Ida (2013) - Pawlikowski scores big with resounding identity-tale

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+ Best Polish Movie of the Year 

The picture on this poster for Pawel Pawlikowski's Ida shows the identity-shaping haze that the title character finds herself in in the movie

Ida is the 5th feature from great Polish writer/director Pawel Pawlikowski (My Summer of Love (2004)), a Danish-Polish co-production that takes place in Poland somewhere in the 1950's.

Ida is a young girl in a convent soon to take her vows to Jesus Christ and her sisterhood, when her superior tells her that she has to first go and meet her only relative left, her aunt, before she takes the last step. The aunt, a former DA, has shocking stories to tell about Ida's family background.

Ida is a film that has taken a victorious journey through several countries and become a surprise hit. A surprise because it is shot in B/W, in 4:3-format, in Polish, with little music, artsy photography, often hauntingly beautiful, and a 1950's plot about a nun and a dark past. It is somber and gloomy and very Eastern European in all of these respects.
And yet it strikes chords with audiences seemingly everywhere. Because Ida is more than those listed elements; it is also a captivating story of identity, faith, what makes you you, and why you make the choices in life that you do. It's obviously got a story that is fraught with meaningful, thematic material, (because all of this material is contained in its just 80 minutes playtime.) It is inspired by two true stories, which are altered to fit into this joined story.
The praises for the film available are overwhelming, and I don't recommend that you delve into them, because they may leave you expecting something that no film can really deliver. Ida is a carefully shaped little diamond, which comes to vivid life early on in its story and remains there for its concise duration.
Ida lives also on especially two very strong acting performances: Agata Trzebuchowska is debuting in the title lead, and her unafraid, stone-faced strength and curiosity is a firm foundation for the journey of the film. She has announced that, despite her good performance and the film's success, she does not want to be an actress. The other great performance is from Agata Kulesza (Suicide Room (2011)), who is simply brilliant as the semi-alcoholic, distressed aunt Wanda.
Ida is a strong and serious film that you will want to see and form your own opinion about.

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Watch the excellent trailer for the film with English subtitles here

Cost: Approximately 2 mil.€, equal to approximately 2.16 mil. $
Box office: 11.1 mil. $
= Big hit
[Ida's impressive American result is not unique, in that it has also gotten fine attendances in European countries: The few reported are Italy (where it earned 0.5 mil. euros) and France (421,000 admissions). The film has yet to open in several countries, including Denmark, which will happen on November 27.]

What do you think of Ida?

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) - A very very good dream

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+ Best Adventure Movie of the Year + Best Ensemble Movie of the Year

The whole delicious ensemble of Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel displayed in this delicate poster

The Grand Budapest Hotel is the happening movie right now for thinking (but here equally feeling) audiences everywhere, until (perhaps) Lars Von Trier's Nymphomaniac causes craze as it comes out in America later this month. My bet is that this is the film that will run with the hearts and dollars, though.
My favorite Wes Anderson-film (The Darjeeling Limited (2007)) is The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), but I have to say that this is just as brilliant. The Grand Budapest Hotel is a magnificent present of a film; a cat-and-mouse-style romantic adventure for adults; a run-amok fantastic world with great feeling and sense beneath all its tomfooleries and stylistically masterful compositions. - I loved it! It pulls our leg with an infectious earnestness from start to finish.
The film is a story within a story within a story:

A girl visits the monument for a beloved author with his book of the Grand Budapest Hotel. We travel back in time to this author's stay at said hotel, where he meets its owner, Zero Moustafa, who admires the author and decides to tell him of his life and how he came to be the proprietor of the still impressive hotel, which has, however, fallen from its past glory. This is the story of Zero the lobby boy, whose training under Gustave H. becomes dramatic, as the old dowager that owns the hotel (and several factories etc.), and who is also one of Gustave H.'s lovers, dies from poisoning. Gustave H. is framed for the murder, and consequently he goes on the run with his loyal lobby boy and a priceless painting.

The plot is intricate yet simple; all the characters are lively, unique, and so wonderful to look at and listen to. Especially picturesque are young Tony Revolori (The Perfect Game (2009)) as Zero the lobby boy, whom I totally fell in love with, and Saoirse Ronan (Brooklyn (2015)) as Agatha, his cake-baking fiancee:

Revolori is of Guatemalan descent and just 17 years old. He is absolutely fantastic as Zero, and Ronan is delightful as his young, righteous fiancee. Here they are in the back of a car full of cake-boxes. - Click to enlarge

