Dir. Paweł Pawlikowski, 2018

Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film, Best Director, Best Cinematography.

Set in the 1950s and 1960s, it is a love story between Zula (Joanna Kulig), a young dancer in the Mazurek folk group, and Wiktor (Tomasz Kot), a pianist and composer. Paweł Pawlikowski’s film has won numerous awards, including the award for Best Director in Cannes and three Oscar nominations, for: Best International Feature Film, Best Director (Paweł Pawlikowski), Best Cinematography (Łukasz Żal).

This episodic story about a great yet incredibly complicated amorous relationship between Zula and Wiktor is presented using beautiful, black and white cinematography by Łukasz Żal. The first foreign performance in East Berlin becomes for the protagonists a chance to escape, yet fate separates the lovers and Wiktor goes to Paris alone. Their further tribulations are a series of meetings on occasions of European concerts and sudden breakups, caused by an intense feeling. Their relationship either explodes and rumbles like cannons on the front, or hides in the trenches to celebrate the rare moments of peace and intimacy. The love in Zula and Wiktor’s version is a war, most often a cold one, which moves its boundaries at a distance.

You can read more about the film at the IMDB.com online database

 

Tenement house
21 Sienkiewicza Str.

In Cold War the interiors of the tenement house were used, staged as Wiktor’s Parisian flat, which we visit three times together with the protagonists. The wooden attic of the building was adapted to that end. The study of the Minister of Culture (Adam Ferency) was arranged in another room. During a meeting with the minister, the management of Mazurek gets new “socialist guidelines” concerning the group’s repertoire. The tenement house was also used as the Parisian consulate office of the Polish People’s Republic, visited by the heartbroken Wiktor, who goes out of his way to search for his beloved Zula.

MOSiR Sports Hall
21 Skorupki Str.

The Sports Hall transforms into a stage in Berlin, on which Mazurek presents its repertoire on tour in the GDR. It was this facility where also the sequence of Wiktor’s escape towards the border of the occupation sectors and conversation between Zula and Kaczmarek (Borys Szyc) in the dressing room were shot.

Grand Theatre
Dąbrowskiego Square

Teatr Wielki became the scenery of the banquet after Mazurek’s performance in East Berlin. On screen, we accompany Zula and Kaczmarek, who are strengthening their bonds with notables from the GDR, while Wiktor is waiting for his beloved in the prearranged place near the border of the occupation sectors (shots filmed in Wrocław).

The tenement house of Mieczysław Pinkus
1 Kościuszki Str.

In Paweł Pawlikowski’s film, the tenement house stars, above all, as the interiors of French flats, albeit not only. Also the scene taking place in the train toilet was shot in it. For the purposes of the production of Cold War, the interiors of the building were staged as the flat belonging to Michel, a film director and Wiktor’s friend. In that flat the memorable party after the premiere of Michel’s film, during which Zula meets the upper crust of the French capital city, takes place. In an earlier scene, the interiors of the tenement house starred as well as the flat belonging to Juliette (Wiktor’s lover), where he comes back after the meeting with Zula in Café LeBalto, and were used as the scenery of the love scene taking place in a Parisian hotel.

Grand Hotel
72 Piotrkowska Str.

It is no mean feat to recognise Grand Hotel in Cold War. Scenes were shot in rooms normally inaccessible to the hotel guests. The old theatre room was used as stage design of the Parisian club L’Eclipse, in which Wiktor plays after his escape to the other side of the “iron curtain” and which is visited several times by the protagonists. In turn, a room at the back of the hotel (the corner of Hotelowa and Traugutta Streets) stars as the interiors of Café LeBalto, where Wiktor meets Zula for the first time after he’s left.

Polskie Radio Łódź
130 Narutowicza Str.

In Paweł Pawlikowski’s film, the interiors of Radio Łódź can be seen in two scenes. The first one is the sequence of recordings of music to Michel’s film performed by the band conducted by Wiktor. Zula appears unexpectedly at the studio during the recording. Next time, we can see it when Zula records her vocal lines that are to appear on her French-speaking solo album.

Leon Allart's Villa
38 Wróblewskiego Str.

We see the interiors of the Villa in the scene preceding banquet at Michel’s, after the premiere of his film. Walking up the stairs, Zula and Wiktor are talking about the guests they will meet at the party.