit her only living relative, a cold and distant aunt. Upon their first meeting, she is told that she is really Ida, a Jewish niece. So begins their relationship and journey to find her past and specifically, her parent's unmarked graves.
With an unusually short film length of less than 90 minutes, Ida is an extremely well made film, sensitively directed by Pawel Pawlikowski. Under the backdrop of 1960's Poland, the film's premise of presenting contrasting religions and lifestyles is its main attraction. The screenplay by the director and Rebecca Lenkiewicz has much to say and tells its linear narrative concisely and without any flourish.  Ida is a fine film that could have been a great film had its script added more dimension to its central character. Anna, or Ida, is mainly a saintly conduit, a devout presence who never seems to be real in any sense. She begins as an enigma and, surprisingly, rarely displays any strong emotional reaction when confronted with disturbing news.
Agata Trzebuchowska plays Ida / Anna and she is physically right for the role. The actress invests the right degree of innocence and vulnerability. Even more effective is Agata Kulesza as Ida's bitter and alcoholic Aunt Wanda. Her role has far more depth and the actress makes subtle choices in underplaying the anger and hostility within her complex character. It is a strong and memorable performance.
The film, beautifully photographed by Ryszard Lenczewski and Lukasz Zal, might have a smaller budget than most movies these days, but one never notices any lapse in quality as production values are of the highest caliber. With lovely black & white images and a lyrical score by Kristian Eidnes Andersen, Ida is superior filmmaking, even if some of the transitions and editing seems slightly abrupt. The film effectively deals with powerful themes that will resonate with any serious film-goer and deserves to be seen. GRADE: B
Visit my blog at: www.dearmoviegoer.com
ANY COMMENTS: Please contact me at: jadepietro@rcn.com
Anna grew up in a Catholic orphanage, never knowing her parents. Deeply religious, she is slated to become a nun within a few weeks. However, before taking her vows, Anna must leave the convent and visit her only living relative, a cold and distant aunt. Upon their first meeting, she is told that she is really Ida, a Jewish niece. So begins their relationship and journey to find her past and specifically, her parent's unmarked graves.
With an unusually short film length of less than 90 minutes, Ida is an extremely well made film, sensitively directed by Pawel Pawlikowski. Under the backdrop of 1960's Poland, the film's premise of presenting contrasting religions and lifestyles is its main attraction. The screenplay by the director and Rebecca Lenkiewicz has much to say and tells its linear narrative concisely and without any flourish.  Ida is a fine film that could have been a great film had its script added more dimension to its central character. Anna, or Ida, is mainly a saintly conduit, a devout presence who never seems to be real in any sense. She begins as an enigma and, surprisingly, rarely displays any strong emotional reaction when confronted with disturbing news.
Agata Trzebuchowska plays Ida / Anna and she is physically right for the role. The actress invests the right degree of innocence and vulnerability. Even more effective is Agata Kulesza as Ida's bitter and alcoholic Aunt Wanda. Her role has far more depth and the actress makes subtle choices in underplaying the anger and hostility within her complex character. It is a strong and memorable performance.
The film, beautifully photographed by Ryszard Lenczewski and Lukasz Zal, might have a smaller budget than most movies these days, but one never notices any lapse in quality as production values are of the highest caliber. With lovely black & white images and a lyrical score by Kristian Eidnes Andersen, Ida is superior filmmaking, even if some of the transitions and editing seems slightly abrupt. The film effectively deals with powerful themes that will resonate with any serious film-goer and deserves to be seen. GRADE: B
Visit my blog at: www.dearmoviegoer.com
ANY COMMENTS: Please contact me at: jadepietro@rcn.com
- jadepietro
- Jun 22, 2014
- Permalink
The Not so Usual. Life.
Greetings again from the darkness. Writer/director Pawel Pawlikowski films in his homeland of Poland and presents a familiar topic from a most unusual perspective. This film has been very well received on the festival circuit and it's easy to see why: it's beautifully photographed, very well acted, includes terrific music and presents an emotional story for intelligent viewers.
We first meet Anna as a novitiate nun on the verge of taking her vows. Her Mother Superior has one requirement. Anna must visit her lone surviving relative. Her Aunt Wanda is everything Anna is not: worldly, cynical, direct. In the first few minutes of their visit, Wanda (Agata Kulesza) informs Anna (Agata Trzebuchowska) that she was born Jewish with the name Ida, and she was sent to a Catholic orphanage when her parents were killed.
After this bombshell, the two set out on a journey to discover the truth and trace their roots. It's a journey of discovery not just for Ida, but also for Wanda, who carries her own burden. Questioning one's faith and one's true identity is nothing new, but this makes for quite an unusual buddy road trip. Wanda is rarely without a drink in hand and Ida has had no previous exposure to the real world.
This is the debut of Agata Trzebuchowska and her porcelain look and big eyes convey a quality with which we find ourselves comfortable with, while Ms. Kulesza evokes empathy from the viewer despite her harsh edge and beaten down outlook on life and people. Hers is a standout performance.
