Never Gonna Snow Again Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		4.0

Never Gonna Snow Again Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov February 21, 2022

Selected to represent Poland at the 93rd Academy Awards, Malgorzata Szumowska and Michal Englert's "Never Gonna Snow Again" (2020) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The only bonus feature on the release is a promotional trailer for the film. In Polish and Russian, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

If you came from Pripyat, you must be radioactive.

It would be shocking news if it was revealed that Malgorzata Szumowska and Michal Englert have not carefully studied Krzysztof Kieslowki’s work. Their award-winning film Never Gonna Snow Again captures the essence of existence in much the same way the great master’s The Double Life of Véronique and Dekalog did during the Cold War era. Obviously, their homeland is a very different place now, but the overlapping of the real and the surreal that is used to reveal its new identity has an unmistakable Kieslowski-esque vibe.

Never Gonna Snow Again opens in a forest covered with thick dark shadows that have just about managed to transform it into one of those special places that exist only in J.R.R. Tolkien’s books. But the young man (Alec Utgoff) that emerges from the shadows quickly moves away from the forest and then arrives in a large contemporary city somewhere in Poland. In a rundown administrative building, the man enters the dusty office of an aging bureaucrat and reveals that he comes from Pripyat, the ghost city next to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, and would like to apply for a working permit. When instead of approving or rejecting the request the bureaucrat suddenly asks the man for help, he calmly moves behind his chair and places his hands around his wrinkled face. Then he begins whispering in Russian: “I am taking away your misery, your suffering, your sickness. Like a black stream, it flows from your feet through your body, your head, into my hands. Take a deep breath. As you exhale, you become lighter -- like a piece of dust”. When the bureaucrat collapses in his chair, apparently overwhelmed by the wave of sensations running through his body, the man uses the metal stamp on his desk to issue himself the valuable permit.

In a different, cleaner and much nicer part of the city, the man enters a gated community carrying a portable massage table. In this place, carefully designed to look like a wealthy American suburb, the man, whose loyal clients call Zhenia, has become a rock star masseuse. He is so good with his hands that his clients have become addicted to his work, which is why virtually all of them have started requesting ‘more’ -- some are being hypnotized to remember their youth, some to numb the pain from the cancer that is eating their bodies, and some to reset the batteries that are feeding them with zest for life; a few just want their minds temporarily unplugged from reality so that they can experience what it is like to be a trouble-free ‘floater’.

But Zhenia’s new and supercharged sessions with his loyal clients gradually force all of them to first begin pondering the nature of their successes and then their existence, and the more time they spend contemplating how they have lived, the more puzzled and frustrated they become. Around the same time, news breaks that that it may never snow again.

Never Gonna Snow Again might be the strangest but most logical film you would ever see because even though it does not make much sense when described with simple words, it feels perfect once you submerge yourself in it. Indeed, being drawn into it for approximately two hours is like undergoing a therapeutic session that stimulates and calms the mind in a most unusual, perhaps even addictive way, which oddly enough is how Zhenia’s clients tend to summarize their sessions with him as well. (If you think that this is some sort of a complimentary exaggeration, you could not be any more wrong. The film really does play with the mind in some quite incredible ways).

But there is a subtle social commentary that is equally effective. Much like Kieslowski’s The Double Life of Veronique, Never Gonna Snow Again reveals fascinating contrasts that reveal plenty about Poland’s post-communist transformation. The sense of freedom that permeates the reality in which Zhenia and his clients coexist for instance is unmissable, but not everyone has been able to take advantage of it. Needless to say, when the film merges the beautiful and the ugly it very much begins to feel like it follows Kieslowski’s old blueprint.

Never Gonna Snow Again Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.39:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Never Gonna Snow Again arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber.

I made a mistake and missed seeing this film in a local theater, but its outstanding technical presentation on Blu-ray just about made up for my naivety. So, while I wonder how good the film must have looked in the theater, there is no doubt in my mind that it cannot look any better in 1080p. Indeed, delineation, clarity, sharpness, and depth of its visuals were simply astonishing on my system. From time to time, it literally felt like some of these visuals were digital photographs that were coming alive. I was genuinely impressed. Colors looked terrific as well, though as you can tell from the screencaptures we have provided with out review, the entire film has a rather familiar contemporary grade. Image stability is outstanding. I did not notice any encoding anomalies to report in our review. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Never Gonna Snow Again Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two standard audio tracks: Polish DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and Polish DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (with plenty of exchanges in Russian and a couple of lines of Vietnamese). Optional English subtitles are provided for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.

I viewed the entire film with the Polish DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. I thought that it handled the dreamy soundtrack really, really well and produced some outstanding dynamic contrasts. This being said, do not expect to hear a great deal of the type of dynamic activity that is present in big-budget blockbusters. This film often functions as something of a therapeutic session that stimulates and calms the mind at the same time. The English translation is excellent.

Never Gonna Snow Again Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - original trailer for Never Gonna Snow Again. In Polish, with English text and subtitles. (2 min).

Never Gonna Snow Again Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I foolishly missed an opportunity to see Never Gonna Snow Again at a popular theater in my area because it was summed up as an "unclassifiable meditation on class, immigration, and global warming". I rarely go to any theaters in my area anymore, but this was a film that I was willing to make the trip for because I thought that the early promotional materials for it looked very intriguing. That short description changed my mind and I forgot about it, so it wasn't until a few weeks ago that I finally decided to pick up Kino Lorber's Blu-ray release and see it. Never Gonna Snow Again is an incredible mind-bender of the kind that I should have known would be instantly misinterpreted by the mainstream critics in the West. It is a very witty litmus test that reveals a lot about the essence of existence in post-communist Poland in much the same way Krzysztof Kieslowski's The Double Life of Veronique exposed the unavoidable incoming end of communist Poland where one of the beautiful singers lived. So, now that I have seen Never Gonna Snow Again, I am also glad to have it in my library because it is a film that I will revisit many times in the future. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. (If you enjoy your experience with Never Gonna Snow Again, also consider picking up Agnieszka Smoczynska's The Lure, which is another recent and very unique Polish mind-bender).