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July, 1997 (R-95) 81<br />
FESTIVAL REVIEWS<br />
THE ICE STORM ^^1/2<br />
Starring Kevin Kline, Sigourney<br />
Weaver, Joan Allen, Christina Ricci and<br />
Elijah Wood. Directed by Ang Lee. Written<br />
and produced by James Schamus. A Fox<br />
Searchlight release. Drama. Rated R for<br />
sexuality and drug use, including scenes<br />
involving children, and for language.<br />
Running time: 112 min. Won the best<br />
screenplay prize at Cannes.<br />
A cold, somewhat distant yet oddly intrifjing<br />
film fk)m director Ang Lee, "The Ice<br />
torm" is aptly named. Based on Rick<br />
Moody ' s satiricaJ novel and set on Thanksgiving<br />
weekend of 1973, the film portrays two<br />
suburban American families who, despite<br />
smiley-faced exteriors, are emotionally frigid.<br />
Living comfortably in New England, Ben<br />
Hood (Kevin Kline) and his wife Elena<br />
(Joan Allen) are raising two teenagers. They<br />
are good friends with their neighbors Janey<br />
and Jim Carver (Sigourney Weaver and<br />
Jamey Sheridan)—although, unbeknownst<br />
to Elena, Ben is sleeping with Janey. Meanwhile,<br />
hormones rage through the Carver<br />
and Hood children alike: Wendy Hood<br />
(Christina Ricci), buzzing at the prospect of<br />
sexual discovery, has set out to seduce both<br />
Mikey Carver (Elijah Wood) and his younger<br />
brother, while Paul Hood (Tobey Maguire)<br />
lusts after a prep school co-ed. Their<br />
lies and indiscretions are all revealed one<br />
freezing night on which their region is hit by<br />
the worst ice storm in 30 years.<br />
"The Ice Storm" has several redeeming<br />
features: the performances are uniformly<br />
solid, the production design and costumes<br />
impressively authentic, and the direction<br />
aptly understated. Ang Lee, who turned his<br />
lens on Taiwanese family matters in the<br />
comedy "The Wedding Banquet" and British<br />
domestic ways in "Sense and Sensibility,"<br />
shows an astute eye for American<br />
family politics. Rather than self-consciously<br />
announcing its evocation of the<br />
'70s, the details of the era come through<br />
piecemeal: in conversation (couple-swapping<br />
is trendy), on TV (Nixon insists that he<br />
IS not a crook), in their furniture (the Carvers<br />
have a waterbed). The cinematography<br />
- by Frederick Elmes ("Blue Velvet") is appropriately<br />
crisp and clean, lit in a way that<br />
effectively conveys glacial familial relations.<br />
Unfortunately, however, the film has<br />
the same effect on the viewer. Rather than<br />
being moved or transfixed, one feels frozen<br />
and impartial, almost as disengaged as the<br />
characters themselves. Lael Loewenstein<br />
THE BLACKOUT 1/2<br />
Starring Matthew Modine, Dennis Hopper,<br />
Claudia Schiffer and Beatrice Dalle.<br />
Directed by Abel Ferrara. Written by<br />
Maria Hanson, Christ Zois and Abel<br />
Ferrara. Produced by Edward R. Pressman<br />
and Clayton Townsend. No stateside<br />
distributor set. Drama. Notyet rated. Running<br />
time: 97 min.<br />
For "The Blackout," Abel Ferrara has<br />
moved from the dark New York streets of<br />
"King of New York" and "Bad Lieutenant"<br />
to the bright colors of Miami. Judging from<br />
the disappointing results of the film, the trip<br />
was not a success. Matty (Matthew Modine)<br />
is a famous movie star addicted to<br />
drugs and alcohol. Modine is not believable<br />
as an addict; he has too amiable a screen<br />
persona to be convincing as someone deep<br />
in the depths of drug and alcohol dependency.<br />
Beatrice Dalle ("Betty Blue") and<br />
supermodel Claudia Schiffer (in her feature<br />
debut) are adequate as the one-dimensional<br />
women in Matty's life.<br />
Dennis Hopper plays a sleazy filmmaker<br />
who has videotaped many of Matty's activities.<br />
Matty's decadent lifestyle is too much,<br />
even for his uninhibited girlfriend Annie<br />
(Dalle). Matty is so devastated by a revelation<br />
from Annie that he uses even more<br />
drugs and blacks out. Eighteen months later,<br />
Matty is amazingly clean and sober and<br />
living in New York with Susan (Schiffer),<br />
who doesn't get high or drink. But Matty<br />
begins to have nightmares that he might<br />
have committed a murder; he returns to<br />
Miami to learn whether he is indeed a killer.<br />
In previous films, Ferrara used his<br />
characters' dissipation to explore their<br />
emotional torment and provided strong<br />
roles for many actors, including Harvey<br />
Keitel, Christopher Walken and Chris<br />
Penn. In his latest, the characters and situations<br />
are superficially developed. The dialogue<br />
is insipid and at times is almost<br />
drowned out by throbbing music. 'The<br />
Blackout" has uncharacteristically slack<br />
pacing for a Ferrara work, and the film is<br />
further spoiled by pretentious ranting by<br />