Two exceptional pieces of music are used to perfection: Coltraine's "Naima" and Mozart's "Jupiter" symphony. The storytelling and look of the film might be austere (stunning black and white photography) but this music hits us hard in two separate scenes.
We first meet Anna as a novitiate nun on the verge of taking her vows. Her Mother Superior has one requirement. Anna must visit her lone surviving relative. Her Aunt Wanda is everything Anna is not: worldly, cynical, direct. In the first few minutes of their visit, Wanda (Agata Kulesza) informs Anna (Agata Trzebuchowska) that she was born Jewish with the name Ida, and she was sent to a Catholic orphanage when her parents were killed.
After this bombshell, the two set out on a journey to discover the truth and trace their roots. It's a journey of discovery not just for Ida, but also for Wanda, who carries her own burden. Questioning one's faith and one's true identity is nothing new, but this makes for quite an unusual buddy road trip. Wanda is rarely without a drink in hand and Ida has had no previous exposure to the real world.
This is the debut of Agata Trzebuchowska and her porcelain look and big eyes convey a quality with which we find ourselves comfortable with, while Ms. Kulesza evokes empathy from the viewer despite her harsh edge and beaten down outlook on life and people. Hers is a standout performance.
Two exceptional pieces of music are used to perfection: Coltraine's "Naima" and Mozart's "Jupiter" symphony. The storytelling and look of the film might be austere (stunning black and white photography) but this music hits us hard in two separate scenes.
- ferguson-6
- Jun 28, 2014
- Permalink
Enticing, but the ending is disappointing
Stunning pictures, mind-blowing camera work. And then, the Aunt.
While French artsy-critic magazine "telerama" gave it an ecstatic review, there is one thing I wasn't prepared for: the quality of the images. Set in an almost-but-not-quite faded black and white, of about completely square format, I was sure the movie, set and shot in Poland, was using some obscure last reels of some obscure special negatives, developed in a forgotten cold-war era lab... Well, according to the credits, that was all digital, from start to finish. All the haters of DDD processes out there (I'm one of them), we can now be assured the modern film-maker has today the ability to really work on grain, under-exposure, blurred shadows and all that; Wiene, Murneau, Dreyer, Eisenstein and Lang be damned.
I was stunned. This, and the quite audacious camera angles, the ever so close close-ups that only half a face remains visible. I even noticed what should be considered an error (walking in the forest, you only see the characters up from their ankles, missing their feet labouring trough the undergrowth)... And it just works because of the richness of the various tree trunk's winter greys.
Add to that the settings, the aesthetics of semi-derelict post-war communist décor, and the odd 'innocent girl meets nice boy' arch-cute scene, but that was to be expected from the start, even if it is just about perfect. The Hotel is... A graphic masterpiece in itself.
So yeah, the movie is worth it's weight on that alone already, and then there is Agata Kulesza, so absolutely right every part of her role as Aunt Wanda, so whole and complex inside a movie that doesn't otherwise spend lengths on character's backgrounds that she just draws you inside, whether you know her story, her past, her issues or not. A jaw-dropping performance.
This movie should not be called Ida, but Wanda.
I was stunned. This, and the quite audacious camera angles, the ever so close close-ups that only half a face remains visible. I even noticed what should be considered an error (walking in the forest, you only see the characters up from their ankles, missing their feet labouring trough the undergrowth)... And it just works because of the richness of the various tree trunk's winter greys.
Add to that the settings, the aesthetics of semi-derelict post-war communist décor, and the odd 'innocent girl meets nice boy' arch-cute scene, but that was to be expected from the start, even if it is just about perfect. The Hotel is... A graphic masterpiece in itself.
So yeah, the movie is worth it's weight on that alone already, and then there is Agata Kulesza, so absolutely right every part of her role as Aunt Wanda, so whole and complex inside a movie that doesn't otherwise spend lengths on character's backgrounds that she just draws you inside, whether you know her story, her past, her issues or not. A jaw-dropping performance.
This movie should not be called Ida, but Wanda.
- joaophilippe-mb-monteiro
- Apr 18, 2014
- Permalink
As moving as sad
In the 60's Poland, a few days before pronouncing her vows of poverty, chastity and obedience to end her probation period and officially become a nun, Anna, an orphaned young woman, learns by chance the existence of her aunt, Wanda. The Mother Superior propose to Anna to meet Wanda. In this respect, she offers her to take all the necessary time. This encounter will turn her life upside down, via a journey of self-discovery and a road trip through rural Poland, in search of lost time. Lost forever...
Shot in gorgeous black and white, this film is a disconcerting beauty while remaining simple and pure, with a neat photography, elegant and appropriate framings highlighting the emptiness and the sadness of certain existences, and a careful treatment of natural light. Then, the two main actresses, Agata Kulesza and Agata Trzebuchowska, are prodigious and complement each other wonderfully. Finally, the script is excellently and soberly written, and, even if the film is hard and deals with an unpleasant subject, the staging is simple and anything but egghead. As a synthesis, the film is a masterpiece.
