I think at the end of the day, I would say Ida is a good film. It's not a great film, and it's certainly not a bad movie, but I would say for what its worth, I enjoyed watching it.
The film in question has been presented in a 4:3 ratio that gives the film a very old feel; helped by the fact the film is set in Poland 1962. everything feels dirty, forgotten miserable. The black and white gives off a very depressing mood, and general story doesn't help much either. I'm starting to see an unfortunate trend in indy films that they feel its more "realistic" for characters to emote as little as possible and be strangely calm about nearly everything. That's why Wanda was extremely refreshing. She laughed, she got angry, she nearly cried, she felt like an actual person. Too her credit, Ida is believable too and her personal struggle was actually pretty engaging.
The lighting and framing was fantastic. They took full advantage of the lack of colour to highlight different areas of the film in different shades to create a "noir-esque style." The framing is also very precise and the shots are long enough for you to soak in what is happening. The issue with the film is, despite it being very short, its felt much longer. The film can become very dull (4 out of the six people n my row fell asleep at one point) and I feel this could have been prevented with either cutting the film as soon as returns to the church, or creating more interactions and a separate narrative between Wanda and Ida who I thought had great chemistry.
I don't really have much else to say about this one, but for what it's worth, it's a good film bogged down by little things that stop it from being great. I would also like to know why so many indy films have something against soundtracks in their movies. I imagine it can be expensive, but a little music wouldn't kill you. Ida's little moments where they had music playing were great and really fit the tone of the film. there should have been much more.
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