|
Gimme shelter >> The Ice Storm leaves no survivors BY JOANNE LATIMER
Ang was speaking about his latest feature, The Ice Storm, after its premiere in Cannes. When the laughter died down, Sigourney Weaver, one of the film's stars, intoned: "Elvis finally caught up with the middle class in the mid '70s. It's a period in American history that an outsider, like Ang, can see more clearly than we can. The story is like one huge heart breake." "It's such an uncomfortable film to watch. It makes you edgy," added Ang, with the confidence of a director who knew he'd made a solid film. "So, at first, I had the idea of using tacky, tacky '70s music--to go against human nature. Then I came to my senses, and kept the musical concept more minimal. It saves the movie." As does the galloping non-plot and the acting: The Ice Storm is a slice of the '70s that leaves your teeth grinding. All of the retro fashion and wonky jewelry on Weaver and Joan Allen can't immunize you from the film's uneasiness. Why all the tension? Disillusioned hippies became parents, bought houses, drifted from their ideals and the result is, well, an emotional ice storm. Listless and shocked at their own apathy, the film's two middle-aged couples and their wayward kids try to delegate honour, guilt and blame. "Ang gave us Lee-way in the acting--get it?" joked Kevin Kline, who plays Benjamin Hood, husband to Elena (Joan Allen). Kline was straining to sit up tall in his chair, matching Sigourney's height. She ignored him. Kline's character, Hood, is a repressed square-of-a-dad in the film, who indulges in a rewardless fling with Jane Carver (Weaver). The lack of heat in their affair sets the film's mood, which couldn't get more chilly for a film with a wife-swapping party and some teenage experimentation. The film is at its best when long-standing grudges (Allen's specialty) and new suspicions are aired, then preempted by a tragic ice storm that leaves everyone punished. So what's next for Ang Lee? "My next film is about the American civil war, then a samurai film. It's a tremendous burden to represent an entire culture, say Taiwanese, in every project. So I'd don't try. I'm not a Spike Lee character." Opens this Friday, Oct. 31, see listings for showtime
|
"Doing American and English texture on screen isn't a problem for me," said Ang Lee, pausing for effect and smiling down into his folded hands. "I'm happy people pay me. I've been hooked on period pieces since Sense and Sensibility. This time, it's the '70s in America."