IFRIDAY, APRIL 4, 2014 C1

N

Movies Performances

The spark of rebellion, the kind that makes aman stand up and fight, has almost been extin-guished in Walter Lee Younger.

As portrayed by Denzel Wash-ington in Kenny Leon’s disarm-ingly relaxed revival of LorraineHansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun”— which opened on Thursdaynight at the Ethel BarrymoreTheater — Walter appears worn

down, worn out and about ready to crawl intobed for good. Frankly, he looks a whole lot old-er than you probably remember him.

That’s partly because, at 59, Mr. Washing-ton, the much laureled movie star, is about a

quarter of a century older than the characterhe is playing, at least as written. (This produc-tion bumps Walter’s age up to 40 from 35.) Butit’s also because, as this production of “Raisin”makes clearer than any I’ve seen before, Wal-ter inhabits a world that ages men like himfast.

Listen to how his mama, Lena (LaTanyaRichardson Jackson), describes her late hus-band’s existence: “I seen him, night after

night, come in, and look at that rug, and thenlook at me, the red showing in his eyes, theveins moving in his head. I seen him grow thinand old before he was 40, working and workinglike somebody’s horse.”

In this engrossingly acted version of Hans-berry’s epochal 1959 portrait of an African-American family, Walter is all too clearly hisfather’s son. Lena may tell him, shaking herhead, that he is “something new, boy.” But youknow that her great fear is that he is not. Smallwonder she shows such smothering protec-tiveness to Walter’s 11-year-old son, Travis(Bryce Clyde Jenkins).

SARA KRULWICH/THE NEW YORK TIMES

No Rest for the WearyA Raisin in the Sun Denzel Washington stars ina Broadway revival of Lorraine Hansberry’sdrama, at the Ethel Barrymore Theater.

Continued on Page 4

BENBRANTLEY

THEATERREVIEW

It’s a bird, it’s a plane — oh, wait, it’s Captain Amer-ica.

The costume looks different, of course, as does thelooker (Chris Evans) squeezed into the form-fittingcorporate brand. But, gee, it can be hard keeping

track of all the men flying and fighting inthe superhero cinematic universe. Nextup is yet another Spider-Man movie, andthen come the X-Men, and then theGuardians of the Galaxy, and then (again)the Avengers, whose numbers includeCaptain America. So, he’ll be back. Mean-

while, he has another movie to call his own, “CaptainAmerica: The Winter Soldier,” one that, like many oth-ers of its type, gets off to a kinetic start only to losesteam before blowing everything up.

It’s fun until it goes kablooey, when the directors,the brothers Anthony and Joe Russo, are first warm-ing up this sequel and scratching their initials next tothe Marvel logo. The ticklish, loose opener finds SteveRogers (Mr. Evans), Captain America’s Everyman al-

Courage, Loyalty, Honor, Kablooey

Continued on Page 12

MANOHLADARGIS

FILMREVIEW

Something is up when an ad for Planters Peanutsarchly features its mascot, Mr. Peanut, delivering aTED Talk-flavored motivational speech, completewith flashy graphics and spurious data points.

There is a relatively new social orderdisrupting the peace, a Palo Alto ner-docracy ruled by boy billionaires andInternet upstarts. “Silicon Valley,” anew and very funny HBO series thatbegins Sunday, taps into the foiblesand pretensions of that world.

When Richard (Thomas Middleditch), a shy, pain-fully introverted programmer, is asked which Stevehe identifies with, Jobs or Wozniak, he is almost in-sulted by the question. “Jobs was a poseur,” Richardreplies. “He didn’t even write code.”

Mike Judge (“Beavis and Butt-head,” “Office

Start-Ups And Upstarts

JAIMIE TRUEBLOOD/HBO

Thomas Middleditch, left, and Josh Brener in“Silicon Valley,” a new HBO comedy.

Continued on Page 15

ALESSANDRASTANLEY

THE TVWATCH

4 THEATER

“The Most Happy Fella”brings spring. BY BEN BRANTLEY

11 FILM

Scarlett Johansson knocks’em dead. BY STEPHEN HOLDEN

10 TELEVISION

A little shoptalk from BruceSpringsteen. BY MIKE HALE

2 MUSIC

Welcoming a conductor. BY

CORINNA DA FONSECA-WOLLHEIM

ZADE ROSENTHAL/MARVEL STUDIOS AND WALT DISNEY PICTURES

Captain America: The Winter Soldier , openingFriday, stars Chris Evans as the title superhero.

C M Y K Nxxx,2014-04-04,C,001,Bs-4C,E1

No bodices seem to have been harmed, much less ripped, during the making of “Belle,” a period film at once sweeping

and intimate, about an 18th-century English-woman who transcends her historical moment. Even so, peekaboo bosoms tremble throughout the movie amid the rustle of luxurious gowns

and the gasps of polite company as conventions are crushed under-foot. Melodramatic and grounded in history, “Belle” is enough of an old-fashioned entertainment that it could have been made in classic Hollywood. Well, except for one

little thing that would have probably given old studio suits apoplexy: The movie’s prettily flouncing title character is biracial.

You meet her as a child, just as she’s being taken by her father, a navy captain, Sir John Lindsay (Matthew Goode), from some shadowy mystery hovel to a large country manor. There, in an elegantly appointed room, the kind that announces the refinement of its inhabitants and whispers their entitlement, Sir John formally claims the child as his own and promptly hands her over to his uncle, Lord Mansfield (Tom Wilkinson, very good), and Lady Mansfield (a dry, funny Emily Watson). The Lord and Lady keep their lips, necks and manners stiff, but take the girl in and raise her as their own — or almost. Soon she’s laughing in the garden, and then she’s a genteel beauty (a fine Gugu Mbatha-Raw) facing life as a black woman in a slave-trading country.

She’s based on Dido Elizabeth Belle (1761-1804), the daughter of an African woman, Ma-ria Bell, who was probably enslaved and may-be captured off a ship by Sir John. The details of their association and Bell’s life are murky, but when Dido was young, Sir John took her to Lord Mansfield, who raised her alongside an-other grandniece, Elizabeth Murray (played by

a strong Sarah Gadon). In one account, Thom-as Hutchinson, a governor of Massachusetts, described visiting the family: “a Black came in after dinner and sat with the ladies” and later walked arm in arm with one. “She had a very high cap, and her wool was much frizzled in her neck,” Hutchinson wrote, “but not enough to answer the large curls in fashion. She is neither handsome nor genteel — pert enough.”

An unusual painting of her and Elizabeth that shows the women smiling side by side on a terrace — both in silk gowns and pearls, and staring directly at us — suggests that there was far more to Dido than Hutchinson’s shabby account. The double portrait, often attributed to Johann Zoffany, now hangs in Scone Palace in Scotland but was painted at Kenwood House in Hampstead, England, where Dido lived for the first 30 or so years of her life. It’s an exciting image because she wasn’t painted in a tradi-tional subservient pose but instead assumes an almost — if not quite — equal place with her cousin on the canvas. While Elizabeth stands as still as a vase, the somewhat exoticized Dido

The last time Spider-Man swung intosight, it was to fight a lizard man in a lab

coat and cozy up to a livingdoll. The lizard landed in theclink, but the doll, GwenStacy, is back for the goodof Spider-Man (AndrewGarfield) and the franchise.As played by Emma Stone,

who has the zing of a screwball heroineand the depthless eyes of an animecharacter, Gwen brightens “The Amaz-

laugh and leave), the text spells out hisproblem and his appeal: “For some, be-ing a teenager has many heartbreakingmoments!” And while a radioactive spi-der bite scrambled his genetic makeup,his juvenile sensitivities remained.

Mr. Garfield, who’s making a careerout of playing delicate flowers, fits therole, suit and moist sniffling fine. He’s astronger, more restrained actor, as wellas a better crier, than Tobey Maguire,who had the role in the three films di-

rected by Sam Raimi (the first one hit in2002), before the “amazing” sobriquetwas tagged on. Resurrected just fiveyears after Mr. Raimi’s final install-ment, the reborn franchise did the job,“won” the opening weekend, placatedthe fans. Directed by Marc Webb,whose one other feature was “(500)Days of Summer,” a romance with asting, “The Amazing Spider-Man” did

Hey, Evildoers, Here’s Webbing in Your EyeMANOHLA

DARGISFILM

REVIEW

NIKO TAVERNISE/COLUMBIA PICTURES

IFRIDAY, MAY 2, 2014 C1

N

Movies Performances

5 JAZZ

For a piano man, this time’s acharm. BY GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO

4 DANCE REVIEW

Ashton, for the faithful inFlorida. BY ALASTAIR MACAULAY

4 THEATER REVIEW

The Marcos musicalis back at the Public.Put on your dancingshoes. BY BEN BRANTLEY

The Amazing Spider-Man 2Andrew Garfield plays the web slinger inthis sequel, opening on Friday.