Shot in gorgeous black and white, this film is a disconcerting beauty while remaining simple and pure, with a neat photography, elegant and appropriate framings highlighting the emptiness and the sadness of certain existences, and a careful treatment of natural light. Then, the two main actresses, Agata Kulesza and Agata Trzebuchowska, are prodigious and complement each other wonderfully. Finally, the script is excellently and soberly written, and, even if the film is hard and deals with an unpleasant subject, the staging is simple and anything but egghead. As a synthesis, the film is a masterpiece.
- FrenchEddieFelson
- May 8, 2019
- Permalink
Phenomenal
Ida is magnificent, it will stay with me a long time. The narrative is powerfully compelling and yet if it had been a non-narrative film I would have been spellbound by the images alone. They should make a coffee table book of stills from it. Huge emotional issues are dealt with in a remarkably understated, unsentimental, but appropriate way. The use of music (often my pet peeve in these days of Hollywood formula) is enlightened and illustrative. I don't think the ending is ambiguous, I'm not sure the writer who wrote that understood it. Perhaps there is something slightly facile about the way things wrap up in the last 15 minutes of the film, but this is only in comparison with how beautifully they are laid out before that. Enough, this is not really a review, it is an exhortation - Go see Ida!
- ned-1-566995
- May 14, 2014
- Permalink
Nun the wiser.
Although 'Ida (2013)' achieves a cold, isolating effect, it actually struggles quite a bit when it comes to thematic or emotional resonance. Its story, which ought to be wrought with emotion, doesn't really hit home. Perhaps that's because we feel at a distance from our core players despite always being in close proximity to them. Of course, there is something to be said for the flick's delicate exposition and otherwise subtle storytelling. It mostly works to an enigmatic effect. However, it's sometimes too subtle. Much of the lead's inner machinations are left up to interpretation, as she moves through the narrative with a blank face and only the simplest of dialogue. That's not to say that the film is particularly uninteresting. In fact, it's often rather intriguing. The issue is that it isn't all that engaging. Despite its great cinematography and understated camera-work, it isn't moving in any real way. It isn't so much boring as it is slow, though. I wish it was more captivating than it is, as it's a well-crafted movie with an under-explored setting, but it's worth a watch if you know what you're getting into. 6/10
- Pjtaylor-96-138044
- Mar 9, 2020
- Permalink
Extraordinary film. Don't miss it!
Ida (2013) is a Polish film co-written and directed by Pawel Pawlikowski. This brilliant film follows a few days in the life of Anna, a young novitiate nun. Anna has been raised in a convent, and she plans to take her vows and stay in the convent for the rest of her life.
However, before this can take place, the mother superior sends her to meet her only living relative, a woman named Wanda.
The pair could not be less similar. Ida is quiet, gentle, thoughtful, and shy. Her aunt is tough as nails--she has real power as a judge, and she knows how to use it. She's a heavy drinker and a heavy smoker. She's also a Jew.
In the first few minutes of the movie, Anna learns that she's Jewish. As a very young girl, she was taken to the convent, where the nuns raised her. (Her real name is Ida, which is why that's the title of the film.)
Wanda and Anna set out to return to their rural home, to solve the mystery of what happened to their family 20 years earlier. Why did Ida survive, when her family--other than Wanda--did not?
This film, shot in black & white, is superbly constructed on every dimension. The plot is tight, and the acting is incredible. Agata Kulesza (Wanda) and Agata Trzebuchowska (Anna/Ida), are immensely talented actors.
The cinematography is incomparable. My wife and I felt as if any frame--from the beginning to the end of the movie--would make a great still photograph.
Pawlikowski knows how to focus on his main actors, but he also lets us know that, while the protagonists are involved in heartbreaking drama, the rest of the world is going about its business around them.
This is a grim film. Anna's life is restricted by her piety. Wanda's life is constricted by alcohol and--it would appear--by lack of any close personal relationships. Everyone in Poland is restricted by horrible memories, dark secrets, and Soviet domination.
Grim or not, this is a film you shouldn't pass up if you care about great cinema. We saw it on a large screen at the LittleTheatre in Rochester, NY. However, it will work well enough on DVD. Don't miss it.
However, before this can take place, the mother superior sends her to meet her only living relative, a woman named Wanda.
The pair could not be less similar. Ida is quiet, gentle, thoughtful, and shy. Her aunt is tough as nails--she has real power as a judge, and she knows how to use it. She's a heavy drinker and a heavy smoker. She's also a Jew.
In the first few minutes of the movie, Anna learns that she's Jewish. As a very young girl, she was taken to the convent, where the nuns raised her. (Her real name is Ida, which is why that's the title of the film.)
Wanda and Anna set out to return to their rural home, to solve the mystery of what happened to their family 20 years earlier. Why did Ida survive, when her family--other than Wanda--did not?
