Lukewarm War
Let’s bounce off the springboard of the truth!
I did it! I went to the movies and watched the film I’d been waiting for with rosy cheeks, sparkling eyes, biting my nails out of excitement and impatience.
“Cold War” — a highly successful, appreciated by critics and widely awarded film, directed by an Academy Award — winning director Paweł Pawlikowski. At the Cannes Festival the audience gave it a standing ovation taking the entire 15 minutes! Julianne Moore herself, with tears welling up in her eyes, thanked Joanna Kulig (the female lead) for such an unforgettable performance. Joanna stated that the role in this very movie was the greatest she’d ever played in her acting career. Tomasz Kot (the male lead) was in turn regarded as a new James Bond!
I’d read interviews with the director who excitedly discussed the source of his inspiration: the relationship between his parents — fiery, complex, intense, difficult. They parted and got together several times, they couldn’t breathe without each other, but were not able to stay together either. The emotional load of their bond was more than sufficient to distribute among at least 10 couples.
Critics praised it, friends and acquaintances adored it. A beautiful, grand love, full of rises and falls, that’s what they said.
Jeeeez! What I’d imagined! I thought, “It’s going to be a fierce storm! An emotional knockout! A hurricane! A tornado! And yes! That’s what I want, that’s exactly what I need! I need a FEVER! Give me a fever! Right now! Just like in the following song:
Warm Me Up*
Day or night, whether it’s sweltering or freezing
There’s a similar story unchangingly resounding in this song
Thirty six and six will suffice for my body
My soul needs a lot more
My body just needs to drink something and to eat something
To sleep a little on the side or on the back
And our economic miracle ensures me this
But my soul asks me like this every day:
Warm me up
Little poem full of marvel
Partner of my insomnia
Warm, warm me up!
Enkindle me
Unfinished exchange of sentences
Marvellous quarrel, stopped mid-way
Enkindle, enkindle me
Oh, life, enkindle, warm up my soul or else it’ll die
To one-hundred, to two-hundred, to one-million
Listen in to my soul’s insistent plea:
I want a fever! Give me a fever!
Enkindle me
Melpomene, my pale cousin
With one well-acted scene
Enkindle, enkindle me!
Warm me up
Oh world woven out of stupid dreams
Accordion in a night bar
Warm, warm me up!
And the world responds to this: “This is a normal state for a soul
This does not have to be a feverish state.
We have to give you a check-up, undertake a plan
To have these foolish problems once and for all off our backs!”
They contrive, test, whether it’s a dog or demon
But my soul still lacks joy
As usual it sends out a stubborn SOS
As usual is pleas like this every day:
Warm me up
Fierce disagreement on this world
That I separated from at such a young age
Return, warm me up!
Enkindle me
Moment of folly and joy
My identity, immutability
Find me — enkindle me!
My world, enkindle my soul all the way
My world, transform my soul into a fragment of the sun
May it shine in the dark, may it enlighten rotten days
I want a fever! Give me a fever!
Enkindle me
Sunny, crooked line
Van Gogh’s golden perspective
Enkindle, enkindle me!
Enkindle me
Love that I still don’t know
With rain from spring’s lilly-like lilacs
Come and warm me up!
That’s exactly right. Off I ran or rather danced to the beat of the song above, murmuring the lyrics under my breath over and over again. I took a philosopher with me to the movies, a friend with a degree in philosophy. Wonderful!
And we go out of the movies. I talk too much, too fast. I discuss the current weather conditions: temperature, humidity, then I turn to more global issues like Brexit, the ozone layer, nuclear power. I say whatever comes to mind just to avoid mentioning the film, thinking desperately at the same time, “Jeeeeez! What to say? What to think? Such a moron I must be! I failed to detect the nuances, I failed to grasp some hidden meanings, I failed to notice the artistic tricks. I failed, failed, failed. What’s even more of importance: I’m as sensitive as a piece of rock! Violent emotions? Violent? Were there any emotions in the movie…at all? Where? When? I felt incomparably more when the ink in my pen ran out last Tuesday! During the film I felt a bit of sexual arousal, I do admit, when the couple banged in the toilet and that’s it! But my libido is not certainly the right subject of discussion with my philosopher friend! No.