Continued on Page 14

Though it takes place in Poland in 1962 — a weary, disenchant-ed country grinding along under gray, post-Stalinist skies —Pawel Pawlikowski’s “Ida” has some of the structure and feeling

of an ancient folk tale. It concerns an orphan who mustmake her way through a haunted, threatening land-scape, protected only by her own good sense and a pow-erful, not entirely trustworthy companion.

Ida (Agata Trzebuchowska) is a young novice a fewdays from taking her vows in the convent that has been

her only home since infancy when she learns of the existence of apreviously unknown aunt named Wanda (Agata Kulesza). If thiswere actually a fairy tale, Wanda might be both fairy godmotherand wicked witch. A former state prosecutor,

No bodices seem to have been harmed, much less ripped, dur-ing the making of “Belle,” a period film at once sweeping and inti-mate, about an 18th-century Englishwoman who transcends her

historical moment. Even so, peekaboo bosoms trem-ble throughout the movie amid the rustle of luxuriousgowns and the gasps of polite company as conven-tions are crushed underfoot. Melodramatic andgrounded in history, “Belle” is enough of an old-fash-ioned entertainment that it could have been made inclassic Hollywood. Well, except for one little thing

that would have probably given old studio suits apoplexy: Themovie’s prettily flouncing title character is biracial.

You meet her as a child, just as she’s being taken by her father,a navy captain, Sir John Lindsay (Matthew Goode), from some

Ranking the great Japanese filmmakers of the mid-20th centu-ry is an easy parlor game, made convenient by the long, prolificand amazingly consistent careers of the major contenders. The

big three of the Japanese golden age are traditionallyacknowledged to be Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizogu-chi and Yasujiro Ozu, born within 12 years of one an-other around the turn of the 20th century.

Who to rank No. 1? For a long time the popularchoice was Kurosawa, the peerless director of martialaction who was equally adept in other modes (crime,

psychological drama, literary adaptation). In recent decades,though, Ozu has been pulling ahead, with four of his exquisite de-pictions of stressed modern families included in Sight & Sound’s2012 poll of the 250 greatest films. Ozu’s “Tokyo Story” (1953)

Continued on Page 13

SHOCHIKU/JAPAN FOUNDATION

Out of Japan, Rising

MIKEHALE

CRITIC’SNOTEBOOK

ChojuroKawarasaki inMizoguchi’s“MusashiMiyamoto.”

Continued on Page 7

DAVID APPLEBY/FOX SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES

To the Manner Born?

Belle GuguMbatha-Raw starsin this period film,opening on Friday.

MANOHLADARGIS

FILMREVIEW

Continued on Page 7

MUSIC BOX FILMS

An Innocent Awakened

Ida AgataTrzebuchowska inthe film, openingFriday in New Yorkand Los Angeles.

A.O.SCOTT FILM

REVIEW

ing Spider-Man 2,” a sequel that, until alate, lamentably foolish turn, balancesblockbuster bombast with human-scaledrama, child-friendly comedy and gush-ers of tears.

This may be the wettest superherosince Aquaman splashed through theHBO show “Entourage.” Then again,Spider-Man, a.k.a. Peter Parker, creat-ed at Marvel by Stan Lee and Steve Dit-ko in 1962, has always been an emotion-al guy, having entered comic-book leg-

end as a bespectacled high school book-worm who was orphaned, shunned andgenerally misunderstood: He wasn’t anextraterrestrial, just an above-average,alienated adolescent. When, in an earlyissue, Peter tries to persuade some kidsto visit a science exhibit with him (they

C M Y K Nxxx,2014-05-02,C,001,Bs-4C,E1

The last time Spider-Man swung intosight, it was to fight a lizard man in a lab

coat and cozy up to a livingdoll. The lizard landed in theclink, but the doll, GwenStacy, is back for the goodof Spider-Man (AndrewGarfield) and the franchise.As played by Emma Stone,

who has the zing of a screwball heroineand the depthless eyes of an animecharacter, Gwen brightens “The Amaz-

laugh and leave), the text spells out hisproblem and his appeal: “For some, be-ing a teenager has many heartbreakingmoments!” And while a radioactive spi-der bite scrambled his genetic makeup,his juvenile sensitivities remained.

Mr. Garfield, who’s making a careerout of playing delicate flowers, fits therole, suit and moist sniffling fine. He’s astronger, more restrained actor, as wellas a better crier, than Tobey Maguire,who had the role in the three films di-

rected by Sam Raimi (the first one hit in2002), before the “amazing” sobriquetwas tagged on. Resurrected just fiveyears after Mr. Raimi’s final install-ment, the reborn franchise did the job,“won” the opening weekend, placatedthe fans. Directed by Marc Webb,whose one other feature was “(500)Days of Summer,” a romance with asting, “The Amazing Spider-Man” did

Hey, Evildoers, Here’s Webbing in Your EyeMANOHLA

DARGISFILM

REVIEW

NIKO TAVERNISE/COLUMBIA PICTURES

IFRIDAY, MAY 2, 2014 C1

N

Movies Performances

5 JAZZ

For a piano man, this time’s acharm. BY GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO

4 DANCE REVIEW

Ashton, for the faithful inFlorida. BY ALASTAIR MACAULAY

4 THEATER REVIEW

The Marcos musicalis back at the Public.Put on your dancingshoes. BY BEN BRANTLEY

The Amazing Spider-Man 2Andrew Garfield plays the web slinger inthis sequel, opening on Friday.

Continued on Page 14

Though it takes place in Poland in 1962 — a weary, disenchant-ed country grinding along under gray, post-Stalinist skies —Pawel Pawlikowski’s “Ida” has some of the structure and feeling

of an ancient folk tale. It concerns an orphan who mustmake her way through a haunted, threatening land-scape, protected only by her own good sense and a pow-erful, not entirely trustworthy companion.

Ida (Agata Trzebuchowska) is a young novice a fewdays from taking her vows in the convent that has been

her only home since infancy when she learns of the existence of apreviously unknown aunt named Wanda (Agata Kulesza). If thiswere actually a fairy tale, Wanda might be both fairy godmotherand wicked witch. A former state prosecutor,

No bodices seem to have been harmed, much less ripped, dur-ing the making of “Belle,” a period film at once sweeping and inti-mate, about an 18th-century Englishwoman who transcends her

historical moment. Even so, peekaboo bosoms trem-ble throughout the movie amid the rustle of luxuriousgowns and the gasps of polite company as conven-tions are crushed underfoot. Melodramatic andgrounded in history, “Belle” is enough of an old-fash-ioned entertainment that it could have been made inclassic Hollywood. Well, except for one little thing

that would have probably given old studio suits apoplexy: Themovie’s prettily flouncing title character is biracial.

You meet her as a child, just as she’s being taken by her father,a navy captain, Sir John Lindsay (Matthew Goode), from some

Ranking the great Japanese filmmakers of the mid-20th centu-ry is an easy parlor game, made convenient by the long, prolificand amazingly consistent careers of the major contenders. The

big three of the Japanese golden age are traditionallyacknowledged to be Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizogu-chi and Yasujiro Ozu, born within 12 years of one an-other around the turn of the 20th century.

Who to rank No. 1? For a long time the popularchoice was Kurosawa, the peerless director of martialaction who was equally adept in other modes (crime,

psychological drama, literary adaptation). In recent decades,though, Ozu has been pulling ahead, with four of his exquisite de-pictions of stressed modern families included in Sight & Sound’s2012 poll of the 250 greatest films. Ozu’s “Tokyo Story” (1953)

Continued on Page 13

SHOCHIKU/JAPAN FOUNDATION

Out of Japan, Rising

MIKEHALE

CRITIC’SNOTEBOOK

ChojuroKawarasaki inMizoguchi’s“MusashiMiyamoto.”

Continued on Page 7

DAVID APPLEBY/FOX SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES

To the Manner Born?

Belle GuguMbatha-Raw starsin this period film,opening on Friday.

MANOHLADARGIS

FILMREVIEW

Continued on Page 7

MUSIC BOX FILMS

An Innocent Awakened

Ida AgataTrzebuchowska inthe film, openingFriday in New Yorkand Los Angeles.

A.O.SCOTT FILM

REVIEW

ing Spider-Man 2,” a sequel that, until alate, lamentably foolish turn, balancesblockbuster bombast with human-scaledrama, child-friendly comedy and gush-ers of tears.

This may be the wettest superherosince Aquaman splashed through theHBO show “Entourage.” Then again,Spider-Man, a.k.a. Peter Parker, creat-ed at Marvel by Stan Lee and Steve Dit-ko in 1962, has always been an emotion-al guy, having entered comic-book leg-

end as a bespectacled high school book-worm who was orphaned, shunned andgenerally misunderstood: He wasn’t anextraterrestrial, just an above-average,alienated adolescent. When, in an earlyissue, Peter tries to persuade some kidsto visit a science exhibit with him (they

C M Y K Nxxx,2014-05-02,C,001,Bs-4C,E1

The last time Spider-Man swung intosight, it was to fight a lizard man in a lab

coat and cozy up to a livingdoll. The lizard landed in theclink, but the doll, GwenStacy, is back for the goodof Spider-Man (AndrewGarfield) and the franchise.As played by Emma Stone,

who has the zing of a screwball heroineand the depthless eyes of an animecharacter, Gwen brightens “The Amaz-

laugh and leave), the text spells out hisproblem and his appeal: “For some, be-ing a teenager has many heartbreakingmoments!” And while a radioactive spi-der bite scrambled his genetic makeup,his juvenile sensitivities remained.