This film, shot in black & white, is superbly constructed on every dimension. The plot is tight, and the acting is incredible. Agata Kulesza (Wanda) and Agata Trzebuchowska (Anna/Ida), are immensely talented actors.
The cinematography is incomparable. My wife and I felt as if any frame--from the beginning to the end of the movie--would make a great still photograph.
Pawlikowski knows how to focus on his main actors, but he also lets us know that, while the protagonists are involved in heartbreaking drama, the rest of the world is going about its business around them.
This is a grim film. Anna's life is restricted by her piety. Wanda's life is constricted by alcohol and--it would appear--by lack of any close personal relationships. Everyone in Poland is restricted by horrible memories, dark secrets, and Soviet domination.
Grim or not, this is a film you shouldn't pass up if you care about great cinema. We saw it on a large screen at the LittleTheatre in Rochester, NY. However, it will work well enough on DVD. Don't miss it.
Worthwhile, but overrated
- barkingechoacrosswaves
- Jul 3, 2014
- Permalink
Will definitely be a front runner for 2014 Best Foreign Picture Oscar nominations
- dimoulas-466-176153
- May 11, 2014
- Permalink
Straightforward, beautifully shot and very rewarding
Ida is the small and simple story of a complex and terrible past that gets unearthed when a nun discovers she is Jewish. Before taking her vows, she is sent out to meet her aunt, a bitter woman who drinks too much from the life and miserable aftermath of a Nazi occupied Poland. They journey in search of Ida's murdered parents and their resting place and what unfolds is simple, raw storytelling and plotting that is never overly grim, overly dramatic or hits a false note. Beautifully shot in black and white and with a short 80 minute running time that doesn't allow a moment of fat in this narrative, Ida is a rewarding experience.
- TheMarwood
- Dec 16, 2014
- Permalink
Black-and-White perfect choice for Ida
This b&w film is engraved in my memory.
The producer told her audience at the Guanajuato International Film Festival (Mexico) that finding funding for a b&w film took a long time. How wise she and the director were to hold out because b&w gives the film its period feel (the events occur 1961-62).
The story, occasionally too linear, is believable overall, at times all too believable. Its subtext: coming of age, Communism's excesses in Poland, peasant-Jewish relations during the Holocaust, worldliness vs. faith. And yes, they all work.
The aunt is played by a justly renowned Polish actress, the novice nun by an amateur who despite the film's success in Poland doesn't want to continue to act.
I don't want to spill over into spoilers, will sum up by saying that viewers will see a complex film simply told, set during Poland's painful post-war years and a no-holds-barred look at how various Poles treated Jews during the Second World War.
Ida played to large audiences in Poland where the film was generally praised, despite receiving flak from a few detractors as either anti-Polish or anti-Jewish, a fact reinforcing my view that the film owes part of its power to avoiding stereotypes. A compelling, technically excellent film worth the care lavished on it.
The producer told her audience at the Guanajuato International Film Festival (Mexico) that finding funding for a b&w film took a long time. How wise she and the director were to hold out because b&w gives the film its period feel (the events occur 1961-62).
The story, occasionally too linear, is believable overall, at times all too believable. Its subtext: coming of age, Communism's excesses in Poland, peasant-Jewish relations during the Holocaust, worldliness vs. faith. And yes, they all work.
The aunt is played by a justly renowned Polish actress, the novice nun by an amateur who despite the film's success in Poland doesn't want to continue to act.
I don't want to spill over into spoilers, will sum up by saying that viewers will see a complex film simply told, set during Poland's painful post-war years and a no-holds-barred look at how various Poles treated Jews during the Second World War.
Ida played to large audiences in Poland where the film was generally praised, despite receiving flak from a few detractors as either anti-Polish or anti-Jewish, a fact reinforcing my view that the film owes part of its power to avoiding stereotypes. A compelling, technically excellent film worth the care lavished on it.
Here's an idea. let's use every off-the-shelf Oscar bait and put them all in one movie
- majd_selbi
- Feb 13, 2015
- Permalink
I wanted to like this film a lot more than I did.
- planktonrules
- Jun 30, 2014
- Permalink
Amazing movie, amazing technique, acting, music, and story
Ida was a dark somber tragic story expressed perfectly in film.
I am not a big fan of black and white "art" movies done for effect, except the old black and white movies, but Ida was filmed so perfectly, and the stark black and white was so integral to the story and feeling of the movie it was really perfect.
I am not a big fan of jazz either, but again, the choice of Coltrane's jazz music for parts of this film really let you feel what jazz is all about, it was beautiful.
The story was of an orphan nun who is preparing to take her final vows to God. The Mother Superior calls her in and tells her about who she is. Ida grew up not knowing her name or anything about her family. Ida finds that she has an aunt nearby and is told to go to see her before taking her vows.
The slow, heavy and deliberate pace of the movie express the story so perfectly, and there is no pandering or cheap shots, the movie is beautifully done. This is a story that is not for everyone, or every time, but I am glad it was made and that I saw it.
