Le Palais de glace

"Ice Palace" (1987) gives the strong impression that the people who made it found some really cool (in both senses of the word) locations, primarily the title site, and decided to film around them while barely constructing a "story" (although they did use a novel as their basis). There is sparse dialogue, no answers, absolutely no ending, just images and (mostly violin) sounds. There are several shots that look like paintings - but how long can you look at a painting before getting bored? The film suggests something lesbian, at other times something mystical, but very little comes to fruition. ** out of 4.

The Ice Palace (Is-slottet) was sadly writer director Per Blom's last film, his fifth as a director and his sixth as writer. Blom was at his top as a filmmaker, and quite a lot of international buzz after this, but it was to be his last film.

Why this was his last film, i don't know, but finacing film was hard back then. Blom died in 2013, at 77, but as a 41 year old film maker and as 41 in 1987 he should have been in his prime as a filmmaker. And he was. But I feel he had much more to give.

But it also came to be his most well known film, after reaching cinematic success after the release December 26th 1987.

The drama is not a light hearted one. The two eleven-year-old girls Siss and Unn are friends and attracted to eachother, something they both know is some kind of wrong. A very innocent encounter one evening (where nudity is quite open in this film) nothing happens, but Unn tells she won't be going to Heaven, and the next day so goes towards the iced river and disappears. There's a big posse out looking for her.

The movie is based upon the novel by the same name, written by Tarjei Vesaas, and is fllowing the novel quite close.

The film takes place and is held in the same dialect from Western Telemark.

This is also som of teh weakness, as those knowing it, can hear not all are native speakers of the dialect. But the main probelm the film has is a backgrund hiss behind a lot of the dialog, as well at original score lying a bit too high i the mix.

If it hadn't been for that, this film is not far from a masterpiece, but those flaws are too big for me to ignore.

The film is really that profond and good, that it could with those minor ajustments been a true classic masterpiece of heartbreak, holding a lot of emotion and it won the "Flanders International Film Festival" Grand Prix in 1988.

The Ice Castle is a brave film, a film that stands up for a fight. The themes, as well as the soreness. Also the absence of dialogue.

When someone speaks, it's almost like they have a hard time speaking.

This movie is made available in 2024 when it was released on interregional Blu-Ray Disk by Norwegian Film Classics as the 32nd release in a new series with classics, NFK0032, with subtitles in English, and is supposed to be held in stock for film lovers. Sadly I feel the film should have had a remastered soundmix before relase making it the classic it had deserved being.

I would have to recommend this movie for at least a watch once if you are able, I did and in a way I enjoyed it, however I don't think I will ever get around to watching it again.

The story is interesting and something I would like to revisit again and the actresses playing the main roles did a great job whoever I feel the movie held a slow pace seeming to move along at little more than a crawl. I feel a lot of this had to deal with the fact that there was very little dialogue, kept mostly only for a few select scenes. The actresses however did a fine job, able to make up for the slow feeling of the movie, you could feel their confusion at what was transpiring.

I do feel though that the emotions of the girls where not fully explained though leaving a lot of room where the movie could have explored exactly what the girls were going through.

This absolutely brilliant movie is one of only a few of films I have ever truly loved. Its visually stunning use of the color blue is reminiscent of the Three Colors trilogy by Krzysztof Kieslowski and Víctor Erice's The Spirit of the Beehive.

The child nudity, although very brief, is incredibly uncomfortable which, understandably, is why it gets so much hate. As much as I am vehemently against child nudity in films, this movie seems to use it in a way that adds to the plot and emotion of the film instead of being sexually exploitative and it's the only movie I've ever seen that really pulls it off. Still, I give the movie a 9 instead of a 10 because of this.

The film has very little dialogue, really long scenes, and is overall quite vague. Still, it somehow manages to be wildly impactful, emotional, and beautiful. There is so much meaning in this movie and it brings me to tears whenever I think about it.

It's not for everyone but for those looking for a beautiful movie that will stick with you forever, I HIGHLY recommend. I would also recommend reading the book because it adds a bit of context.

absolutely brilliant film, slow but well worth it. Well acted by all, the mood of the film was perfect. The director did a remarkable and brave job with this movie, it could never have been made in a place such as hollywood, it's about time the world started to take notice of low budget (good storyline movies), rather than big budget predictable hollywood ingredients.