Pawel Pawlikowski’s Parents & “Cold War”
Making Cold War – How Director’s disaster parents became a love story
Pawlikowski has been trying to tell the story of his parents’ relationship, in one way or another, since he first started making features after an earlier career as a documentarian, although in the past he’s explored it only in the least obvious, most metaphoric sense. Ida, after all, was about a young Polish nun who discovers she’s actually Jewish. His 2004 feature, My Summer of Love, was about lesbian teenagers in an English boarding school (one of them played by a young Emily Blunt). But, until he had a conversation with his friend Alfonso Cuaron, Pawlikowski was unsure about taking on his parents’ 40-year love story in any literal way. “It was too long and messy,” Pawlikowski says of his trepidations. “I didn’t know if I could tell it the way I wanted to.” Cuaron, though (who has his own autobiographical feature out this year, Roma), pushed him to try.
Pawel Pawlikowski his early films in England
With Cold War nominated for major awards at this year’s Baftas and Oscars, the Polish film-maker talks about returning to his homeland, and how a tumultuous family life has made a mark on his work
(Closing Ceremony – The 71st Annual Cannes Film Festival)
April 9 – Happy birthday Kristen Stewart!