Mr. Garfield, who’s making a careerout of playing delicate flowers, fits therole, suit and moist sniffling fine. He’s astronger, more restrained actor, as wellas a better crier, than Tobey Maguire,who had the role in the three films di-

rected by Sam Raimi (the first one hit in2002), before the “amazing” sobriquetwas tagged on. Resurrected just fiveyears after Mr. Raimi’s final install-ment, the reborn franchise did the job,“won” the opening weekend, placatedthe fans. Directed by Marc Webb,whose one other feature was “(500)Days of Summer,” a romance with asting, “The Amazing Spider-Man” did

Hey, Evildoers, Here’s Webbing in Your EyeMANOHLA

DARGISFILM

REVIEW

NIKO TAVERNISE/COLUMBIA PICTURES

IFRIDAY, MAY 2, 2014 C1

N

Movies Performances

5 JAZZ

For a piano man, this time’s acharm. BY GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO

4 DANCE REVIEW

Ashton, for the faithful inFlorida. BY ALASTAIR MACAULAY

4 THEATER REVIEW

The Marcos musicalis back at the Public.Put on your dancingshoes. BY BEN BRANTLEY

The Amazing Spider-Man 2Andrew Garfield plays the web slinger inthis sequel, opening on Friday.

Continued on Page 14

Though it takes place in Poland in 1962 — a weary, disenchant-ed country grinding along under gray, post-Stalinist skies —Pawel Pawlikowski’s “Ida” has some of the structure and feeling

of an ancient folk tale. It concerns an orphan who mustmake her way through a haunted, threatening land-scape, protected only by her own good sense and a pow-erful, not entirely trustworthy companion.

Ida (Agata Trzebuchowska) is a young novice a fewdays from taking her vows in the convent that has been

her only home since infancy when she learns of the existence of apreviously unknown aunt named Wanda (Agata Kulesza). If thiswere actually a fairy tale, Wanda might be both fairy godmotherand wicked witch. A former state prosecutor,

No bodices seem to have been harmed, much less ripped, dur-ing the making of “Belle,” a period film at once sweeping and inti-mate, about an 18th-century Englishwoman who transcends her

historical moment. Even so, peekaboo bosoms trem-ble throughout the movie amid the rustle of luxuriousgowns and the gasps of polite company as conven-tions are crushed underfoot. Melodramatic andgrounded in history, “Belle” is enough of an old-fash-ioned entertainment that it could have been made inclassic Hollywood. Well, except for one little thing

that would have probably given old studio suits apoplexy: Themovie’s prettily flouncing title character is biracial.

You meet her as a child, just as she’s being taken by her father,a navy captain, Sir John Lindsay (Matthew Goode), from some

Ranking the great Japanese filmmakers of the mid-20th centu-ry is an easy parlor game, made convenient by the long, prolificand amazingly consistent careers of the major contenders. The

big three of the Japanese golden age are traditionallyacknowledged to be Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizogu-chi and Yasujiro Ozu, born within 12 years of one an-other around the turn of the 20th century.

Who to rank No. 1? For a long time the popularchoice was Kurosawa, the peerless director of martialaction who was equally adept in other modes (crime,

psychological drama, literary adaptation). In recent decades,though, Ozu has been pulling ahead, with four of his exquisite de-pictions of stressed modern families included in Sight & Sound’s2012 poll of the 250 greatest films. Ozu’s “Tokyo Story” (1953)

Continued on Page 13

SHOCHIKU/JAPAN FOUNDATION

Out of Japan, Rising

MIKEHALE

CRITIC’SNOTEBOOK

ChojuroKawarasaki inMizoguchi’s“MusashiMiyamoto.”

Continued on Page 7

DAVID APPLEBY/FOX SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES

To the Manner Born?

Belle GuguMbatha-Raw starsin this period film,opening on Friday.

MANOHLADARGIS

FILMREVIEW

Continued on Page 7

MUSIC BOX FILMS

An Innocent Awakened

Ida AgataTrzebuchowska inthe film, openingFriday in New Yorkand Los Angeles.

A.O.SCOTT FILM

REVIEW

ing Spider-Man 2,” a sequel that, until alate, lamentably foolish turn, balancesblockbuster bombast with human-scaledrama, child-friendly comedy and gush-ers of tears.

This may be the wettest superherosince Aquaman splashed through theHBO show “Entourage.” Then again,Spider-Man, a.k.a. Peter Parker, creat-ed at Marvel by Stan Lee and Steve Dit-ko in 1962, has always been an emotion-al guy, having entered comic-book leg-

end as a bespectacled high school book-worm who was orphaned, shunned andgenerally misunderstood: He wasn’t anextraterrestrial, just an above-average,alienated adolescent. When, in an earlyissue, Peter tries to persuade some kidsto visit a science exhibit with him (they

C M Y K Nxxx,2014-05-02,C,001,Bs-4C,E1

The last time Spider-Man swung intosight, it was to fight a lizard man in a lab

coat and cozy up to a livingdoll. The lizard landed in theclink, but the doll, GwenStacy, is back for the goodof Spider-Man (AndrewGarfield) and the franchise.As played by Emma Stone,

who has the zing of a screwball heroineand the depthless eyes of an animecharacter, Gwen brightens “The Amaz-

laugh and leave), the text spells out hisproblem and his appeal: “For some, be-ing a teenager has many heartbreakingmoments!” And while a radioactive spi-der bite scrambled his genetic makeup,his juvenile sensitivities remained.

Mr. Garfield, who’s making a careerout of playing delicate flowers, fits therole, suit and moist sniffling fine. He’s astronger, more restrained actor, as wellas a better crier, than Tobey Maguire,who had the role in the three films di-

rected by Sam Raimi (the first one hit in2002), before the “amazing” sobriquetwas tagged on. Resurrected just fiveyears after Mr. Raimi’s final install-ment, the reborn franchise did the job,“won” the opening weekend, placatedthe fans. Directed by Marc Webb,whose one other feature was “(500)Days of Summer,” a romance with asting, “The Amazing Spider-Man” did

Hey, Evildoers, Here’s Webbing in Your EyeMANOHLA

DARGISFILM

REVIEW

NIKO TAVERNISE/COLUMBIA PICTURES

IFRIDAY, MAY 2, 2014 C1

N

Movies Performances

5 JAZZ

For a piano man, this time’s acharm. BY GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO

4 DANCE REVIEW

Ashton, for the faithful inFlorida. BY ALASTAIR MACAULAY

4 THEATER REVIEW

The Marcos musicalis back at the Public.Put on your dancingshoes. BY BEN BRANTLEY

The Amazing Spider-Man 2Andrew Garfield plays the web slinger inthis sequel, opening on Friday.

Continued on Page 14

Though it takes place in Poland in 1962 — a weary, disenchant-ed country grinding along under gray, post-Stalinist skies —Pawel Pawlikowski’s “Ida” has some of the structure and feeling

of an ancient folk tale. It concerns an orphan who mustmake her way through a haunted, threatening land-scape, protected only by her own good sense and a pow-erful, not entirely trustworthy companion.

Ida (Agata Trzebuchowska) is a young novice a fewdays from taking her vows in the convent that has been

her only home since infancy when she learns of the existence of apreviously unknown aunt named Wanda (Agata Kulesza). If thiswere actually a fairy tale, Wanda might be both fairy godmotherand wicked witch. A former state prosecutor,

No bodices seem to have been harmed, much less ripped, dur-ing the making of “Belle,” a period film at once sweeping and inti-mate, about an 18th-century Englishwoman who transcends her

historical moment. Even so, peekaboo bosoms trem-ble throughout the movie amid the rustle of luxuriousgowns and the gasps of polite company as conven-tions are crushed underfoot. Melodramatic andgrounded in history, “Belle” is enough of an old-fash-ioned entertainment that it could have been made inclassic Hollywood. Well, except for one little thing

that would have probably given old studio suits apoplexy: Themovie’s prettily flouncing title character is biracial.

You meet her as a child, just as she’s being taken by her father,a navy captain, Sir John Lindsay (Matthew Goode), from some

Ranking the great Japanese filmmakers of the mid-20th centu-ry is an easy parlor game, made convenient by the long, prolificand amazingly consistent careers of the major contenders. The

big three of the Japanese golden age are traditionallyacknowledged to be Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizogu-chi and Yasujiro Ozu, born within 12 years of one an-other around the turn of the 20th century.