Hopper's character. Many scenes are so<br />
melodramafic and overdone that the film<br />
becomes unintentionally funny, especially<br />
in the ludicrous ending borrowed from a<br />
Hollywood classic. Ed Scheid<br />
PRIVATE CONFESSIONS<br />
(ENSKILDA SAMTAL) ^^^^1/2<br />
Starring Pernilla August, Max von<br />
Sydow and Samuel Froler. Directed by Liv<br />
Ullmann. Written by Ingmar Bergman.<br />
Produced by Ingrid Dahlberg. No stateside<br />
distributor set. Drama. Swedish-language;<br />
English subtitles. Not yet rated.<br />
Running time: 135 min.<br />
Liv Ullmann, who acted in nine films of<br />
Ingmar Bergman, is now the director of<br />
Bergman's script for "Private Confessions."<br />
(Ullmann has cut the film from a longer<br />
version that appeared on Swedish TV.) "Private<br />
Confessions" continues Bergman's exploration<br />
of his parents' troubled marriage<br />
that began in "The Best Intentions," which<br />
won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1992.<br />
The film begins in 1925. Anna (Pernilla<br />
August) feels stifled in her marriage to<br />
Henrik (Samuel Froler), a minister. (Both<br />
August and Froler played the characters in<br />
"The Best Intentions.") Now, Anna has a<br />
younger lover (Tomas Hanzon). The film is<br />
structured on conversations about the relationships<br />
Anna has with her confirmation<br />
priest (Bergman regular Max von Sydow),<br />
her husband, her lover and a female friend.<br />
The last conversation is a flashback between<br />
the 18-year-old Anna and the priest.<br />
The perceptive script continues<br />
Bergman's probing into the complexities<br />
and frequent deceptions involved in relationships.<br />
A scene in which Anna confesses<br />
the affair to her husband is particularly<br />
strong: A calm conversation gradually explodes<br />
into anger and violence. Ullmann's<br />
direction (this is her third turn behind the<br />
camera) is superb. As in her films with<br />
Bergman, the lens explores what Ullmann<br />
calls the "geography of faces" to subtly<br />
reveal a character. The impeccable images<br />
are from Sven Nykvist, Bergman's longtime<br />
cinematographer.<br />
August's performance is extraordinary,<br />
showing the wide range of Anna's passionate<br />
feelings; her work surpasses even her tum in<br />
"The Best Intentions," which won her the Best<br />
Actress prize at Cannes. Von Sydow gives his<br />
character a warm compassion—his final reunion<br />
with Anna as he is dying is particularly<br />
affecting—and Froler is impressive as the<br />
volatile husband. Ed Scheul<br />
THE TRUCE (LA TREGUA) ^^1/2<br />
Turturro and Rade<br />
Starring John<br />
Serbedzija. Directed by Francesco Rosi.<br />
Written by Francesco Rosi, Stefano Rulli<br />
and Sandro Petraglia. Produced by Leo<br />
Pescarolo and Guido De Laurentis. No<br />
stateside distributor set. Drama. Shown in<br />
English- and Italian-language versions.<br />
Running time: 115 min.<br />
"The Truce" is an adaptation of the memoirs<br />
of Primo Levi, an Italian chemist who<br />
was imprisoned in Auschwitz. The film follows<br />
Levi ("Quiz Show's" John Turturro)<br />
through the chaotic times after Auschwitz<br />
is liberated in 1945. Levi lives in a Soviet<br />
resettlement camp and follows a labyrinthine<br />
journey through Eastern Europe to<br />
return to his home in Italy. He begins to<br />
reconnect to his emofions, which he had<br />
kept dormant during his time in Auschwitz.<br />
With his gaunt appearance, Turturro is convincing<br />
as a concentration camp inmate. He<br />
expertly conveys both Levi's pain and the<br />
strength to survive as a witness to the suffering.<br />
A weakness of the screenplay keeps Levi<br />
a passive observer reacting to other characters,<br />
including a Greek prisoner played with<br />
vitality by Rade Serbedzija ('The Saint"). The<br />
most successful scenes are large-scale, like<br />
the opening in which the gates of Auschwitz<br />
are pulled down, or when the euphoric former<br />
prisoners begin their train ride home. But<br />
'The Truce" contains too many characters<br />
and scenes that are familiar from other films<br />
set in the same period. Ed Scheid<br />
THE WELL iririrM2<br />
Starring Pamela Rabe and Miranda<br />
Otto. Directed by Satnantha Lang. Written<br />
by Laura Jones. Produced by Sandra Levy.<br />
No stateside distributor set. Suspense/<br />
drama. Not yet rated. Run time: 101 min.<br />
Based on a novel by Elizabeth Jolley,<br />
"The Well" is a notable feature debut for<br />
Australian director Samantha Lang. The<br />
film shows the chilling consequences when<br />
a car driven by a young woman ("Love and<br />
Other Catastrophes'" Miranda Otto) runs<br />
over a man on a deserted road.<br />
Hester ("Paradise Road's" Pamela<br />
Rabe), a middle-aged woman, has hired the
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