Characters On The Couch

How a psychologist thinks about your favorite Film & TV characters.

pawel pawlikowski

COLD WAR
Zula’s Shame Versus
Wiktor’s Desperation
An Impossible Love

by

“I knocked, I cried, she wouldn’t open up.” That is Wiktor’s torment. These lyrics begin Pawel Pawlikowski’s film Cold War and foretell the fate of Wiktor and Zula’s love. A love that never had a chance. Theirs is a war originating in Zula’s history. A history that spawned deep shame and distrust of love. Just …

Read moreCOLD WAR
Zula’s Shame Versus
Wiktor’s Desperation
An Impossible Love

IDA
Two Paths Away From Loss

by

The Academy Award-winning film, Ida by Pawel Pawlikowski, is beautifully poignant visually, thematically, and psychologically. A haunting story of loss and the sometimes- unwinnable struggle against the overwhelming feelings involved. Loss is difficult under any circumstance. In Ida, we witness an aunt and niece estranged in the aftermath of the Nazi occupation in Poland. Both …

Read moreIDA
Two Paths Away From Loss