Paul Goldfinger still image from Ida. It was made from the streaming movie. Click once to enlarge.
Paul Goldfinger, Editor Blogfnger.net
“Ida is a film of moments, observations and moods, with a lyrical unfolding that recalls such atmospheric monochrome road movies of the past.” (Roger Ebert review)
It is set in Poland, 1962. A young woman, about age 18, had become an orphan during WWII when the Nazis occupied Poland. She was rescued, sent to a convent, and raised with the expectation that she would become a nun.
Before she would take her vows, she was sent to her home village where she met a surviving family member who disclosed that her parents were Jewish and had been murdered during the Holocaust.
She got to visit her former family home where a Polish family had taken ownership. An elderly man who knew her parents took Ida to their place of burial.
During her journey she meets a musician who treats her to a one-night-stand. She is not totally seduced by that experience and finally she returns to the convent where she takes her vows.
The film was released in 2013. The director had been raised in London, but he returned to Poland to make this movie. His name is Pawel Pawlikowski. This is a serious and highly regarded film, and it is streaming on Amazon Prime.
The movie music was underwhelming, but this song “It Haunts You” is by Stuart Matthewman from the soundtrack of Twin Falls, Idaho. The musician in IDA is an alto sax man, although Roger Ebert called it a “tenor.” As a former alto sax player, I can’t help but say that the sax man in the movie sounded like Kenny G–not exactly the sensuous touch of Paul Desmond. And nowhere as wonderful as even tenor man John Coltrane. (“Ballads,”)