I have to give it a 10/10 for pure craftsmanship and cinematic perfection.
I am not a big fan of black and white "art" movies done for effect, except the old black and white movies, but Ida was filmed so perfectly, and the stark black and white was so integral to the story and feeling of the movie it was really perfect.
I am not a big fan of jazz either, but again, the choice of Coltrane's jazz music for parts of this film really let you feel what jazz is all about, it was beautiful.
The story was of an orphan nun who is preparing to take her final vows to God. The Mother Superior calls her in and tells her about who she is. Ida grew up not knowing her name or anything about her family. Ida finds that she has an aunt nearby and is told to go to see her before taking her vows.
The slow, heavy and deliberate pace of the movie express the story so perfectly, and there is no pandering or cheap shots, the movie is beautifully done. This is a story that is not for everyone, or every time, but I am glad it was made and that I saw it.
I have to give it a 10/10 for pure craftsmanship and cinematic perfection.
Quiet, and stunning
- EephusPitch
- May 27, 2014
- Permalink
The Nun's Story
Whereas Jacques Rivette's despairing 'La Religieuse' had been shot in incongruously pretty sixties Eastmancolor, this laconic but wryly good-humoured female road movie - like Ingmar Bergman's Persona' - gains much of it's seductive visual impact from being shot in coolly glacial monochrome that looks like what you'd have got if Vermeer had worked in charcoal.
Similarly, like the Scandinavian good looks of Liv Ullman and Bibi Andersson in Bergman's film, 'Ida' is fascinating to watch throughout simply for the strong Polish features of Agata Kulesza as the chain-smoking 'Red Wanda' and the button eyes of Agata Trzebuchowska in the title role.
Similarly, like the Scandinavian good looks of Liv Ullman and Bibi Andersson in Bergman's film, 'Ida' is fascinating to watch throughout simply for the strong Polish features of Agata Kulesza as the chain-smoking 'Red Wanda' and the button eyes of Agata Trzebuchowska in the title role.
- richardchatten
- Aug 3, 2021
- Permalink
Different Standpoints, One Story
Since many of the movies that touched the subject of the extermination of the Jews during the 1930s and 1940s appeared rather too general, epic proportion films, it seems that something like IDA by Pawel Pawlikowski is a wonderful chance to symbolize a modern approach to the material. It is one great DETAIL, a story of one character where "every moment feels intensely personal" (Peter Bradshaw, the Guardian). A very interesting protagonist tormented by suggestion, suspicion and indication. Yet, does the protagonist instill any understanding in us?
Anna (Agata Trzebuchowska), or rather Ida Lebenstein, is a young 'nun' in the early 1960s Poland who has a chance to leave to the world just for a while before the time comes for the final vows. There, in the convent, within the context of the Benedictine maxim 'Ora Et Labora' (Pray and work) and the statue of the Merciful Jesus, we get to know our protagonist. A very fruitful theme that echoes many of the old Hollywood pictures, including NUN'S STORY. Yet, Anna's leave to the world does not have anything to do with a dilemma whether forgive or not nor with a sort of 'climb every mountain' attitude but she leaves in order to dig in the past, to find the grave of her roots, find out who she really is. In other words, she makes a dramatic discovery of her ancestry. But the help in that journey appears to be quite a sympathetic, earthly easy-going joys' Mary Magdalene-like character of Wanda (Agata Kulesza) and a young saxophonist (Dawid Ogrodnik) who introduces her to the joys of...carnal pleasures. Yes, indeed, she must know those pleasures in order to understand later what she actually resigns from by entering the convent. Jim O'Neill nicely puts it with reference to Ida's character that it is an altogether a "search for identity and truth in a world that suppressed both."
So far, it would make a perfect sense and a lovely inspiration for a drama if it were not for the problem of where the truth lies. Forgive me to become slightly ignorant now or politically incorrect but there is NO historical truth in this movie whatsoever. I am not one of those who blame the movie for being anti-Polish, not at all. While the convent aspect occurs to combine the Jewish world with the Catholic world quite successfully, the later story seems to draw even greater borderline between the Jewish nation and the Polish nation. It could have happened that there were some Polish people who killed the Jews while many many others risked their lives to save them. IDA does not do justice to the nation but, after all, the movie does not intend to do so. A little film can do little good but, at the same time, much evil. The problem lies in the fact that many viewers will be misled by what the argument revolves around. Why did they kill the Lebenstein family and buried them in the forest? Was it because of jealousy? Was it because of greed? (the son in one of the scenes says openly that he will show Ida and Wanda the spot where they are buried on the condition they resign from the property he lives in). Open for discussion and quite thought provoking...but for those who give themselves time and check some history, become intellectually involved not merely resorting to emotions. Others will simply resort to minimalism of the view of what allegedly happened in Poland. Here, as a Pole and Polish patriot I admit that I feel disappointed. More to say, the depiction of Poland is merely shards of old past, long forgotten and ruins. The spots Ida visits are either ruined filthy districts or totally neglected, primitive villages. Come on, that is not the way Poland looked like in the 1960s in spite of the fact that we were being poisoned by the red plague from the east.
