Have you seen any good films lately? Let's start with 'Ida'

A friend in Minnesota often asks me to recommend a film, since I watch more movies, for better or worse, than I care to admit. So for the next few days, I’m going to feed your list, Nancy.

First a disclaimer: I am prejudiced toward cinematography and soundtrack as crucial elements, and I am allergic to car chases and gunfire. Banal music or routine, soap-opera style camera techniques tend to be deal breakers for me. Conversely, I can watch fairly empty, but visually stimulating films (think “Tracks”) almost endlessly. With its beautiful scene compositions and classical music video soundtrack, Kubrick’s “Barry Lyndon” is an enduring guilty pleasure, despite its wretched performances.

So my first suggestion of a film you probably haven’t seen, Nancy, is the 82-minute Polish gem “Ida.”

I put no stock in Academy Awards. (Do you remember the 2011 Best Picture, “The Artist”? Of course you don’t …) But just as a sort of salesmanship I’ll point out that “Ida” won the 2015 Best Foreign Language Picture award.

Written and directed by Pawel Pawlikowski, “Ida” scores on almost all of the elements that make an unforgettable film. Partway through the black-and-white drama, you start to notice the framing of each shot … eccentric, breaking free of the frame, and something of a signature for the production. (The directors of photography are Ryszard Lenczewski and Lukasz Zal.) This director takes camera craft seriously.

The story concerns a young novitiate named Anna who grew up in the convent orphanage and is about to take her vows. The mother superior tells her she must step out and taste the world before casting her lot for life to make her vows full of meaning and not just a default. She sends Anna off to spend time with the aunt who refused to take the girl when she was orphaned. The aunt is a hard-drinking, hard-bitten hanging judge from the dark times of Poland’s post-war political trials, as worldly as Anna is innocent. The aunt packs the girl into her car to take her on a trip of discovery about her past and her family.

Many films are well shot, but the two lead actresses give riveting performances. Agata Trzebuchowska makes her film debut as Anna, and she silently dominates the screen. In soft monochrome middle values, her face is constantly captivating, her dark eyes leaping from pale skin. Trzebuchowska seems fully expressive simply watching the new world roll past her window. It came as a relief when a would-be lover asks her, “Don’t you understand the effect you have on people?” because she had such a powerful effect on me. As the aunt, Agata Kulesza is her antithesis: tense, judgmental and elusive.

More salesmanship: The two garnered 25 best actress or supporting nominations, according to IMBD,

Anna discovers both the world beyond the convent walls and her place in that alien world. Her journey of discovery is a metaphor for the process of post-war reconciliation – or not – that gripped much of Europe, but the metaphor is almost secondary. It is the subtle, screen-dominating performance by Trzebuchowska that carries you through this short, emotional cinematic experience.

At the end, when the credits roll and Alfred Brendel’s performance of the Bach chorale BWV 639 starts to play, it was like a punch in the gut for me.