c.j.ganter

As in most of his other attempts, Luis Bunuel invites the audience to take on a somewhat unusual view of the human psyche in general and of the social conventions of a certain segment of society in particular. Here it is a eccentric bourgeois family living in their secluded microcosm of a stately home in the French countryside, strangely remote from the historic upheavals going on in France and in the rest of Europe. Jeanne Moureau, starring as a Parisian chambermaid entering this microcosm almost like an alien intruder, heads a basically well-chosen cast, even though some of the minor characters remain largely undeveloped. Since the film unabashedly defies the modern(ist) tendency to closure, this disturbing portrait of the bourgeois world of the French countryside of the 1920 can be called post-modern in the true sense of the word.

'The Ice House' is a truly remarkable venture, both in terms of plot and of characterization. As far as the slowly unfolding plot is concerned, the film is second to hardly any of the British (TV) mysteries of recent years such as Inspector Morse etc. The main characters are portrayed in a convincing yet cinematically appropriate way. Right from the very beginning the film psychologically probes the dark sides of human nature keeping the viewer in tight suspense right to the very end. Worth seeing !