But it would be unfair not to see the merits of the film. While many film scholars mention the intense portrayals of Ida and Wanda, I agree but...I would highlight the visual aspect more. Starting with the fact that the film is black and white (which Jim O'Neill labels as "images" looking like "vintage photographs") the camera-work is brilliant. Heavily influenced on cinema's long tradition and revealing certain features of even silent cinema and Expressionism (consider the shadows, the shots of staircase), it is an artistic picture, no doubt of that. I particularly liked the scenes at the convent that seem to grasp the specific atmosphere of the spiritually affected places. The delicacy of the love scene later in the movie also deserves credit. The classical music of Bach supplies the film with additional charm. And the characters?
Wanda and Ida seem to differ a lot from the very first meeting. While Ida is a totally inexperienced character who simply seeks to discover her own identity, Wanda is a woman with a past, a very very cruel past. As a state prosecutor and the one who sentenced many innocent people to death, she supplies the moments with either sarcastic irony or hardly believable metamorphosis. Inspired by the true historical character of Helena Wolinska-Brus, she leaves many questions unanswered. With her alcoholism and act of despair, she remains a rather character to be pitied and, more to say, compassionate. In that respect, I advise you to see GENERAL NIL. Yet, there is something that joins them: mutual Jewish ancestry. Both suffer and both occur innocent.
Relying on Peter Bradshaw's words that every moment in IDA is intensely personal, I recommend this film. From the standpoint of art and psychological torments, from the standpoint of one story, it is a captivating movie. Yet, we should not forget that there are also other standpoints, perhaps the ones that are not taken into account seriously bu surely the ones that cannot be ignored.
Anna (Agata Trzebuchowska), or rather Ida Lebenstein, is a young 'nun' in the early 1960s Poland who has a chance to leave to the world just for a while before the time comes for the final vows. There, in the convent, within the context of the Benedictine maxim 'Ora Et Labora' (Pray and work) and the statue of the Merciful Jesus, we get to know our protagonist. A very fruitful theme that echoes many of the old Hollywood pictures, including NUN'S STORY. Yet, Anna's leave to the world does not have anything to do with a dilemma whether forgive or not nor with a sort of 'climb every mountain' attitude but she leaves in order to dig in the past, to find the grave of her roots, find out who she really is. In other words, she makes a dramatic discovery of her ancestry. But the help in that journey appears to be quite a sympathetic, earthly easy-going joys' Mary Magdalene-like character of Wanda (Agata Kulesza) and a young saxophonist (Dawid Ogrodnik) who introduces her to the joys of...carnal pleasures. Yes, indeed, she must know those pleasures in order to understand later what she actually resigns from by entering the convent. Jim O'Neill nicely puts it with reference to Ida's character that it is an altogether a "search for identity and truth in a world that suppressed both."
So far, it would make a perfect sense and a lovely inspiration for a drama if it were not for the problem of where the truth lies. Forgive me to become slightly ignorant now or politically incorrect but there is NO historical truth in this movie whatsoever. I am not one of those who blame the movie for being anti-Polish, not at all. While the convent aspect occurs to combine the Jewish world with the Catholic world quite successfully, the later story seems to draw even greater borderline between the Jewish nation and the Polish nation. It could have happened that there were some Polish people who killed the Jews while many many others risked their lives to save them. IDA does not do justice to the nation but, after all, the movie does not intend to do so. A little film can do little good but, at the same time, much evil. The problem lies in the fact that many viewers will be misled by what the argument revolves around. Why did they kill the Lebenstein family and buried them in the forest? Was it because of jealousy? Was it because of greed? (the son in one of the scenes says openly that he will show Ida and Wanda the spot where they are buried on the condition they resign from the property he lives in). Open for discussion and quite thought provoking...but for those who give themselves time and check some history, become intellectually involved not merely resorting to emotions. Others will simply resort to minimalism of the view of what allegedly happened in Poland. Here, as a Pole and Polish patriot I admit that I feel disappointed. More to say, the depiction of Poland is merely shards of old past, long forgotten and ruins. The spots Ida visits are either ruined filthy districts or totally neglected, primitive villages. Come on, that is not the way Poland looked like in the 1960s in spite of the fact that we were being poisoned by the red plague from the east.
But it would be unfair not to see the merits of the film. While many film scholars mention the intense portrayals of Ida and Wanda, I agree but...I would highlight the visual aspect more. Starting with the fact that the film is black and white (which Jim O'Neill labels as "images" looking like "vintage photographs") the camera-work is brilliant. Heavily influenced on cinema's long tradition and revealing certain features of even silent cinema and Expressionism (consider the shadows, the shots of staircase), it is an artistic picture, no doubt of that. I particularly liked the scenes at the convent that seem to grasp the specific atmosphere of the spiritually affected places. The delicacy of the love scene later in the movie also deserves credit. The classical music of Bach supplies the film with additional charm. And the characters?
