Pawel Pawlikowski (2013)
I have never been one to believe that one’s birth should have any incidence on one’s identity. That said, to learn the sort of things Ida learns from the beginning of the movie about where she comes from should be enough to make anyone second guess himself – at least if one means to become a nun.
The fact that she has a living aunt somewhere is but the first in a long string of discoveries for Ida, the funniest being by far that she is Jewish. It is also the source of all the tragedy in the movie.
But those are not the things that really shake Ida. Finding out about her Jewishness doesn’t make her question her Christianity and as she investigates what happened to her parents she is less moved by a desire to understand her origins than by the necessity to uncover the truth. Not to mention her aunt.
Ida’s aunt is the true narrative force of the film. The real need to finally solve the mystery of her sister’s death is hers and it is always her energy and determination that originate any progress. Ida is a much more passive character. She is too busy taking in a whole world we get the feeling she never directly experienced before and her catholic upbringing probably stands against her being too outspoken or brash.
One is assertive and devours all in her wake ; the other is subdued and silent. I like the aunt much better. She does have the flashier role but I also think in a way she gets the better character arc. She must deal with the appearance of her long lost niece and seized the opportunity to finally get the skeletons out of the family closet. We watch her struggling with the demons she has been carrying for twenty years and the many ways they have shaped her life. We see how she ends up. She is also much more fun to watch.
To get back to our title character, Ida does get a good character arc, though I wish more had been done with it. Leaving the convent has forced her to deal with all the things she has been sheltered from all her life. Not only that which relates to her family, or the horror that can inhabit the world, but the basic experiences that make up the human condition too – namely sex. She is forced to socialize in ways she never has before, is confronted with her sexuality and experiences for the first time things like dancing, bar music and social drinking, even if only from afar, with the judgmental eye of a proper would be catholic nun.
I like the ending of the movie because it leads her toward an unknown destiny as she has decided to explore what she never before could. More ground is covered here than in most coming of age stories that are usually about 40 minutes longer. I love that I have no idea what will happen to Ida because neither does she. She only knows that after everything she went through taking her vows would be betraying the person she could have become.
Ida’s diffidence is greatly emphasized by the fantastic cinematography of the film. It goes well beyond the black and white of it that works wonders. Ida, as well as other characters very often, is constantly relegated to the edges of the frame. There are seldom full body shots of the main characters. It is as if the world’s crushing weight was such that only their heads managed to stay afloat ; or as if they daren’t take the centre of the screen and the spotlight, maybe out of humility. The lighting always enhances these effects and it is indeed one of the things to behold in the film, how Ida and her aunt ae at times draped in shadows and at others celestially illuminated. He only instances when Ida takes the centre of the screen are special moments that I will let you discover on your own. This is the kind of work you could spend hours analysing with your friends and have a ball doing so.
8/10 – Gorgeous
Pretensiously Yours 
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