Who to rank No. 1? For a long time the popularchoice was Kurosawa, the peerless director of martialaction who was equally adept in other modes (crime,

psychological drama, literary adaptation). In recent decades,though, Ozu has been pulling ahead, with four of his exquisite de-pictions of stressed modern families included in Sight & Sound’s2012 poll of the 250 greatest films. Ozu’s “Tokyo Story” (1953)

Continued on Page 13

SHOCHIKU/JAPAN FOUNDATION

Out of Japan, Rising

MIKEHALE

CRITIC’SNOTEBOOK

ChojuroKawarasaki inMizoguchi’s“MusashiMiyamoto.”

Continued on Page 7

DAVID APPLEBY/FOX SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES

To the Manner Born?

Belle GuguMbatha-Raw starsin this period film,opening on Friday.

MANOHLADARGIS

FILMREVIEW

Continued on Page 7

MUSIC BOX FILMS

An Innocent Awakened

Ida AgataTrzebuchowska inthe film, openingFriday in New Yorkand Los Angeles.

A.O.SCOTT FILM

REVIEW

ing Spider-Man 2,” a sequel that, until alate, lamentably foolish turn, balancesblockbuster bombast with human-scaledrama, child-friendly comedy and gush-ers of tears.

This may be the wettest superherosince Aquaman splashed through theHBO show “Entourage.” Then again,Spider-Man, a.k.a. Peter Parker, creat-ed at Marvel by Stan Lee and Steve Dit-ko in 1962, has always been an emotion-al guy, having entered comic-book leg-

end as a bespectacled high school book-worm who was orphaned, shunned andgenerally misunderstood: He wasn’t anextraterrestrial, just an above-average,alienated adolescent. When, in an earlyissue, Peter tries to persuade some kidsto visit a science exhibit with him (they

C M Y K Nxxx,2014-05-02,C,001,Bs-4C,E1

The last time Spider-Man swung intosight, it was to fight a lizard man in a lab

coat and cozy up to a livingdoll. The lizard landed in theclink, but the doll, GwenStacy, is back for the goodof Spider-Man (AndrewGarfield) and the franchise.As played by Emma Stone,

who has the zing of a screwball heroineand the depthless eyes of an animecharacter, Gwen brightens “The Amaz-

laugh and leave), the text spells out hisproblem and his appeal: “For some, be-ing a teenager has many heartbreakingmoments!” And while a radioactive spi-der bite scrambled his genetic makeup,his juvenile sensitivities remained.

Mr. Garfield, who’s making a careerout of playing delicate flowers, fits therole, suit and moist sniffling fine. He’s astronger, more restrained actor, as wellas a better crier, than Tobey Maguire,who had the role in the three films di-

rected by Sam Raimi (the first one hit in2002), before the “amazing” sobriquetwas tagged on. Resurrected just fiveyears after Mr. Raimi’s final install-ment, the reborn franchise did the job,“won” the opening weekend, placatedthe fans. Directed by Marc Webb,whose one other feature was “(500)Days of Summer,” a romance with asting, “The Amazing Spider-Man” did

Hey, Evildoers, Here’s Webbing in Your EyeMANOHLA

DARGISFILM

REVIEW

NIKO TAVERNISE/COLUMBIA PICTURES

IFRIDAY, MAY 2, 2014 C1

N

Movies Performances

5 JAZZ

For a piano man, this time’s acharm. BY GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO

4 DANCE REVIEW

Ashton, for the faithful inFlorida. BY ALASTAIR MACAULAY

4 THEATER REVIEW

The Marcos musicalis back at the Public.Put on your dancingshoes. BY BEN BRANTLEY

The Amazing Spider-Man 2Andrew Garfield plays the web slinger inthis sequel, opening on Friday.

Continued on Page 14

Though it takes place in Poland in 1962 — a weary, disenchant-ed country grinding along under gray, post-Stalinist skies —Pawel Pawlikowski’s “Ida” has some of the structure and feeling

of an ancient folk tale. It concerns an orphan who mustmake her way through a haunted, threatening land-scape, protected only by her own good sense and a pow-erful, not entirely trustworthy companion.

Ida (Agata Trzebuchowska) is a young novice a fewdays from taking her vows in the convent that has been

her only home since infancy when she learns of the existence of apreviously unknown aunt named Wanda (Agata Kulesza). If thiswere actually a fairy tale, Wanda might be both fairy godmotherand wicked witch. A former state prosecutor,

No bodices seem to have been harmed, much less ripped, dur-ing the making of “Belle,” a period film at once sweeping and inti-mate, about an 18th-century Englishwoman who transcends her

historical moment. Even so, peekaboo bosoms trem-ble throughout the movie amid the rustle of luxuriousgowns and the gasps of polite company as conven-tions are crushed underfoot. Melodramatic andgrounded in history, “Belle” is enough of an old-fash-ioned entertainment that it could have been made inclassic Hollywood. Well, except for one little thing

that would have probably given old studio suits apoplexy: Themovie’s prettily flouncing title character is biracial.

You meet her as a child, just as she’s being taken by her father,a navy captain, Sir John Lindsay (Matthew Goode), from some

Ranking the great Japanese filmmakers of the mid-20th centu-ry is an easy parlor game, made convenient by the long, prolificand amazingly consistent careers of the major contenders. The

big three of the Japanese golden age are traditionallyacknowledged to be Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizogu-chi and Yasujiro Ozu, born within 12 years of one an-other around the turn of the 20th century.

Who to rank No. 1? For a long time the popularchoice was Kurosawa, the peerless director of martialaction who was equally adept in other modes (crime,

psychological drama, literary adaptation). In recent decades,though, Ozu has been pulling ahead, with four of his exquisite de-pictions of stressed modern families included in Sight & Sound’s2012 poll of the 250 greatest films. Ozu’s “Tokyo Story” (1953)

Continued on Page 13

SHOCHIKU/JAPAN FOUNDATION

Out of Japan, Rising

MIKEHALE

CRITIC’SNOTEBOOK

ChojuroKawarasaki inMizoguchi’s“MusashiMiyamoto.”

Continued on Page 7

DAVID APPLEBY/FOX SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES

To the Manner Born?

Belle GuguMbatha-Raw starsin this period film,opening on Friday.

MANOHLADARGIS

FILMREVIEW

Continued on Page 7

MUSIC BOX FILMS

An Innocent Awakened

Ida AgataTrzebuchowska inthe film, openingFriday in New Yorkand Los Angeles.

A.O.SCOTT FILM

REVIEW

ing Spider-Man 2,” a sequel that, until alate, lamentably foolish turn, balancesblockbuster bombast with human-scaledrama, child-friendly comedy and gush-ers of tears.

This may be the wettest superherosince Aquaman splashed through theHBO show “Entourage.” Then again,Spider-Man, a.k.a. Peter Parker, creat-ed at Marvel by Stan Lee and Steve Dit-ko in 1962, has always been an emotion-al guy, having entered comic-book leg-

end as a bespectacled high school book-worm who was orphaned, shunned andgenerally misunderstood: He wasn’t anextraterrestrial, just an above-average,alienated adolescent. When, in an earlyissue, Peter tries to persuade some kidsto visit a science exhibit with him (they

C M Y K Nxxx,2014-05-02,C,001,Bs-4C,E1

The last time Spider-Man swung intosight, it was to fight a lizard man in a lab

coat and cozy up to a livingdoll. The lizard landed in theclink, but the doll, GwenStacy, is back for the goodof Spider-Man (AndrewGarfield) and the franchise.As played by Emma Stone,

who has the zing of a screwball heroineand the depthless eyes of an animecharacter, Gwen brightens “The Amaz-

laugh and leave), the text spells out hisproblem and his appeal: “For some, be-ing a teenager has many heartbreakingmoments!” And while a radioactive spi-der bite scrambled his genetic makeup,his juvenile sensitivities remained.

Mr. Garfield, who’s making a careerout of playing delicate flowers, fits therole, suit and moist sniffling fine. He’s astronger, more restrained actor, as wellas a better crier, than Tobey Maguire,who had the role in the three films di-

rected by Sam Raimi (the first one hit in2002), before the “amazing” sobriquetwas tagged on. Resurrected just fiveyears after Mr. Raimi’s final install-ment, the reborn franchise did the job,“won” the opening weekend, placatedthe fans. Directed by Marc Webb,whose one other feature was “(500)Days of Summer,” a romance with asting, “The Amazing Spider-Man” did

Hey, Evildoers, Here’s Webbing in Your EyeMANOHLA

DARGISFILM

REVIEW

NIKO TAVERNISE/COLUMBIA PICTURES

IFRIDAY, MAY 2, 2014 C1

N

Movies Performances

5 JAZZ

For a piano man, this time’s acharm. BY GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO

4 DANCE REVIEW

Ashton, for the faithful inFlorida. BY ALASTAIR MACAULAY

4 THEATER REVIEW

The Marcos musicalis back at the Public.Put on your dancingshoes. BY BEN BRANTLEY

The Amazing Spider-Man 2Andrew Garfield plays the web slinger inthis sequel, opening on Friday.

