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.
