By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.375
Director: Baltasar Kormákur
Starring: Gunnar Eyjólfsson | Hélène de Fougerolles | Hilmir Snær Guðnason
Original language title: Hafið
Country: france, iceland, norway
Year: 2003
Running time: 109
IMDB: http://us.imdb.com/Details?0311519
Esmé says: “THE SEA is a sort of Icelandic King Lear. An aging patriarch calls his children back from the 4 corners of Europe to give them news of what, they aren’t yet sure. He owns an antiquated fish processing plant and has become wealthy. However, new technology is driving him out of business. He won’t hear of selling out to the multinationals, though, feeling a commitment to the community employed by him. His children all have different problems. His oldest son has been devoted to his father’s
business, but gets no respect for his work. His daughter was raped as a girl and the old man’s reaction is reported to have been ‘only idiots get raped by idiots.’ Needless to say, she is one pissed off woman. His youngest son was sent to France to study business, but became a musician instead, and brings his pregnant girlfriend home for the family gathering. There are many sub-plots, all revolving around the old man’s money and hardened view of the world. As you may imagine, when they all finally come
together, there is a hellish chemistry. I thought the cast was great, the cold climate of rural Iceland appropriately chilling, and each character’s story compelling and tragic.” 4 cats
Laura says: “Agust (Hilmir Snaer Gudnason, 101 REYKJAVIK) is in Paris writing songs instead of attending the business school his father is paying for and sister Ragnheidur (Gudrun S. Gisladottir, THE SACRIFICE) is shooting commercials in Poland while henpecked brother Haraldur (Sigurdur Skulason, NO SUCH THING) struggles to run the family fish processing business in their small Icelandic hometown. Father Thordur (Gunnar Eyjolfsson, 101 REYKJAVIK) calls his scattered family home to make a mysterious announcement in cowriter/director Baltasar Kormakur’s (101 REYKJAVIK) THE SEA.
“A wrecking ball crushes a fishing boat as Thordur rails against the senior citizens watching their way of life vanish. ‘Why live in Iceland if it’s not economically feasible?’ In Paris, Francoise (Helene De Fougerolles, VA SAVOIR) demands that Agust face his father and on the plane he describes Iceland as the type of place where his sister Maria (Nina Dogg Filippusdottir) was abused before she was confirmed at the age of twelve. Daddy’s pet, Maria bombs about the countryside in a Cadillac taunting local policeman Bobo (Theódór Júliusson, NO SUCH THING) and assisting grandmother Kata (Herdís Þorvaldsdóttir) buying cognac at the local liquor store. Haraldur struggles with his alcoholic wife Aslaug (Elva Osk Olafsdottir) who runs a clothing boutique with sexy merchandise mismatched with immigrant customers smelling of fish. The family’s skeletons peak out of the closet with Agust’s introductions of Francoise – Maria’s happy face turns to stone and family matriarch Kristin (Kristbjorg Kjeld, NO SUCH THING) is described as ‘my father’s second wife and my mother’s sister.’
“When Ragnheidur completes the reunion with her ineffectual husband Morten (Sven Nordin, ELLING) and catatonic teenager in tow, the family seem to spar with good nature, but Thordur learns that Agust will not take over the business from Haraldur and so makes his proclamation. The man who is accused of unsound mind and body stands firm and assesses his progeny with clear-eyed conviction. Left without an anchor, the brood lose all self-control and each descends into the secret past they’d all left to put behind them.
“Kormakur and cowriter Olafur Haukur Simonarson take the themes of the overrated Dogme film THE CELEBRATION, turn them inside out and infuse them with global economics, black humor and some of the quirks of the coastal LOCAL HERO. Dysfunction is not centralized in this film’s patriarch, who when describing Iceland as a place where ‘idiots rape idiots’ could be
talking about his own children. Kormakur and his cast build intriguing characters, but their downfall becomes muddled and the story deflates at its climax.