Continued on Page 14

Though it takes place in Poland in 1962 — a weary, disenchant-ed country grinding along under gray, post-Stalinist skies —Pawel Pawlikowski’s “Ida” has some of the structure and feeling

of an ancient folk tale. It concerns an orphan who mustmake her way through a haunted, threatening land-scape, protected only by her own good sense and a pow-erful, not entirely trustworthy companion.

Ida (Agata Trzebuchowska) is a young novice a fewdays from taking her vows in the convent that has been

her only home since infancy when she learns of the existence of apreviously unknown aunt named Wanda (Agata Kulesza). If thiswere actually a fairy tale, Wanda might be both fairy godmotherand wicked witch. A former state prosecutor,

No bodices seem to have been harmed, much less ripped, dur-ing the making of “Belle,” a period film at once sweeping and inti-mate, about an 18th-century Englishwoman who transcends her

historical moment. Even so, peekaboo bosoms trem-ble throughout the movie amid the rustle of luxuriousgowns and the gasps of polite company as conven-tions are crushed underfoot. Melodramatic andgrounded in history, “Belle” is enough of an old-fash-ioned entertainment that it could have been made inclassic Hollywood. Well, except for one little thing

that would have probably given old studio suits apoplexy: Themovie’s prettily flouncing title character is biracial.

You meet her as a child, just as she’s being taken by her father,a navy captain, Sir John Lindsay (Matthew Goode), from some

Ranking the great Japanese filmmakers of the mid-20th centu-ry is an easy parlor game, made convenient by the long, prolificand amazingly consistent careers of the major contenders. The

big three of the Japanese golden age are traditionallyacknowledged to be Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizogu-chi and Yasujiro Ozu, born within 12 years of one an-other around the turn of the 20th century.

Who to rank No. 1? For a long time the popularchoice was Kurosawa, the peerless director of martialaction who was equally adept in other modes (crime,

psychological drama, literary adaptation). In recent decades,though, Ozu has been pulling ahead, with four of his exquisite de-pictions of stressed modern families included in Sight & Sound’s2012 poll of the 250 greatest films. Ozu’s “Tokyo Story” (1953)

Continued on Page 13

SHOCHIKU/JAPAN FOUNDATION

Out of Japan, Rising

MIKEHALE

CRITIC’SNOTEBOOK

ChojuroKawarasaki inMizoguchi’s“MusashiMiyamoto.”

Continued on Page 7

DAVID APPLEBY/FOX SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES

To the Manner Born?

Belle GuguMbatha-Raw starsin this period film,opening on Friday.

MANOHLADARGIS

FILMREVIEW

Continued on Page 7

MUSIC BOX FILMS

An Innocent Awakened

Ida AgataTrzebuchowska inthe film, openingFriday in New Yorkand Los Angeles.

A.O.SCOTT FILM

REVIEW

ing Spider-Man 2,” a sequel that, until alate, lamentably foolish turn, balancesblockbuster bombast with human-scaledrama, child-friendly comedy and gush-ers of tears.

This may be the wettest superherosince Aquaman splashed through theHBO show “Entourage.” Then again,Spider-Man, a.k.a. Peter Parker, creat-ed at Marvel by Stan Lee and Steve Dit-ko in 1962, has always been an emotion-al guy, having entered comic-book leg-

end as a bespectacled high school book-worm who was orphaned, shunned andgenerally misunderstood: He wasn’t anextraterrestrial, just an above-average,alienated adolescent. When, in an earlyissue, Peter tries to persuade some kidsto visit a science exhibit with him (they

C M Y K Nxxx,2014-05-02,C,001,Bs-4C,E1

(she wears a turban) seems to have been, evocatively, captured in midflight.

The vivacious-ness of Dido’s image doesn’t always come through in the movie portrait, which the director, Amma As-ante, has created in the Merchant-Ivory school of serious, tasteful entertain-ments. It’s easy to mock such films, with their pretty manners and people, but, at their best, they open a door onto an old world that is sometimes more fragile, brittle, imperiled and considerably more complex than its sumptuous trappings at first suggest. Likewise here, Dido and her cousin, both cosseted and corseted, exist in near-pastoral harmony, yet their lives are no-where as carefree as they seem. Elizabeth has a complicated history and needs, much like a Jane Austen heroine, to marry to ensure her future. And while Dido may be one of the family, she’s

also sometimes kept segregated.

Written by Misan Sagay, “Belle” tracks its heroine’s dawn-ing awareness of both her own social, political and legal position and that of the black slaves who, initially, exist for her only as abstrac-tions. Her education comes through her uncle, the Lord Chief

Justice, who has to decide on a horribly real case involving the Zong slave ship, as well as from an amusingly dashing suitor, John Davinier (Sam Reid). The movie plays with the historical record for dramatic effect, as is often the case when the past is disinterred for entertainment, and its realism at times groans under the weight of too many passionate speeches. Yet the weave of the personal and the political finally proves as irresistible as it is moving, partly because it has been drawn from extraordinary life. n

N C7THE NEW YORK TIMES, FRIDAY, MAY 2, 2014

she boasts grimly of her role inthe political show trials of theearly 1950s, when Poland’s Com-munist government used judicialterror (among other methods) toconsolidate its power and elimi-nate its enemies.

A decade later, she is still partof the political elite, though what-ever zealotry she might oncehave had has long since been re-placed by cynicism. Chain-smok-ing and drinking heavily, pursu-ing one-night stands more out ofhabit than desire, she is in everyway the opposite of her unworld-ly, pious niece. But Wanda doessee a family resemblance andalso has a startling piece of news,delivered with a wry, bitter smileas Ida, with her coif and crucifix,sits at the kitchen table: “You’reJewish.”

This is not a joke — and thereis nothing funny about the war-time fate of Poland’s Jews, in-cluding Ida’s parents — but “Ida”and its characters are alert to theabsurdities of Polish history, aswell as its abundant horrors. Mr.Pawlikowski, a Polish-born writ-er and director who has spentmost of his career in England,has reached into his country’spast and grabbed hold of a hand-ful of nettles. “Ida” is a breath-takingly concise film — just 80minutes long — with a clear, sim-ple narrative line. But within itsrelatively brief duration and itsnarrow black-and-white frames,the movie somehow contains acosmos of guilt, violence andpain. Its intimate drama unfolds

at the crossroads where the Cath-olic, Jewish and Communiststrains of Poland’s endlessly andbitterly contested national identi-ty intersect.

Ida and Wanda set out to dis-cover what happened to Ida’sparents, a quest that turns “Ida”into both a road movie and a de-tective story. They encounterpriests and peasants, provincialofficials and a saxophonist(Dawid Ogrodnik) whose ad-vanced musical taste (as well ashis attraction to Ida, in spite ofher habit) provides a hint ofyouthful ’60s spirit amid thegloom and bad memories.

Mr. Pawlikowski, who startedout making documentaries andwhose previous fictional featuresinclude “Last Resort,” “My Sum-mer of Love” and “The Woman inthe Fifth,” can be a wonderfullylucid storyteller. “Ida” is as com-pact and precise as a novella, asequence of short, emphaticscenes that reveal the essence ofthe characters without simplify-ing them. Having set up an obvi-ous contrast between Wanda andIda — atheist and believer; wom-an of the world and shelteredchild; sensualist and saint — thefilm proceeds to complicate eachwoman’s idea of herself and theother. Their black-and-white con-

ceptions of the world turn grayerby the hour.

This is almost literally true,thanks to Lukasz Zal and Ry-szard Lenczewski’s beautifullymisty, piercingly sharp mono-chrome cinematography. Thelook of “Ida” — images capturedby a mostly stationary camera inthe boxy frame associated withold movies — serves an obviousperiod function. What you arewatching could virtually havebeen made in 1962. (The Polishcountryside seems to have co-operated by not changing toomuch in the decades since.) Untilthe very end, the audience neverhears music unless the people onscreen hear it, too, and many ofthe scenes — at once austere andcharged with an intensity thatverges on the metaphysical —owe an evident debt to ’60s cine-ma heroes like Ingmar Bergmanand Robert Bresson.

But “Ida” is hardly an exercisein antiquarian pastiche. It is rath-er an excavation of truths that re-main, 70 years after the Holo-caust and a quarter-century afterthe collapse of Communism, onlypartially disinterred. And it is,above all, about the spiritual and

moral condition of the women,who, between them, occupy near-ly every second of this film.

Mr. Pawlikowski’s style ofshooting might be described assympathetically objective. Hiscamera maintains its distance,and he never presumes access tothe inner lives of his characters.He keeps them low in the frame,with unusually ample spaceabove their heads, creating akind of cathedral effect. Ida andWanda can seem small and alone,lost in a vast and empty universe.But their surroundings oftenachieve a quiet grandeur, an inti-mation of divine presence.

There is an implicit argumenthere between faith and material-ism, one that is resolved with wit,conviction and generosity of spir-it. Mr. Pawlikowski has made oneof the finest European films (andone of most insightful films aboutEurope, past and present) in re-cent memory.

