Focus on Belgian Film 2010 / L' iceberg / Belgium 2005
Fiona suddenly feels an irresistible attraction to all things icy and snowy. And so, in this burlesque, Buster Keaton and Jacques Tati inspired tale, she sets off for the frozen North in search of the iceberg – and perhaps a new love? – referred to in the title.
Fiona manages a fast food restaurant where, one evening, she accidentally locks herself in the cold store. After a long, cold night she comes to realise two things. One: her husband and two young children didn’t notice her disappearance, not even at breakfast. Two: she feels an irresistible attraction to everything chilly and cold, all things icy and snowy. She sneaks into a refrigerated lorry as part of a quest to reach the distant North and find the iceberg of the film’s title – and perhaps new love? This debut film clearly demonstrates the directing trio’s self-confessed marvel for the burlesque, particularly the slapstick or clowning antics of such masters as Buster Keaton and Jacques Tati. Here and there, the ‘supercooled’ humour, serene camera work and tragicomic poetry call to mind the restrained cinematic style of Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki.
84 min / Color, 35 mm
Director Fiona Gordon, Dominique Abel, Bruno Romy
/ Screenplay Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon, Bruno Romy
/ Dir. of Photography Sébastien Koeppel
/ Music Jacques Luley
/ Editor Sandrine Deegen
/ Producer Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon
/ Production Courage mon Amour Films
/ Cast Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon, Philippe Martz
/ Contact Wallonie Bruxelles Images, mk2 Films
Filmmaking duo Dominique Abel (b. 1957, Belgium) and Fiona Gordon (b. 1957, Canada) have managed, through their little theatre company poignantly named Courage Mon Amour, to build an international reputation for quirky/funny, circus-like stage productions, such as La danse des poules and Histoire sans gravité. They have also made a few short films, full of visual humour, such as Merci Cupidon, Rosita and Walking on the Wild Side. For their feature debut Iceberg the duo became a trio since, alongside Abel and Gordon, the film was also written, acted and directed by Bruno Romy (b. 1958, France). In 2008 their collaboration resulted in another colourful and burlesque film for cinema, Rumba. Dominique Abel: "We come from theatre, so we are used to appealing to the audience’s imagination. If we want a tree on stage we have to mimic the branches with our arms: this outlook we brought with us to the silver screen.”
Wallonie Bruxelles Images
18 Place Eugene Flagey, 1050, Brussels
Belgium
Phone: +32 2 223 23 04
Fax: +32 2 218 34 24
E-mail: [email protected]
mk2 Films
55, rue Traversière, 75012, Paris
France
Phone: +33 144 673 111
Fax: +33 143 072 963
E-mail: [email protected]
Eric Franssen
Film Institution Rep.
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