So, it turns out that I’m not only artistically disabled and simple like the structure of a hammer, but also emotionally shallow! SHALLOW! Devoid of any higher feelings, incapable of experiencing a tornado! Shame on me! Having realized that, what to do, what to say? Should I pretend and lie? “Oh, such an amazing movie! I adored it indeed! Such a masterpiece!” Or should I simply let it go and admit I’m a piece of dumb wood?
Thank God, my friend felt exactly the same way, i.e. nothing. She’s turned out as disabled, simple, insensitive, shallow, devoid, incapable as me.
But, where’s the fever? Gimme the fever!
What the author’s intention was while writing the above
Yes, I know, it’s pathetic indeed when an author explains her goal away, but I feel it somewhat…necessary.
The above is not an expression of a frustrated hater who takes sadistic pleasure in criticizing and putting down whoever or whatever. No. In point of fact, I rather hope you’ll get interested in the film, in the director and his work in accordance with the commonly recognized rule, “It doesn’t matter what they say about you as long as they talk about you”. I’m no hater. No.
The above is not an attempt at a film review, which some of you have already noticed! I don’t question any artistic value of the movie, as I don’t feel qualified or knowledgeable enough! I haven’t stated that the film sucks in general. The fact that it sucks for me doesn’t mean it will for you.
You should watch it to check it for yourself.
That’s exactly the point I’m trying to make. If your perception of a piece of art corresponds to the one of art experts’, that’s great! However, if it doesn’t, it’s great too! It doesn’t have to mean you’re stupid, artistically disabled, simple, insensitive, shallow etc. , it only means you feel and see it differently. That’s all and you have the right for it.
So what is the piece all about?
It is about the courage to admit what you really think and feel about art and about whatever else. It is about the difficulty to be sincere toward others and yourself if your sincerity goes against the current, i.e. opinions of your friends or experts in a given area. It is difficult indeed as such sincerity might entail humiliation, damage to your self-esteem or image everybody, to a greater or lesser degree, tries to create before the external world. You might be afraid that when you disagree with others it casts you in an unfavorable light, excludes you from a tight circle of people who are in the know. Well, it may be painful and risky sometimes, but it’s worth it and it’s important to stand by your true self!
Why is it so significant to stand by your true self?
I’ve noticed that too many of us blindly follow other people’s opinions in many walks of life, in leisure, in art, in politics, which makes us way too easy to manipulate (that’s why populism is on the rise both in Europe and the States). The rumor has it that critics’ opinion after the first performance of a play at Broadway determines the success or failure of a play — don’t you consider it insane? The same seems to apply to novels or films. Too often critics seem to impose on us whether a given work of art is of any value or not. And many of us yield to the power of their impact. That’s so wrong for so many reasons.
It’s so wrong to rely on an opinion of a critic who might simply have a nasty personality or could’ve been in a lousy mood at a particular moment or who simply suffered from indigestion or experienced any other unpleasant circumstances prior to or while contemplating a given art work you’re interested in. It’s so wrong to listen to ordinary people around you, i.e. your family, friends, acquaintances, who either repeat what specialists say for various reasons, e.g. out of cowardice, anxiety to keep up their image or absence of their own mind, or who genuinely enjoyed a piece of art, and their enjoyment of it might be totally inconsistent with your own perception of it. It’s even more wrong to listen to art critics/ politicians who may have some hidden political or economic purposes.
It’s all so wrong because we might suddenly find ourselves in a country ruled by Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, Viktor Orbán, Boris Johnson or Jarosław Kaczyński — masters of propaganda — or in the middle of Christian Andersen’s scene taken from “Emperor’s New Clothes” admiring the beauty of brand new garments on a naked king. Is it really the farce you wish to participate in?
The truth is always the best solution, it’s the place from which a change starts. And, no, I haven’t just grossly digressed or gone too abstract, I’m still exploring the main topic. When you admit you don’t like a given art piece, your company may dislike it as well and then you don’t create the “Emperor’s New Clothes” effect. Just as well, your company may see or feel it differently and then a discussion starts. Discussions always develop your way of thinking, expand your field of perception, provide you with a new perspective that brings about a change. When you face the truth, you confirm the ground from which to move meaningfully forward. When you lie, nothing changes, you’re just trudging through mud with no aim and no direction.
Let’s leave the mud and bounce off the springboard of the truth high up to the skies!
*Author: Wojciech Młynarski
translation taken from: https://lyricstranslate.com/en/ogrzej-mnie-warm-me.html
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