But the accomplishment ishardly his alone: “Ida” belongsequally — and on the screen, pre-eminently — to the two Agatas.Ms. Kulesza is a poised and disci-plined professional, able to showus both Wanda’s ruthless self-

control and its limits. Ms. Trzebu-chowska, a student with little pre-vious acting experience, is a nat-ural screen presence and also anenigmatic one. Ida starts out, forthe audience and perhaps her-self, as an empty vessel, with lit-tle knowledge or experience ofthe world. To watch her respondto it is to perceive the activationof intelligence and the awakeningof wisdom. I can’t imagine any-thing more thrilling.

An Innocent Awakened in Postwar Poland

MUSIC BOX FILMS

Excavating truths in a bleak landscape: Agata Trzebuchowska, left, and Agata Kulesza in “Ida.”

shadowy mystery hovel to a largecountry manor. There, in an ele-gantly appointed room, the kindthat announces the refinement ofits inhabitants and whispers theirentitlement, Sir John formallyclaims the child as his own andpromptly hands her over to hisuncle, Lord Mansfield (Tom Wil-kinson, very good), and LadyMansfield (a dry, funny EmilyWatson). The Lord and Ladykeep their lips, necks and man-ners stiff, but take the girl in andraise her as their own — or al-most. Soon she’s laughing in thegarden, and then she’s a genteelbeauty (a fine Gugu Mbatha-Raw) facing life as a black wom-an in a slave-trading country.

She’s based on Dido ElizabethBelle (1761-1804), the daughter ofan African woman, Maria Bell,who was probably enslaved andmaybe captured off a ship by SirJohn. The details of their associa-tion and Bell’s life are murky, butwhen Dido was young, Sir Johntook her to Lord Mansfield, whoraised her alongside anothergrandniece, Elizabeth Murray(played by a strong SarahGadon). In one account, ThomasHutchinson, a governor of Massa-chusetts, described visiting thefamily: “a Black came in afterdinner and sat with the ladies”and later walked arm in arm withone. “She had a very high cap,and her wool was much frizzled inher neck,” Hutchinson wrote,“but not enough to answer thelarge curls in fashion. She is nei-ther handsome nor genteel —pert enough.”

An unusual painting of her andElizabeth that shows the womensmiling side by side on a terrace— both in silk gowns and pearls,and staring directly at us — sug-gests that there was far more toDido than Hutchinson’s shabbyaccount. The double portrait,often attributed to Johann Zoffa-ny, now hangs in Scone Palace inScotland but was painted at Ken-wood House in Hampstead, Eng-land, where Dido lived for thefirst 30 or so years of her life. It’san exciting image because shewasn’t painted in a traditionalsubservient pose but instead as-sumes an almost — if not quite —equal place with her cousin on thecanvas. While Elizabeth stands asstill as a vase, the somewhat exot-icized Dido (she wears a turban)seems to have been, evocatively,captured in midflight.

The vivaciousness of Dido’s im-age doesn’t always come through

in the movie portrait, which thedirector, Amma Asante, has cre-ated in the Merchant-Ivory schoolof serious, tasteful entertain-ments. It’s easy to mock suchfilms, with their pretty mannersand people, but, at their best, theyopen a door onto an old world thatis sometimes more fragile, brittle,imperiled and considerably morecomplex than its sumptuous trap-pings at first suggest. Likewisehere, Dido and her cousin, bothcosseted and corseted, exist innear-pastoral harmony, yet theirlives are nowhere as carefree asthey seem. Elizabeth has a com-plicated history and needs, muchlike a Jane Austen heroine, tomarry to ensure her future. Andwhile Dido may be one of the fam-ily, she’s also sometimes kept seg-regated.

Written by Misan Sagay,“Belle” tracks its heroine’s dawn-ing awareness of both her own so-cial, political and legal positionand that of the black slaves who,initially, exist for her only as ab-stractions. Her education comesthrough her uncle, the Lord ChiefJustice, who has to decide on ahorribly real case involving theZong slave ship, as well as froman amusingly dashing suitor,John Davinier (Sam Reid). Themovie plays with the historicalrecord for dramatic effect, as isoften the case when the past isdisinterred for entertainment,and its realism at times groansunder the weight of too many pas-sionate speeches. Yet the weaveof the personal and the political fi-nally proves as irresistible as it ismoving, partly because it hasbeen drawn from extraordinarylife.

“Belle” is rated PG (Parentalguidance suggested). Squeakyclean.

DAVID APPLEBY/FOX SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES

Gugu Mbatha-Raw, having her hat adjusted, in “Belle.”

To the Manner Born?From Weekend Page 1 Belle

Opens on Friday. Directed by Amma Asante; written byMisan Sagay; director of photography,Ben Smithard; edited by Pia Di Ciauloand Victoria Boydell; music by RachelPortman; production design by SimonBowles; costumes by Anushia Nieradzik;produced by Damian Jones; released byFox Searchlight Pictures. Running time:1 hour 45 minutes.

WITH: Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Dido Eliza-beth Belle), Tom Wilkinson (Lord Mans-field), Sam Reid (John Davinier), SarahGadon (Elizabeth Murray), MirandaRichardson (Lady Ashford), PenelopeWilton (Lady Mary Murray), Tom Felton(James Ashford), James Norton (OliverAshford), Matthew Goode (Capt. Sir JohnLindsay) and Emily Watson (Lady Mans-field).

From Weekend Page 1

IdaOpens on Friday in New York andLos Angeles. Written and directed by Pawel Pawlikow-ski; directors of photography, Lukasz Zaland Ryszard Lenczewski; edited by Jaro-slaw Kaminski; music by Kristian SelinEidnes Andersen; production design byKatarzyna Sobanska and Marcel Slawin-ski; costumes by Aleksandra Staszko;produced by Eric Abraham, Piotr Dziecioland Ewa Puszczynska; released by Mu-sic Box Films. In Polish, with Englishsubtitles. Running time: 1 hour 20 min-utes. This film is not rated.

WITH: Agata Kulesza (Wanda), AgataTrzebuchowska (Anna), Dawid Ogrodnik(Lis), Jerzy Trela (Szymon), AdamSzyszkowski (Feliks) and Halina Skoc-zynska (Mother Superior).

A black-and-whiteview of the worldrapidly turns gray.

Nxxx,2014-05-02,C,007,Bs-BW,E1N C7THE NEW YORK TIMES, FRIDAY, MAY 2, 2014

she boasts grimly of her role inthe political show trials of theearly 1950s, when Poland’s Com-munist government used judicialterror (among other methods) toconsolidate its power and elimi-nate its enemies.

A decade later, she is still partof the political elite, though what-ever zealotry she might oncehave had has long since been re-placed by cynicism. Chain-smok-ing and drinking heavily, pursu-ing one-night stands more out ofhabit than desire, she is in everyway the opposite of her unworld-ly, pious niece. But Wanda doessee a family resemblance andalso has a startling piece of news,delivered with a wry, bitter smileas Ida, with her coif and crucifix,sits at the kitchen table: “You’reJewish.”

This is not a joke — and thereis nothing funny about the war-time fate of Poland’s Jews, in-cluding Ida’s parents — but “Ida”and its characters are alert to theabsurdities of Polish history, aswell as its abundant horrors. Mr.Pawlikowski, a Polish-born writ-er and director who has spentmost of his career in England,has reached into his country’spast and grabbed hold of a hand-ful of nettles. “Ida” is a breath-takingly concise film — just 80minutes long — with a clear, sim-ple narrative line. But within itsrelatively brief duration and itsnarrow black-and-white frames,the movie somehow contains acosmos of guilt, violence andpain. Its intimate drama unfolds

at the crossroads where the Cath-olic, Jewish and Communiststrains of Poland’s endlessly andbitterly contested national identi-ty intersect.

Ida and Wanda set out to dis-cover what happened to Ida’sparents, a quest that turns “Ida”into both a road movie and a de-tective story. They encounterpriests and peasants, provincialofficials and a saxophonist(Dawid Ogrodnik) whose ad-vanced musical taste (as well ashis attraction to Ida, in spite ofher habit) provides a hint ofyouthful ’60s spirit amid thegloom and bad memories.

Mr. Pawlikowski, who startedout making documentaries andwhose previous fictional featuresinclude “Last Resort,” “My Sum-mer of Love” and “The Woman inthe Fifth,” can be a wonderfullylucid storyteller. “Ida” is as com-pact and precise as a novella, asequence of short, emphaticscenes that reveal the essence ofthe characters without simplify-ing them. Having set up an obvi-ous contrast between Wanda andIda — atheist and believer; wom-an of the world and shelteredchild; sensualist and saint — thefilm proceeds to complicate eachwoman’s idea of herself and theother. Their black-and-white con-

ceptions of the world turn grayerby the hour.

