Chris Knipp Writing: Movies, Politics, Art


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CLAUDIO NOCE: THE ICE FOREST/LA FORESTA DI GHIACCIO (2014)

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DOMENICO DIELE IN THE ICE FOREST

Bluster and machismo in the Italian alps

It all takes place up in the mountains where Italy connects with Slovenia, and human trafficking is the obvious theme that's muted till the end. Noce''s ambitious film is everything and nothing. It has high production values -- great photography, atmospheric mountain settings, high powered music -- plus excitement, machismo, noir secrets, and the elements of a running police procedural. Yet it gives away its secret at the outset and it flounders, the procedural generating little energy, the scenes all rough he-man mood and little actual plot-driving action too much of the time. The effect, as major reviewers (Variety and Hollywood Reporter) have noted, is of an American film more than an Italian one, to the extent of scenes at a saloon with country music and a seedy strip bar, and a lead character who wears a Redskins baseball cap.

Action revolves around three people. Young Pietro (Domenico Diele), a mechanic and repairman, journeys to an electrical power station up in the mountains and encounters several seedy, stogie-chomping hard drinkers clearly up to something nasty, though most of the time we don't know what any of these guys are doing other than hanging out. The pre-title opening scene set in 1994 of a Slovenian boy killed by human traffickers while his younger brother is shooed across a bridge in the snow into Italy is a clear spoiler of all that will come. In the background Lana (Ksenia Rappoport) is a camera-toting Slovenian investigator tracking down the source of the corpse of a Libyan woman refugee found just over the border: human trafficking is what she logically suspects, though her local associate blocks her every step of the way. Among the super-macho types she has to contend with, some of whom she suspects are criminals, is Secondo (Emir Kusturica), just the oldest and gnarliest of the bunch.

Many tricky visual and sound effects are used, including a requiem mass when a group of tragic refugees finally appears, some scary action on a funicular stuck in midair, and lots of SUVs speeding around through the snow. But Guy Lodge in his Variety review notes the faulty continuity, indicated by the way Diele's earrings come and go from one scene to the next, and he also notes the region is probably culturally richer "than the film lets on." In other words, it's mostly visuals.

And this is what hits you from the start: the muted, handsome, nearly monochromatic bluish images (though an "ice forest" is not to be found) richly evoke an intensely cold, mountainous world of snow and fog, while interiors fairly drip with masculine bravado and all-male roughhousing where heavy drinking is much emphasized. It's all atmosphere with nowhere special to go. Rappaport is a tough, experienced actress but is not given enough to do. Guy Lodge again makes a good observation when he says her role is "Marge Gunderson without the wisecracks": she's a bit pathetic and humorless, a big missed opportunity to add life and pluck to increase viewer interest in this key character who so much of time seems to be floundering.

Domenico Diele, with a trendy shaved-sides haircut to make him look younger and tougher, is the one fair-haired boy, a touchstone outsider and the key character, finally, who will wind up in mortal combat with Kusturica. An interesting character, Lorenzo (Adriano Giannini), bonding with Pietro, boiling with frustration, dreaming of going to live in Rio, disappears early on, and we are left with Kusturica, a director experienced also as an actor, who is confident in his bluster here, but somewhat inexpressive. And there you have it, an atmospheric, well-produced second film for Noce, with a grand theme, but in need of some more rewrites and further edits to play successfully the world market. (Or even find strong advocates at home: most online Italian reviews seem to agree with the points I've made here: good mise-en-scène, visuals, and atmosphere, unengaging or murky action.)

The Ice Forest/La foresta di ghiaccio, 99 mins., debuted at the Rome festival Oct. 2014; also Tokyo; theatrical release in Italy Nov 2014. Screened for this review as part of Open Roads: New Italian Cinema festival at Lincoln Center, NYC. Shown June 4 and 7, 2015 at the Walter Reade Theater.

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©Chris Knipp. Blog: http://chrisknipp.blogspot.com/.


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