- A second look as revealed what could be the best film of 2013
- Crisp monochrome photography- Arri Alexa 35mm

- Mise-en-scene compositions—photography—among the best of the decade

- 1.37: 1 box aspect ratio- influences Schrader’s First Reformed
- Another Pawlikowski trademark- his 80-90 minute running time
- Austere, stark

- Silent montage opening with nuns at the convent—Pawlikowski arranges objects in the frame wondrously—often with the subject/object in the lower plane

- Brilliant performances by both Agata Kulesza (Wanda) and Agata Trzebuchowska (Anna)—love the acting moment when Trzebuchowska’s face shows the shock of being told she’s Jewish – these are complex characters wearing the baggage of their history
- Gorgeous rural road with trees overhanging

- Actors framed in the doorway

- Kulesza’s character is a skeptic- alcoholic, nihilistic, she’s angry (and justly so)- Trzebuchowska’s (with her black eyes) character is naïve and sheltered—they’re a perfect pairing- in an alternate universe this would be a contrasting characters road trip comedy-
- The jazz club scene (and just outside) may be the zenith of the film’s many visual highpoints—there’s the gating outside (below) and streamers and balloons in the mise-en-scene like Von Sternberg’s work

- The level of detail in the compositions—meticulous- very light, every detail in the car
- The suicide sequence is breath-taking

- The trademark Ingmar Bergman face-framing device

- MS/MP
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