This is almost literally true,thanks to Lukasz Zal and Ry-szard Lenczewski’s beautifullymisty, piercingly sharp mono-chrome cinematography. Thelook of “Ida” — images capturedby a mostly stationary camera inthe boxy frame associated withold movies — serves an obviousperiod function. What you arewatching could virtually havebeen made in 1962. (The Polishcountryside seems to have co-operated by not changing toomuch in the decades since.) Untilthe very end, the audience neverhears music unless the people onscreen hear it, too, and many ofthe scenes — at once austere andcharged with an intensity thatverges on the metaphysical —owe an evident debt to ’60s cine-ma heroes like Ingmar Bergmanand Robert Bresson.

But “Ida” is hardly an exercisein antiquarian pastiche. It is rath-er an excavation of truths that re-main, 70 years after the Holo-caust and a quarter-century afterthe collapse of Communism, onlypartially disinterred. And it is,above all, about the spiritual and

moral condition of the women,who, between them, occupy near-ly every second of this film.

Mr. Pawlikowski’s style ofshooting might be described assympathetically objective. Hiscamera maintains its distance,and he never presumes access tothe inner lives of his characters.He keeps them low in the frame,with unusually ample spaceabove their heads, creating akind of cathedral effect. Ida andWanda can seem small and alone,lost in a vast and empty universe.But their surroundings oftenachieve a quiet grandeur, an inti-mation of divine presence.

There is an implicit argumenthere between faith and material-ism, one that is resolved with wit,conviction and generosity of spir-it. Mr. Pawlikowski has made oneof the finest European films (andone of most insightful films aboutEurope, past and present) in re-cent memory.

But the accomplishment ishardly his alone: “Ida” belongsequally — and on the screen, pre-eminently — to the two Agatas.Ms. Kulesza is a poised and disci-plined professional, able to showus both Wanda’s ruthless self-

control and its limits. Ms. Trzebu-chowska, a student with little pre-vious acting experience, is a nat-ural screen presence and also anenigmatic one. Ida starts out, forthe audience and perhaps her-self, as an empty vessel, with lit-tle knowledge or experience ofthe world. To watch her respondto it is to perceive the activationof intelligence and the awakeningof wisdom. I can’t imagine any-thing more thrilling.

An Innocent Awakened in Postwar Poland

MUSIC BOX FILMS

Excavating truths in a bleak landscape: Agata Trzebuchowska, left, and Agata Kulesza in “Ida.”

shadowy mystery hovel to a largecountry manor. There, in an ele-gantly appointed room, the kindthat announces the refinement ofits inhabitants and whispers theirentitlement, Sir John formallyclaims the child as his own andpromptly hands her over to hisuncle, Lord Mansfield (Tom Wil-kinson, very good), and LadyMansfield (a dry, funny EmilyWatson). The Lord and Ladykeep their lips, necks and man-ners stiff, but take the girl in andraise her as their own — or al-most. Soon she’s laughing in thegarden, and then she’s a genteelbeauty (a fine Gugu Mbatha-Raw) facing life as a black wom-an in a slave-trading country.

She’s based on Dido ElizabethBelle (1761-1804), the daughter ofan African woman, Maria Bell,who was probably enslaved andmaybe captured off a ship by SirJohn. The details of their associa-tion and Bell’s life are murky, butwhen Dido was young, Sir Johntook her to Lord Mansfield, whoraised her alongside anothergrandniece, Elizabeth Murray(played by a strong SarahGadon). In one account, ThomasHutchinson, a governor of Massa-chusetts, described visiting thefamily: “a Black came in afterdinner and sat with the ladies”and later walked arm in arm withone. “She had a very high cap,and her wool was much frizzled inher neck,” Hutchinson wrote,“but not enough to answer thelarge curls in fashion. She is nei-ther handsome nor genteel —pert enough.”

An unusual painting of her andElizabeth that shows the womensmiling side by side on a terrace— both in silk gowns and pearls,and staring directly at us — sug-gests that there was far more toDido than Hutchinson’s shabbyaccount. The double portrait,often attributed to Johann Zoffa-ny, now hangs in Scone Palace inScotland but was painted at Ken-wood House in Hampstead, Eng-land, where Dido lived for thefirst 30 or so years of her life. It’san exciting image because shewasn’t painted in a traditionalsubservient pose but instead as-sumes an almost — if not quite —equal place with her cousin on thecanvas. While Elizabeth stands asstill as a vase, the somewhat exot-icized Dido (she wears a turban)seems to have been, evocatively,captured in midflight.

The vivaciousness of Dido’s im-age doesn’t always come through

in the movie portrait, which thedirector, Amma Asante, has cre-ated in the Merchant-Ivory schoolof serious, tasteful entertain-ments. It’s easy to mock suchfilms, with their pretty mannersand people, but, at their best, theyopen a door onto an old world thatis sometimes more fragile, brittle,imperiled and considerably morecomplex than its sumptuous trap-pings at first suggest. Likewisehere, Dido and her cousin, bothcosseted and corseted, exist innear-pastoral harmony, yet theirlives are nowhere as carefree asthey seem. Elizabeth has a com-plicated history and needs, muchlike a Jane Austen heroine, tomarry to ensure her future. Andwhile Dido may be one of the fam-ily, she’s also sometimes kept seg-regated.

Written by Misan Sagay,“Belle” tracks its heroine’s dawn-ing awareness of both her own so-cial, political and legal positionand that of the black slaves who,initially, exist for her only as ab-stractions. Her education comesthrough her uncle, the Lord ChiefJustice, who has to decide on ahorribly real case involving theZong slave ship, as well as froman amusingly dashing suitor,John Davinier (Sam Reid). Themovie plays with the historicalrecord for dramatic effect, as isoften the case when the past isdisinterred for entertainment,and its realism at times groansunder the weight of too many pas-sionate speeches. Yet the weaveof the personal and the political fi-nally proves as irresistible as it ismoving, partly because it hasbeen drawn from extraordinarylife.

“Belle” is rated PG (Parentalguidance suggested). Squeakyclean.

DAVID APPLEBY/FOX SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES

Gugu Mbatha-Raw, having her hat adjusted, in “Belle.”

To the Manner Born?From Weekend Page 1 Belle

Opens on Friday. Directed by Amma Asante; written byMisan Sagay; director of photography,Ben Smithard; edited by Pia Di Ciauloand Victoria Boydell; music by RachelPortman; production design by SimonBowles; costumes by Anushia Nieradzik;produced by Damian Jones; released byFox Searchlight Pictures. Running time:1 hour 45 minutes.

WITH: Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Dido Eliza-beth Belle), Tom Wilkinson (Lord Mans-field), Sam Reid (John Davinier), SarahGadon (Elizabeth Murray), MirandaRichardson (Lady Ashford), PenelopeWilton (Lady Mary Murray), Tom Felton(James Ashford), James Norton (OliverAshford), Matthew Goode (Capt. Sir JohnLindsay) and Emily Watson (Lady Mans-field).

From Weekend Page 1

IdaOpens on Friday in New York andLos Angeles. Written and directed by Pawel Pawlikow-ski; directors of photography, Lukasz Zaland Ryszard Lenczewski; edited by Jaro-slaw Kaminski; music by Kristian SelinEidnes Andersen; production design byKatarzyna Sobanska and Marcel Slawin-ski; costumes by Aleksandra Staszko;produced by Eric Abraham, Piotr Dziecioland Ewa Puszczynska; released by Mu-sic Box Films. In Polish, with Englishsubtitles. Running time: 1 hour 20 min-utes. This film is not rated.

WITH: Agata Kulesza (Wanda), AgataTrzebuchowska (Anna), Dawid Ogrodnik(Lis), Jerzy Trela (Szymon), AdamSzyszkowski (Feliks) and Halina Skoc-zynska (Mother Superior).

A black-and-whiteview of the worldrapidly turns gray.

Nxxx,2014-05-02,C,007,Bs-BW,E1

N C7THE NEW YORK TIMES, FRIDAY, MAY 2, 2014

she boasts grimly of her role inthe political show trials of theearly 1950s, when Poland’s Com-munist government used judicialterror (among other methods) toconsolidate its power and elimi-nate its enemies.

A decade later, she is still partof the political elite, though what-ever zealotry she might oncehave had has long since been re-placed by cynicism. Chain-smok-ing and drinking heavily, pursu-ing one-night stands more out ofhabit than desire, she is in everyway the opposite of her unworld-ly, pious niece. But Wanda doessee a family resemblance andalso has a startling piece of news,delivered with a wry, bitter smileas Ida, with her coif and crucifix,sits at the kitchen table: “You’reJewish.”

This is not a joke — and thereis nothing funny about the war-time fate of Poland’s Jews, in-cluding Ida’s parents — but “Ida”and its characters are alert to theabsurdities of Polish history, aswell as its abundant horrors. Mr.Pawlikowski, a Polish-born writ-er and director who has spentmost of his career in England,has reached into his country’spast and grabbed hold of a hand-ful of nettles. “Ida” is a breath-takingly concise film — just 80minutes long — with a clear, sim-ple narrative line. But within itsrelatively brief duration and itsnarrow black-and-white frames,the movie somehow contains acosmos of guilt, violence andpain. Its intimate drama unfolds

at the crossroads where the Cath-olic, Jewish and Communiststrains of Poland’s endlessly andbitterly contested national identi-ty intersect.

