• 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
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  • 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
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  • Actors framed in the doorway
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  • 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
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  • MS/MP