alternativecandidate: Ida (2013) “However formally precise, Pawlikowski’s films are essentially perf
alternativecandidate: Ida (2013) “However formally precise, Pawlikowski’s films are essentially performance-driven. Trzebuchowska, a philosophy student without prior acting experience, projects a stoical innocence. Framed by her headscarf, her soft, unformed features are nothing if not impressionable. Yet it is difficult to read her dark, impassive gaze—the actress is so reserved in her performance as to be nearly a cypher. She is a witness whose thoughts are veiled. Kulesza plays a woman of experience who is hardened by suffering and self-medicated with casual sex and copious alcohol. Her ‘Red Wanda’ may be discomfitingly direct and generally fearless in the face of the mute hostility she encounters, but her inward stare suggests that she judges no one more harshly than herself.”J. Hoberman, Tablet -- source link