Ida and Wanda set out to dis-cover what happened to Ida’sparents, a quest that turns “Ida”into both a road movie and a de-tective story. They encounterpriests and peasants, provincialofficials and a saxophonist(Dawid Ogrodnik) whose ad-vanced musical taste (as well ashis attraction to Ida, in spite ofher habit) provides a hint ofyouthful ’60s spirit amid thegloom and bad memories.

Mr. Pawlikowski, who startedout making documentaries andwhose previous fictional featuresinclude “Last Resort,” “My Sum-mer of Love” and “The Woman inthe Fifth,” can be a wonderfullylucid storyteller. “Ida” is as com-pact and precise as a novella, asequence of short, emphaticscenes that reveal the essence ofthe characters without simplify-ing them. Having set up an obvi-ous contrast between Wanda andIda — atheist and believer; wom-an of the world and shelteredchild; sensualist and saint — thefilm proceeds to complicate eachwoman’s idea of herself and theother. Their black-and-white con-

ceptions of the world turn grayerby the hour.

This is almost literally true,thanks to Lukasz Zal and Ry-szard Lenczewski’s beautifullymisty, piercingly sharp mono-chrome cinematography. Thelook of “Ida” — images capturedby a mostly stationary camera inthe boxy frame associated withold movies — serves an obviousperiod function. What you arewatching could virtually havebeen made in 1962. (The Polishcountryside seems to have co-operated by not changing toomuch in the decades since.) Untilthe very end, the audience neverhears music unless the people onscreen hear it, too, and many ofthe scenes — at once austere andcharged with an intensity thatverges on the metaphysical —owe an evident debt to ’60s cine-ma heroes like Ingmar Bergmanand Robert Bresson.

But “Ida” is hardly an exercisein antiquarian pastiche. It is rath-er an excavation of truths that re-main, 70 years after the Holo-caust and a quarter-century afterthe collapse of Communism, onlypartially disinterred. And it is,above all, about the spiritual and

moral condition of the women,who, between them, occupy near-ly every second of this film.

Mr. Pawlikowski’s style ofshooting might be described assympathetically objective. Hiscamera maintains its distance,and he never presumes access tothe inner lives of his characters.He keeps them low in the frame,with unusually ample spaceabove their heads, creating akind of cathedral effect. Ida andWanda can seem small and alone,lost in a vast and empty universe.But their surroundings oftenachieve a quiet grandeur, an inti-mation of divine presence.

There is an implicit argumenthere between faith and material-ism, one that is resolved with wit,conviction and generosity of spir-it. Mr. Pawlikowski has made oneof the finest European films (andone of most insightful films aboutEurope, past and present) in re-cent memory.

But the accomplishment ishardly his alone: “Ida” belongsequally — and on the screen, pre-eminently — to the two Agatas.Ms. Kulesza is a poised and disci-plined professional, able to showus both Wanda’s ruthless self-

control and its limits. Ms. Trzebu-chowska, a student with little pre-vious acting experience, is a nat-ural screen presence and also anenigmatic one. Ida starts out, forthe audience and perhaps her-self, as an empty vessel, with lit-tle knowledge or experience ofthe world. To watch her respondto it is to perceive the activationof intelligence and the awakeningof wisdom. I can’t imagine any-thing more thrilling.

An Innocent Awakened in Postwar Poland

MUSIC BOX FILMS

Excavating truths in a bleak landscape: Agata Trzebuchowska, left, and Agata Kulesza in “Ida.”

shadowy mystery hovel to a largecountry manor. There, in an ele-gantly appointed room, the kindthat announces the refinement ofits inhabitants and whispers theirentitlement, Sir John formallyclaims the child as his own andpromptly hands her over to hisuncle, Lord Mansfield (Tom Wil-kinson, very good), and LadyMansfield (a dry, funny EmilyWatson). The Lord and Ladykeep their lips, necks and man-ners stiff, but take the girl in andraise her as their own — or al-most. Soon she’s laughing in thegarden, and then she’s a genteelbeauty (a fine Gugu Mbatha-Raw) facing life as a black wom-an in a slave-trading country.

She’s based on Dido ElizabethBelle (1761-1804), the daughter ofan African woman, Maria Bell,who was probably enslaved andmaybe captured off a ship by SirJohn. The details of their associa-tion and Bell’s life are murky, butwhen Dido was young, Sir Johntook her to Lord Mansfield, whoraised her alongside anothergrandniece, Elizabeth Murray(played by a strong SarahGadon). In one account, ThomasHutchinson, a governor of Massa-chusetts, described visiting thefamily: “a Black came in afterdinner and sat with the ladies”and later walked arm in arm withone. “She had a very high cap,and her wool was much frizzled inher neck,” Hutchinson wrote,“but not enough to answer thelarge curls in fashion. She is nei-ther handsome nor genteel —pert enough.”

An unusual painting of her andElizabeth that shows the womensmiling side by side on a terrace— both in silk gowns and pearls,and staring directly at us — sug-gests that there was far more toDido than Hutchinson’s shabbyaccount. The double portrait,often attributed to Johann Zoffa-ny, now hangs in Scone Palace inScotland but was painted at Ken-wood House in Hampstead, Eng-land, where Dido lived for thefirst 30 or so years of her life. It’san exciting image because shewasn’t painted in a traditionalsubservient pose but instead as-sumes an almost — if not quite —equal place with her cousin on thecanvas. While Elizabeth stands asstill as a vase, the somewhat exot-icized Dido (she wears a turban)seems to have been, evocatively,captured in midflight.

The vivaciousness of Dido’s im-age doesn’t always come through

in the movie portrait, which thedirector, Amma Asante, has cre-ated in the Merchant-Ivory schoolof serious, tasteful entertain-ments. It’s easy to mock suchfilms, with their pretty mannersand people, but, at their best, theyopen a door onto an old world thatis sometimes more fragile, brittle,imperiled and considerably morecomplex than its sumptuous trap-pings at first suggest. Likewisehere, Dido and her cousin, bothcosseted and corseted, exist innear-pastoral harmony, yet theirlives are nowhere as carefree asthey seem. Elizabeth has a com-plicated history and needs, muchlike a Jane Austen heroine, tomarry to ensure her future. Andwhile Dido may be one of the fam-ily, she’s also sometimes kept seg-regated.

Written by Misan Sagay,“Belle” tracks its heroine’s dawn-ing awareness of both her own so-cial, political and legal positionand that of the black slaves who,initially, exist for her only as ab-stractions. Her education comesthrough her uncle, the Lord ChiefJustice, who has to decide on ahorribly real case involving theZong slave ship, as well as froman amusingly dashing suitor,John Davinier (Sam Reid). Themovie plays with the historicalrecord for dramatic effect, as isoften the case when the past isdisinterred for entertainment,and its realism at times groansunder the weight of too many pas-sionate speeches. Yet the weaveof the personal and the political fi-nally proves as irresistible as it ismoving, partly because it hasbeen drawn from extraordinarylife.

“Belle” is rated PG (Parentalguidance suggested). Squeakyclean.

DAVID APPLEBY/FOX SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES

Gugu Mbatha-Raw, having her hat adjusted, in “Belle.”

To the Manner Born?From Weekend Page 1 Belle

Opens on Friday. Directed by Amma Asante; written byMisan Sagay; director of photography,Ben Smithard; edited by Pia Di Ciauloand Victoria Boydell; music by RachelPortman; production design by SimonBowles; costumes by Anushia Nieradzik;produced by Damian Jones; released byFox Searchlight Pictures. Running time:1 hour 45 minutes.

WITH: Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Dido Eliza-beth Belle), Tom Wilkinson (Lord Mans-field), Sam Reid (John Davinier), SarahGadon (Elizabeth Murray), MirandaRichardson (Lady Ashford), PenelopeWilton (Lady Mary Murray), Tom Felton(James Ashford), James Norton (OliverAshford), Matthew Goode (Capt. Sir JohnLindsay) and Emily Watson (Lady Mans-field).

From Weekend Page 1

IdaOpens on Friday in New York andLos Angeles. Written and directed by Pawel Pawlikow-ski; directors of photography, Lukasz Zaland Ryszard Lenczewski; edited by Jaro-slaw Kaminski; music by Kristian SelinEidnes Andersen; production design byKatarzyna Sobanska and Marcel Slawin-ski; costumes by Aleksandra Staszko;produced by Eric Abraham, Piotr Dziecioland Ewa Puszczynska; released by Mu-sic Box Films. In Polish, with Englishsubtitles. Running time: 1 hour 20 min-utes. This film is not rated.

WITH: Agata Kulesza (Wanda), AgataTrzebuchowska (Anna), Dawid Ogrodnik(Lis), Jerzy Trela (Szymon), AdamSzyszkowski (Feliks) and Halina Skoc-zynska (Mother Superior).

A black-and-whiteview of the worldrapidly turns gray.

Nxxx,2014-05-02,C,007,Bs-BW,E1