Twilight of the Ice Nymphs (1997)

 

Director: Guy Maddin

Screenplay: George Toles

Inspired by the novel Pan by Knut Hamsun

Cast: Nigel Whitmey as Peter Glahn; Pascale Bussières as Juliana Kossel; Shelley Duvall as Amelia Glahn; Frank Gorshin as Cain Ball; Alice Krige as Zephyr Eccles; R.H. Thomson as Dr. Issac Solti

An Abstract Candidate

 

Returning to Twilight of the Ice Nymphs, I see where this would have been a dead end for Canadian filmmaker Guy Maddin as much as I am going to say it is incredibly underrated. I am not surprised of how this came to be a frustrating production for Maddin, who was recording for the documentary Guy Maddin: Waiting for Twilight (1997) from this film's set looking miserable. It is the closest thing to his mainstream film, the moment in any filmmaker with an auteurist's career where, like a non-American and non-English language director making their first Hollywood, their film can either lead to them going into the Hollywood filmmaker or led to their most contentious work. This has recognisable names like Shelley Duvall and Frank Gorshin, and was shot in 35mm film, where Maddin's usually visual aesthetic was toned down. This is still a film, as we will get into, where the idea of this being his tame film is absurd, as one piece of dialogue talks of Gorshin, who famously played the Riddler in the nineteen sixties Batman television series, having had his penis torn off on a chair nail in his past. Where the film's frustrations for Maddin clearly are, and why for one film this is a fascinating gem for him, is entirely how Twilight of the Ice Nymphs tells its story, setting up iots elegant yet eerie mood with the title card among red dirt and bodies of broken statues in the ground.

This is definitely more a drama for him, where former political prisoner Peter Glahn (Nigel Whitmey) returns back to his home of Mandragora and his sister Amelia Glahn (Shelley Duvall), who is running an ostrich farm in a contentious relationship with Cain Ball (Gorshin), an older handyman promised the deeds to the farm and kicking a stink when this comes under threat. This is also another film where Maddin tackles his obsession with heterosexual desire and the folly of the male libido, caught between two women. One is Zephyr Eccles (Alice Krige), a woman baring child who devotes herself to the woodland; the other he is obsessed with Juliana Kossel (Pascale Bussières), a woman he meets on his boat trip home, the likely mistress of Dr. Issac Solti (R.H. Thomson), a figure left disabled on a walking cane as a result of a statue of the goddess Venus he has managed to uncover in the land, one which may possess actual connection to the goddess when Zephyr gives herself to Venus for Peter. The immediately thing to bear in mind is how more dialogue heavy this is, and whilst it is definitely a Maddin film in his quirks and dark sense of humour, the huge elephant in the room is that, whilst aesthetically gorgeous, this is Maddin's most restrained film aesthetically, with long dialogue scenes and none of his editing techniques to tell story, which is a drastic change of pace for him.

Onscreen, this slowly builds to the kind of whims and perversity of Guy Maddin's other work in its dialogue, still transgressive when Zephyr has a monologue of the erotic fears of seeing girl help a bull insert itself in a cow. This leads to morbid tales of two sisters, their skulls still refusing to face each other after death, whose hatred become so bad one drove a nail into the other's skull, to be reflected back again when it is used as inspiration for a spat resolver. That this has known actors neither undercuts this, merely the psychosexual content and anxieties are thankfully given to an actor like Shelley Duvall, someone who has always been underappreciated and here fits the mood. The film is one, like other Maddin work, with their complicated anxieties, where the male lead is frankly irredeemable, with a clear psychotic side, and where everyone adds to the film alongside Maddin's compelling dialogue. The plot itself - with Alice Krige as a woman who escaped her marriage with assistance of a poisonous snake filled "Bad Night Bog", a love rivalry between her Zephyr and Juliana over Peter, and Peter and his own sister's growing dark sides - fully conforms to Maddin's other work in how things get weird, escalate and (as usually happens) someone gets gravely injured.

The film also looks beautiful. After its initial mood, feeling its low budget artificiality, the film starts to take this to its advantage with an almost plastic-like dreamy tone, pagan at times with its many woodland and beach scenes. The colour aesthetic eventually becomes the hugest influencer on this film for the better, such as when the scenes take place in Dr. Issac Solti's home, here emphasising that for a director know for his silent film aesthetics, including many black and white productions, Maddin here and with films like Careful (1992) when he uses colour is exceptional alongside his collaborators in using it. You can even make the true compliment with Twilight of the Ice Nymphs that he is almost touching Raul Ruiz's best examples of extreme colour lighting in his own most delirious films.

Any film where Frank Gorshin, drunk, burps at an actual ostrich cannot be ditched into obscurity. The problem is clearly that, even if he did not have the stress of working on this film to sully it, Maddin if he had succeeded with this film could have suffocated his career. It is clear where the film feels a dead end even if one I find a great deal to admire. Here for a one-off, Twilight of the Ice Nymphs is an underrated film from his career, and it is fascinating to see his hands tied for his aesthetic tricks, showing his dialogue and storytelling skills. But it suits a one-off only - never was there a man, whilst his dialogue is proven to be quirky and memorable, who if he had his style restricted would have lost half of his talents onscreen. Whilst a virtuous film in content, Twilight of the Ice Nymphs also does emphasis his talents in his other films tenfold.

 

Abstract Spectrum: Dreamlike/Whimsical

Abstract Rating (High/Medium/Low/None): None