Interview Paweł Pawlikowski – COLD WAR
Summary
TLDRIn a candid interview, award-winning Polish filmmaker Pawel Pawlikowski discusses his creative process and personal inspirations behind his latest film Cold War. He reveals how the complicated 40-year relationship of his late parents served as the ghostly inspiration, though he notes the finished film diverges into its own autonomous story. Pawlikowski explains his unique directing approach of elliptical storytelling and extended pre-production, spending long periods of time organically workshopping with actors and crew to slowly sculpt each scene. He strives for a graceful synthesis of acting, cinematography and production design captured in single takes. While accolades like the Oscar are validating high points, Pawlikowski stresses filmmaking always remains creatively challenging.
Takeaways
- 👨🎨 Films help Pawlikowski organize his life and mark different mental stages
- 🎥 He prefers an elliptic, restrained style over typical biopic approaches
- 🎞️ The idea for Cold War came from the story of his own parents
- 🎵 Music plays a key role connecting the two protagonists
- 🎬 He slowly approached making the film over a long pre-production
- � hat He spends a lot of time working with actors before filming
- 🎥 Pawlikowski tries not to use coverage and cut within the camera frame
- 🎬 He may do 27 takes to get the image, acting, and background in sync
- 👏 Winning an Oscar helps career-focused directors, but he sticks to his own ideas
- 😢 His parents' absence after their death has been very present in his life
Q & A
How does making films help Pawlikowski organize his life?
-Pawlikowski says making films helps him organize his life and mental stages at different moments. His films are like markers along the way.
Why didn't Pawlikowski want to make a film directly about his parents?
-He felt a film directly about his parents over 40 years would be too messy, with too many stages and separations. Also, he knew them too closely to have enough distance.
How did the addition of music help shape the Cold War story?
-The music brought more autonomy and flow to the Cold War story. It showed how the characters meet through music, stick together with it, and reflect their crises through it.
What was the advantage of Pawlikowski's long pre-production phase?
-The long pre-production let him slowly approach the film, rewriting it constantly. This time as the "best sculptor," letting the story marinate.
Why does Pawlikowski do so many takes of each scene?
-He tries not to shoot with coverage from different angles, but cut each scene in the camera. This requires getting many elements right in one take - acting, lighting, framing, extras.
How did the lead actress prepare for her dancing role?
-Joanna Kulig spent 6 months twice a week with a folk ensemble, learning choreography and steps. This immense effort also helped her imagine her character's inner life.
What piano skills did the lead actor Thomas have to learn?
-Thomas had to learn to realistically play piano, pretend conduct, and more - skills that took time but helped him inhabit his musical character.
Why was flexibility built into the filming schedule and budget?
-Pawlikowski knew from experience he might scrap or add scenes during filming, so flexibility for this approach was planned for schedule and budget.
How did Pawlikowski bring the actors together beforehand?
-He had Joanna and Thomas spend time together - dancing, piano lessons, meetings - to develop chemistry before filming began.
How have Oscars and recognition impacted Pawlikowski's career path?
-While validating, they haven't changed his path - he continues making personal films driven by his own ideas and territory rather than pursuing a Hollywood career.
Outlines
🎵 How he stumbled into filmmaking and it helps organize his life
He fell into filmmaking because he was not good at much else and too lazy to do other jobs. He likes the lifestyle of making a film every few years when he feels he has something to say. Filmmaking acts as markers, helping him organize different mental stages in his life.
🎬 How his parents' complicated relationship inspired the film Cold War
He wanted to make a film about his parents' turbulent 40-year relationship but realized it would be too messy and he knew them too closely. So he created the fictional story Cold War with similar dynamics over 14 years, added the music element, and dedicated it to his parents' memory.