“Gudnason fails to make a strong impression as Agust, which works for the character of a weak underachiever. Helene De Fougerolles is vibrant as the family outsider who sanely asks ‘What’s wrong with you people? Is the truth the only thing you can not tell each other?’ Newcomer Filippusdottir’s Maria seems to be channeling WRITTEN ON THE WIND’S Dorothy Malone with Gisladottir and Olafsdottir completing a vampiric trio. Gunnar Eyjolfsson, with his full head and face of gray hair and double canes which hinder him little, embodies the old salt, frequently framed with panoramas of the raging sea as his background. The King Lear-like figure admits the sentiment he’s refused his children when he remarks to Francoise that ‘Bach was also a good businessman and he had eighteen children who all loved him.’ Kjeld’s appearance and matronly manner belie her complicity. Þorvaldsdóttir provides the comic relief as the cognac swilling, cigarette smoking senior who escapes from the madness behind her headphones when she’s not making sharp-eyed observations.
“Kormakur provides a desolate, modern family manse set against striking landscape as his focal location for drama, while excursions into town often provide humorous touches such as the ram that wanders through village businesses no matter how many times its returned to the mountains by Bobo.
“THE SEA is a storm of raging characters whose revelations are too obliquely tied to Karmakur’s economic musings.” 3 1/2 cats
Michael says: “I think Georgette picked the better film today by electing to see MAROONED IN IRAQ. THE SEA sounded so intriguing, and Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur had impressed me with his previous film, 101 REYKJAVIK, so I was disappointed with the over-the-top melodrama that we viewed this afternoon.
“THE SEA tackles a couple of major topics, the economy of Iceland’s fishing industry as it moves from small companies to huge conglomerates, and the secrets of a highly dysfunctional family. Why is it that so many films about dysfunctional families are so poorly executed? The underlying story of THE SEA was interesting enough, and there could have been a truly interesting film to come from it, but Kormákur takes such a dark and exaggerated view of it that I found myself unfortunately comparing it to the histrionics of THE ANNIVERSARY PARTY.
“The characters in THE SEA were so unlikable, and the acting to broad and shrill that slightly beyond the halfway point I started being embarrassed for the film. Like the Dogme classic, THE CELEBRATION, a family patriarch calls his children home for a dinner reunion where shocking news is shared, and dark family secrets are uncovered. The problem was, the secrets were none too surprising, and really, who cared? I was trying to make some connection between the family melodrama and the economic tale that would give the movie some depth. Could it be that just as clinging to the old ways doomed Þórður’s fishing business, so too did clinging to the ways of their parents doomed the lives of his three children?
“While overall I was greatly disappointed, there were some strong points to THE SEA. The setting was intriguing, as Iceland is a little seen character in film. Jean-Louis Vialard’s cinematography captured both the harsh, rugged wilderness of the Icelandic countryside and the claustrophobic, dead-end sense of the village itself. In addition, the humor was pretty effective. I think that’s why 101 REYKJAVIK was a better film. It concentrated on the humor and told a somewhat melodramatic story with tongue firmly in cheek. THE SEA tries to have it both ways, with humor and drama, and the drama falls flat on its face.” 2 1/2 cats
Peg says: “Writer/director Baltasar Kormákur’s debut, 101 REYKJAVIK, was a droll, cynical sex comedy shot in a cluttered urban
setting. His subsequent feature, a bitterly melodramatic, blackly humorous story of a stubborn patriarch and his scattered offspring, is set in a bleak coastal village amid imposing mountains and barren ice fields. Thórdur (Gunnar Eyjólfsson) calls his clan together (from Paris and Reykjavík) to discuss the future of his declining fishing business. Thórdur manipulates his children both as to money and as to emotion, and the resulting firestorm (the film’s opening scene is in fact a faceless act of arson) is a Bergmanesque conflagration of repressed trauma, rage, and resentment. Much like Thomas Vinterberg in THE CELEBRATION, Kormákur coldly spins the King Lear formula into an Icelandic saga, though he makes Vinterberg’s harrowing Dogme piece look like GUESS WHO’S COMING TO DINNER? Jean-Louis Vialard’s cinematography is jaw-dropping, with stark coloring and sly juxtapositions. The large cast of characters is unwieldy at times, but the performances are white-hot, particularly Hilmir Snaer Gudnason as Ágúst, the embittered favorite son who forgoes his business studies for a bohemian songwriter’s life, and Herdís Thorvaldsdóttir as Grandma Kata, who utters stony pronouncements like ‘People who won’t eat whale meat don’t deserve to live.’ In Icelandic and English, with English subtitles.