Le Palais de glace

I found this relatively obscure movie recently and was was pleasantly surprised. Its a somewhat strange film in that there is little traditional aspects of an ordinary film- the pace is slow and there isn't much of a "climax" so to speak. That said it is still well worth the watch. The film follows two 12 year old Norwegian girls in the 1930s and explores their relationship. It is very touchy and emotional in its simplicity and the soundtrack that accompanies it was perfectly chosen. There is minimal dialogue but the two main actress's do an excellent portraying these young, somewhat lost, girls. One thing that caught me off guard however the amount of underage nudity shown. I know it was filmed in the 1980's in Europe however what is shown onscreen is rather jarring in its explicitness. Both of the main actress's strip fully naked in multiple scenes and their entire anatomy, upper and lower, is shown frontally and in closeup. This may be unnerving for some viewers so just be aware. Overall however the film is excellent and worth viewing.

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.

"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.

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.

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.