🎥 His unique directing approach and commitment to authenticity
He takes an organic, slow approach to filmmaking. He works extensively with actors ahead of shooting, focuses on authenticity like having them learn skills pertinent to roles, and aims to capture scenes in ideal single shots with elements like blocking and lighting perfectly composed.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡filmmaking
💡inspiration
💡restraint
💡pre-production
💡dedication
💡image
💡coverage
💡magic
💡sculpting
💡grace
Highlights
Making films helps me organize my life and mental stages at different moments
After winning an Oscar, you still have the same problem - what's the next film
If you were a career director, Oscars help get on the ladder in America - but I just throw them back to my own ideas
The ghost of my parents and their complicated 40 year relationship inspired the film
I realized I'll never make a film about my parents - too messy, so I created fictional versions with similar mechanics
Introducing music made it a more free-flowing, autonomous story. I dedicated it to my parents' memory
I scrapped some shot scenes and invented new ones - flexibility built into schedule and budget
Time is the best sculptor - slowly approaching a film helps you live with it and the story develops
Physical exercise for actors helps them imagine the inside of the character
I wanted the actors to spend time together, feel good as a pair - crucial for the film
I don't shoot coverage - try to cut scenes already in camera, ideally shoot from one angle where acting and image comes together
Between takes, we adjust acting, lines, framing, lighting - everything works together, not separate jobs
To get that 'god-given, graceful' moment needs many takes for acting, image, extras in background to synchronize
You need the magical moment where it all comes together spontaneously even though it takes work
The image, acting, lighting, extras must feel like one thing, not separate - that's when it feels effortless
Transcripts
[Music]
you
the only job I can do yeah I'm not very
good at anything else and too lazy to do
an equally proper job so I quite like
this idea of writing fantasizing
traveling looking around for locations
for actors and then every three years or
so shooting a film which is usually a
nightmare therefore one should do it too
often but the whole kind of lifestyle
works for me especially since I don't
have that much to say all the time you
know so it takes me like a few years to
kind of really feel that I really need
to make a film but then I really do feel
I need to make a film and and everything
becomes quite easy and then and the
strange thing is that every film I made
almost well every film she is exactly
about where I am in life at the time or
where I'm in my head at the time so so
making films helps me organize my life
as well you know things at different
stages mental stages moments in life and
there's and films I like markers are on
the on the way
the bastard - car stereo - OH
however no one was really quite old you
know side done stuff that I liked anyway
you know like like many documentaries
which I used to make and and I had my
highlights there you know I had a really
good moment with documentaries where I
thought this was this was it and awards
and just generally can I felt I was in
doing the right thing at the right time
in the right place and then I had a deep
you know how they're gonna start making
feature films and I made it a couple of
good ones and then I had to kind of rise
is you know so periodically ups and
downs you know and an Oscar is just
another up it's a big up you know and
not just Oscar but the whole career of
video you know is actually very very
surprising and unexpected but but then
you know after the finish still faces
you still have the same problem okay
what's the next film you know I still
have to can start believing in it and
getting exciting about it excited about
it so it the situation is creatively
speaking is the same you know because if
you were more into a career a career
director you know then you probably go
to America and just kind of get onto
that kind of ladder of you know
filmmakers and Oscars are very useful
for that you know but if that's not what
you want to do you just basically throw
them back onto your own territory you
know your own bad ideas or good ideas
and then having to make that work
[Music]
Oh
[Music]
Yuja helped me not in terms of Oscars
and recognition is just the way I shot
it and told it quite elliptically quite
restrained way it helped me get this
story into focus you know because it's a
really sprawling big story you know how
would you tell it without being like
biopic II you know and biopics are
usually quite awful you know and you
have to kind of explain how you get from
A to B and then most scenes are about
explaining you know and kind of showing
what the cause and effect is so but with
either I can realize you can actually be
quite elliptic and we are and let the
audience fill in the gaps of course you
have to know what's in the gaps yourself
but you know Ongina give enough stuff to
suggest what happened in between but you
don't have to be boring about it then
you'd have to have really boring scenes
that explain stuff
[Music]
it's the ghost of my parents in a way of
their of their of the complicated
relationship
so that's ever since they died in 1989
and they died together at 89 just before
the wall came down and so so so I mean
it started you know their absence
started being very present in my life
you know and then what an amazing couple
you know what a disastrous cover how and
then when I was comin venting stories
and lap stories sometimes nothing beats
this story in a way this is the most it
was more history has everything else in
it politics exile betrayals you know and
everyone has two protagonists who are as