Wanda and Ida seem to differ a lot from the very first meeting. While Ida is a totally inexperienced character who simply seeks to discover her own identity, Wanda is a woman with a past, a very very cruel past. As a state prosecutor and the one who sentenced many innocent people to death, she supplies the moments with either sarcastic irony or hardly believable metamorphosis. Inspired by the true historical character of Helena Wolinska-Brus, she leaves many questions unanswered. With her alcoholism and act of despair, she remains a rather character to be pitied and, more to say, compassionate. In that respect, I advise you to see GENERAL NIL. Yet, there is something that joins them: mutual Jewish ancestry. Both suffer and both occur innocent.
Relying on Peter Bradshaw's words that every moment in IDA is intensely personal, I recommend this film. From the standpoint of art and psychological torments, from the standpoint of one story, it is a captivating movie. Yet, we should not forget that there are also other standpoints, perhaps the ones that are not taken into account seriously bu surely the ones that cannot be ignored.
- marcin_kukuczka
- Mar 21, 2015
- Permalink
Beautiful and Haunting
- oldblackdog1
- May 21, 2014
- Permalink
DA successfully mounts a much more dreadful picture of the loss of humanity in viewers' minds
- lasttimeisaw
- Aug 28, 2014
- Permalink
Offers no easy answers
Anna (Agata Trzebuchowska), a young novice ready to take her vows, learns through her aunt Wanda (Agata Kulesza) that she is of Jewish parentage and must come to terms with a past she never knew existed. Polish director Pawel Pawlikowski's Ida offers no easy answers but looks at each character's complexities, leaving only a trail of ambiguity. Shot in black and white by cinematographers Ryszard Lenczewski and Lukasz Zal, the film is set in Poland in the early 1960s and masterfully captures the bleak look of Communist-controlled Eastern Europe where the physical and emotional scars of World War II are impossible to hide.
Before taking her vows, the Mother Superior asks Anna to go to Lodz to visit her Aunt Wanda, her only living family member, but the visit causes her to experience emotions she had never been forced to confront. When the slender, frail, saintly-looking younger woman meets her aunt for the first time, Wanda is dressed in a bathrobe, a drink in one hand and a cigarette in the other, a shadow of the judge and former Communist prosecutor of "enemies of the state," who routinely sent people to their death. Leading Anna into the kitchen, Wanda blurts out with little subtlety. "So, you're a Jewish nun," telling her that her real name is Ida Lebenstein and that she was brought to the convent as an infant after her family was murdered by either the Nazis or the locals.
On the surface, Wanda is the sinner and Ida is the saint, but, as the film progresses, these distinctions become blurred and each is revealed as a multi-layered human being whose mysteries are not easily penetrated. When Ida asks to visit the grave where her parents are buried, Wanda tells her that "they have no graves," but both know that they must seek to find those responsible for the crimes. Wanda is aggressive as she tries to track down the guilty, but the search is more of a psychological journey to find closure than a desire for revenge. Along the way, Ida, an innocent motivated by faith, listens to the more experienced Wanda who tells her to live her life fully while she has the chance.
While it is difficult to know with any certainty what Ida thinks about the idea, she hesitatingly samples the secular life in a romantic relationship with Lis, a handsome saxophone player (Dawid Ogrodnick) who has a gig at their hotel, removing her habit and literally and figuratively letting her hair down. When Lis invites her to go to the beach with him, she asks, "What then?" When he replies, "Marriage and a family," she asks again, "Well, what then?" His answer is that we just go on to live our life, a notion that Ida seems to recoil from, but carefully guards her emotions.
Ida is a quiet film but masks the characters' inner torment. There is little dialogue but thanks to the direction and the strong but understated performances, especially from nonprofessional Trzebuchowska, the film becomes a hypnotic, if enigmatic experience. While Ida raises the question about whether or not it is best to live with comfortable illusions or seek an often painful truth, viewers are left to decide the answer for themselves.
Before taking her vows, the Mother Superior asks Anna to go to Lodz to visit her Aunt Wanda, her only living family member, but the visit causes her to experience emotions she had never been forced to confront. When the slender, frail, saintly-looking younger woman meets her aunt for the first time, Wanda is dressed in a bathrobe, a drink in one hand and a cigarette in the other, a shadow of the judge and former Communist prosecutor of "enemies of the state," who routinely sent people to their death. Leading Anna into the kitchen, Wanda blurts out with little subtlety. "So, you're a Jewish nun," telling her that her real name is Ida Lebenstein and that she was brought to the convent as an infant after her family was murdered by either the Nazis or the locals.
On the surface, Wanda is the sinner and Ida is the saint, but, as the film progresses, these distinctions become blurred and each is revealed as a multi-layered human being whose mysteries are not easily penetrated. When Ida asks to visit the grave where her parents are buried, Wanda tells her that "they have no graves," but both know that they must seek to find those responsible for the crimes. Wanda is aggressive as she tries to track down the guilty, but the search is more of a psychological journey to find closure than a desire for revenge. Along the way, Ida, an innocent motivated by faith, listens to the more experienced Wanda who tells her to live her life fully while she has the chance.
