Audience Member
Interesting mix of political thriller and film noir.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/27/23
Full Review
dave j
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
(1961) Le Combat dans l'île/ Fire And Ice
(In French with English subtitles)
THRILLER
Co-written and directed by Alain Cavalier and Louis Malle credited as executive producer. Made in the same tone as the 1960 film called "Breathless" directed by Jean Luc Godard which centers on Anne's (Romy Schneider) involvement with a jealous husband Clément (Jean-Louis Trintignant) who does not quite know what he does. On one of those days when the cleaning lady was there uncovers something hidden and wrapped in the apartment's closet. After Anne waits for her husband to come home after unwrapping it, it soon turns out that it happens to be a bazooka who he was going to return it. And after one of Clement's jealous rages in a jazzy nightclub just because she wanted to dance with some old friends, she then leaves him. So instead of returning the bazooka, he then decides to use it and as he happens to be one of few underground French resistance fighters who's against the act of "communism". After a botched job, he then hides out by seeking for a friend's old resort which happens to be an inn that is somewhat isolated. Ann obviously does not like what he is doing and makes him chose. And she builds a rapport with his best friend and law abiding Paul which is why the English title is called "Fire And Ice".
Made during the Vietnam war which part of the reason for the invasion was because the American gov't didn't want to see Vietnam to become a Communist state, this film makes a radical idea into a involving one much more so than Godard's "Breathless" since the only thing we see the characters do most of the time are frolicking with one another which this film doesn't do a lot of.
3 out of 4 stars
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
03/30/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Cavalier, Malle, Rappeneau, Lhomme :)
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
01/24/23
Full Review
walter m
In "Le Combat Dans L'Ile," Anne(Romy Schneider) discovers a package in her closet which contains a bazooka. Afraid of ending up in an episode of "24," she confronts her husband Clement(Jean-Louis Trintignant) who admits to being part of a right wing terrorist cell with his new friend Serge(Pierre Asso). As part of his political awakening, he plans to give up his life of privilege and place at his father's(Jacques Berlioz) company. Plus, there is also the matter of the assassination of Terrasse(Maurice Garrel), a local politician.
"Le Combat Dans L'Ile" is an intriguing misstep that starts well but instead of investigating this shadow world further, backs off and becomes just another banal domestic drama. For such an understated drama, the bazooka might seem a bit like overkill but it is probably left over from World War II, like the fascism of Clement and his friends. On a broader note, the movie is about escaping the past and growing up, as Clement in trying to get away from the influence of his dominating father, gets himself in a worse mess than he could have imagined. As one character asks another after a particularly off-the-wall request, "Are you 12?"
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Pretty black and white suspense film. Good, not great. I think it would have been improved by eliminating the narration.
A line in the movie did prompt an interesting idea for a story.
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
01/12/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Telling me that there was a recently rediscovered lost early 1960s film with Romy Schneider may be the easiest way to get me out of the house on a cold December day. Alain Cavalier's film, Le Combat dans i'ile (horribly retitled for US audiences as Fire and Ice) is a clever, frantic political love story that is making it's way around art houses this year and is worth a watch if only for it's leads played by Schneider, Jean Louis Trinignant (Z, The Conformist) and Henri Serre (Jules and Jim). Cavalier's direction (this, his first film) is that style of the earliest of new wave films, sacrificing continuity at points for emotion and in this case, action. Trintignant's Clement is a brooding, jealous and violent man who carries out the assassination of the a left wing politician. His wife, Anne (Romy Schneider) is an ex-actress who is abused by Clement can only watch the progression of the events in fear or love of her husband. Cnce Clement must go into hiding, Anne become liberated from her marriage in the arms of a publisher friend of Clement's played by Henri Sarre. This betrayal sets up the last third of the film which is as exciting as any scenes of that era. Le Combat dans l'ile is not essential viewing but a sharp piece of film I'm glad is seeing the light of day.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
02/13/23
Full Review
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