Ralph Fiennes (The Constant Gardener (2005)) plays more or less the absolute opposite of the character of Amon Goeth that he played in Steven Spielberg's masterpiece Schindler's List (1993), - a part which he was Oscar-nominated for. That was the incarnation of evil, and here he is the incarnation of humanity, vanity, manner, romance and sheer horniness as the magnificent Gustave H. He is formidable in the part, which is one of his best yet.
Gustave H. and parts of the story is inspired, if not stolen, which Anderson has admitted earnestly somewhere, from the life and stories of the Austrian author Stefan Zweig, who is also properly credited for this inspiration.
What elevates this film from its level of pure, fantastic, imaginative fun and games is the character of Gustave H. and his uncompromising, moving insistence upon decency and sophistication in his life, which we witness in the film: Grand Budapest Hotel makes you believe that a refined, sensitive nature is possible in this brutish, unpleasant world. And it indeed takes you on a refined and marvelous adventure for its ever so short playtime that many of us would have wished could just go on and on.
Great applause to Wes Anderson for this marvel of a film. It is a stunning and amazing work of the highest possible distinction.

Tony Revolori as Zero the lobby boy in Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel

Grand Budapest distinguishes itself also with masterful music by Alexandre Desplat (The King's Speech (2010)) and striking photography by Anderson-regular Robert D. Yeoman (The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)). It is technically and stylistically splendid to a point where one feels like literally eating the images up.
It is a film full of poetry and dialog. There was one minuscule instant when I felt that the plot perhaps was too thick with words, but then less than a second later I was pushed to joyous laughter again at the lingual equilibrism of the film, which is written by Anderson and Hugo Guiness (Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), voice-actor).
This film is a very very good dream, and you need to go see it (at least once!)
Just look at this final still below and try to claim that your interest isn't piqued?
Some of the film's many other, fantastic stars are Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Eward Norton, Harvey Keitel, Mathieu Amalric, Willem Dafoe and Jeff Goldblum.
This film will almost certainly be totally forgotten by the Oscars '15 in almost exactly a year, which is unfair and stupid, but in some way, Anderson and his films are above the Oscars and their very relative importance. Grand Budapest already won the Silver Bear in Berlin in February, and I think it will conquer something the world over, which is infinitely more important than all the world's finest awards:
People's hearts.

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Top 10: The best adventure movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

One of those special ready-to-eat images from Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel

Budget: 23 mil. €
Box office: 119.5 mil. $ and growing
= Big hit

What do you think of The Grand Budapest Hotel?What was your favorite part of the film?

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days/4 Luni, 3 Săptămâni și 2 Zile (2007) or, Illegal Abortion in Romania

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+ Best Romanian Movie of the Year 

The poster for Cristian Mungiu's 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days spells dire Human Drama and stark gloom

In the late 1980s in dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu's Romania, a woman wants an abortion, which is highly illegal, and she therefore has to pay a man to do it in secret.

The setting of red Romania before the fall of Communism is desolate and ugly and sad. The film provides an insightful portrait of the conditions in the joyless, late years of the gruesome dictatorship. The story presents no real surprises, and all of its characters are more or less insufferable, fanciful or just stupid bastards. I did not sympathize with any of them, which I think is a major problem for nearly any film.
Romanian writer-director Cristian Mungiu (Beyond the Hills/Dupa Dealuri (2012)) has been hailed as the spearhead of the new 'Romanian Wave', a critically somewhat overestimated phenomenon of the last about 7 years. 4 Months was written with consultancy from Razvan Radulescu (Shelter/Podslon (2010)).

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Here's an interview with director Mungiu talking about the film

Cost: 600k €, approximately 0.8 mil. $
Box office: 9.8 mil. $
= Mega-hit (returned 12.25 times the cost)
[4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days premiered 17 May (Cannes Film Festival, France, in competition) and runs 113 minutes. Mungiu wrote the script in a month. Most of the shooting was done in the Romanian capital Bucharest. The film opened #46 to a strong 51k $ opening weekend in 2 theaters in North America, where it peaked #40 and in 47 cinemas (different weeks), grossing 1.1 mil. $ (11.2 % of the total gross). The film's biggest market was France with 2.9 mil. $ (29.6 %). North America was the 2nd biggest, and the 3rd biggest was Spain with 1 mil. $ (10.2 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 star review, translating to 3 notches higher than this one. The film won both the Palm d'Or and the FIPRESCI award at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival under president Stephen Frears (Philomena (2013)). It was also named the year's best film by Sight & Sound magazine and won the Best Film and Best European Director awards at the European Film Awards. It figured on many critics' top 10 lists of the year, and even on A. O. Scott's top 10 of the decade as #7. Mungiu returned with Tales from the Golden Age/Amintiri din Epoca de Aur (2009). 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days is certified fresh at 96 % with a 8.4 critical average on Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days?