strong as each other and therefore the
war is the war is all-out war you know
usually in couples one person is more
pliable than the other but but like my
parents you know the couple in cold war
above tough and once one is up and the
other down and vice versa and so so I
kept coming back to it and then I
realized that I will never make with him
about my parents will just be stupid and
pointless and and it's a 40-year long
story and you know they kind of lived on
and off together for 40 years couldn't
literally make a film about that story
because it's pretty messy it kind of it
had too many stages and too many
separations and meetings and and there
all sorts of nuances plus I knew them
too well and if you know somebody really
closely you understand them less you
know so it says quite good forget that
it's these people but this kind of story
with the similar mechanics I reduced the
the time scale to 14 years so I could
have two actors do it you know rather I
mean to do this thing where you change
actors halfway through the film which
never works or rarely works and then and
then I and I added the element of music
you know which which helped me and
reimagined them quite substantially
because they're both musicians they meet
because of music through music they
stick together with music
and and and all the crises are kind of
reflected in their music so once I
introduced the music it became it became
a much more autonomous kind of
free-flowing story I still dedicated it
to the memory of my parents because
they're the reason why but
but I never had so many filming days
before you know but but here I did scrap
some scenes which we shot already
because I could not many but a few and I
invented new ones you know so it took a
bit of you know additional filming days
but that was sort of built into the
schedule and into the budget I mean it
wasn't a huge budget but because of this
strange method I have the producers
already can prepared to be flexible you
know and the pre-production was long but
you know what is what is pre-production
it wasn't like money wasn't being spent
massively now I was just driving around
with my production designers and my DP
taking photographs sometimes going
around funk festivals to find like fault
performers for the opening section of
the film just putting the elements
together and it was and taking my time
but it wasn't like all hands to the
pumps you know money being spent you
know that's what pre-production usually
usually meant so it was like approaching
the film slowly and trying and rewriting
it all the time you know just rewriting
not because of stuff I found but also
just that time you spend living with
your film is its time well-spent
you know because time is the best
sculptor in a way you know you just have
to kind of approach your film slowly and
a lot of not so much rehearsals but
meetings with the actors sometimes like
a little bit of rehearsal but not not
fixing anything just kind of destroying
this way that way for the brain to kind
of start working their brain to start
working as well and there's a lot of
privilege a lot of fiddling with the
music you know I had to find imagine the
arrangements of the music and folk
arrangements and the jazz arrangements
then the actors had to learn to
Oh sing and dance and play the piano
that took time and that's not exactly
pre-production Nakula captain I've
literally spent six months twice a week
she went to this folk ensemble on the
mazhab show on the outskirts of Warsaw
and learning the choreography and the
steps and I know that she's not a
natural dancer you know so it was like a
huge effort which also helped her with
character because very often physical
physical exercise helps you imagine the
inside of the character as well whereas
Thomas had to learn to play the piano
learn to pretend to that conduct and
that took some time and they had to
learn to get on together as well the two
actors they you know they I wanted them
to spend a bit of time together maybe go
to a dancing lesson or something just to
kind of feel good about them you know
together so it was a very slow organic
approach towards the food so I do the
same set up many times you know so and
it's quite notorious you know people
joke that I just have 60 takes you know
I don't have 60 thanks but I do have 27
here so and it's not exactly it takes of
the same thing you know it's very often
because I try not to shoot with coverage
you know with different angles to try
not to leave it to the cutting room you
know I tried to cut it already you know
in front of the camera as it were so and
to shoot a scene ideally from one angle
you know so where the actors act and
good rhythm and feel kind of free and
both have to be firing at the same time
which is not so easy or both or three or
four in a and then I I need to have the
background worked out you know the the
extras are an element of the image you
know the face is how you light them how
you shape them and all that is part of a
picture and the lighting and the framing
so very often between the takes we
actually read you get slightly now in
terms of acting in terms of you know
maybe I take some lines of a way that
don't feel good anymore or there
and then I changed the background I
changed the framing I change the
lighting maybe it can be improved I try
to work in a way where the image the
acting everything is part of the same
thing you know so it doesn't feel like
there's a division of labor between the
DP and the actors and the background
action you know everything is just like
this one magical moment that comes
together and it should feel like
god-given and graceful but and
spontaneous but to get there you need
like 27 take some time
[Music]
jebin hoped onion
Oh
uh yeah whoops is Ashley bendable hutch
pokey
[Music]
you
[Applause]
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