While it is difficult to know with any certainty what Ida thinks about the idea, she hesitatingly samples the secular life in a romantic relationship with Lis, a handsome saxophone player (Dawid Ogrodnick) who has a gig at their hotel, removing her habit and literally and figuratively letting her hair down. When Lis invites her to go to the beach with him, she asks, "What then?" When he replies, "Marriage and a family," she asks again, "Well, what then?" His answer is that we just go on to live our life, a notion that Ida seems to recoil from, but carefully guards her emotions.
Ida is a quiet film but masks the characters' inner torment. There is little dialogue but thanks to the direction and the strong but understated performances, especially from nonprofessional Trzebuchowska, the film becomes a hypnotic, if enigmatic experience. While Ida raises the question about whether or not it is best to live with comfortable illusions or seek an often painful truth, viewers are left to decide the answer for themselves.
- howard.schumann
- Jul 3, 2014
- Permalink
I wish the characters would have been developed more.
'IDA': Three and a Half Stars (Out of Five)
Polish drama flick about a nun, that's about to take her vows in 1960s Poland, who first learns a disturbing secret about her family's past. It was directed by Pawel Pawlikowski and written by Pawlikowski and Rebecca Lenkiewicz. It has received almost unanimously positive reviews from critics and garnered a great deal of prestigious awards attention as well (including Academy Award nominations for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Cinematography). The film has been negatively criticized by some though, for portraying Poles as anti-Jewish. I found the movie to be interesting and beautiful to watch but I wish the characters would have been developed more.
Agata Trzebuchowska stars as Anna; an orphan who was brought up by nuns in a convent, in the 1960s Polish People's Republic. She's a novice, about to take her vows, when her superior (Halina Skoczynska) tells her she must first meet her aunt, her only living relative, Wanda Gruz (Agata Kulesza). Wanda is an alcoholic judge, who used to be a prosecutor responsible for sending many anti- communist Polish soldiers to their death. She tells Anna about her Jewish heritage and the two set out on a journey together, to learn more about their family's past. They both, of course, learn more about who they are now, in the process.
The movie is presented all in black-and-white and I strongly agree with it's Best Cinematography Oscar nomination. The acting is all decent and the story is compelling, but I wish it would have been developed at least a little more. We get to know the Wanda character pretty well but we hardly learn much about Anna at all, before the film is over. The movie is only 80 minutes long and it seems like it could have been so much more emotional, if we would have gotten to know both characters better. There was potential here for a really great film; but I think it's still worth viewing (for it's visuals alone).
Watch our movie review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: http://youtu.be/Wr8Cd6IYNLs
Polish drama flick about a nun, that's about to take her vows in 1960s Poland, who first learns a disturbing secret about her family's past. It was directed by Pawel Pawlikowski and written by Pawlikowski and Rebecca Lenkiewicz. It has received almost unanimously positive reviews from critics and garnered a great deal of prestigious awards attention as well (including Academy Award nominations for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Cinematography). The film has been negatively criticized by some though, for portraying Poles as anti-Jewish. I found the movie to be interesting and beautiful to watch but I wish the characters would have been developed more.
Agata Trzebuchowska stars as Anna; an orphan who was brought up by nuns in a convent, in the 1960s Polish People's Republic. She's a novice, about to take her vows, when her superior (Halina Skoczynska) tells her she must first meet her aunt, her only living relative, Wanda Gruz (Agata Kulesza). Wanda is an alcoholic judge, who used to be a prosecutor responsible for sending many anti- communist Polish soldiers to their death. She tells Anna about her Jewish heritage and the two set out on a journey together, to learn more about their family's past. They both, of course, learn more about who they are now, in the process.
The movie is presented all in black-and-white and I strongly agree with it's Best Cinematography Oscar nomination. The acting is all decent and the story is compelling, but I wish it would have been developed at least a little more. We get to know the Wanda character pretty well but we hardly learn much about Anna at all, before the film is over. The movie is only 80 minutes long and it seems like it could have been so much more emotional, if we would have gotten to know both characters better. There was potential here for a really great film; but I think it's still worth viewing (for it's visuals alone).
Watch our movie review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: http://youtu.be/Wr8Cd6IYNLs
Who is Ida?
Beautiful in style, cold in form
I had high hopes for this Oscar winning film. And unfortunately it only partly payed off. Visually the film is beautiful. The black and white cinematography is breathless, the camera angles innovative and the setting perfect. But the narrative lacks an emotional depth. It all feels too cold, too detached. You don't really sympathize with the main characters, because too much is left unspoken.
- Filmdokter
- Apr 22, 2022
- Permalink
Fails in getting the audience involved
- Horst_In_Translation
- Sep 14, 2014
- Permalink