Etienne’s grandmother gives him a video camera for his seventeenth birthday. Right away he takes to it, trying the whistles and bells, zooming in on his mother’s face, urging her not to pose. Etienne’s story is all about distances, intimacy, alliances. At the beginning, the subjects of his video-biography (his mother, grandmother, best friend, teacher) are flattered, self-conscious. Gradually they become annoyed, then barely tolerant, and finally, subdued.
From the moment he starts shooting, he gets bolder and bolder, asking personal questions, spying, catching his mother in her skivvies. Some of this we can chalk up to adolescent mischief, curiosity, lack of respect for privacy. What therapists call boundary issues. But by the final chapter, he is capturing incidents far better left off-camera. Which is, of course, what makes for good cinema.
My Life on Ice (originally titled Ma vraie vie à Rouen or The True Story of My Life in Rouen) is the directing project of Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau and a very risky concept: to create a video journal that feels and looks as if there were actually a 17-year-old boy at the helm. The trick is to evoke randomness that is not random, armed with the knowledge that the most casual camera-wielding tourist will pick and choose what to photograph, consciously or not.
This was for Ducastel and Martineau a formidable accomplishment. Our understanding of Etienne is deepened by what he “mindlessly” chooses to document. My Life on Ice has the feel of home movies. The exchanges seem spontaneous, the action meandering, sometimes we come in on the middle of a conversation, yet the narrative, Etienne’s despair and urgency, come through.
Much of what we see is what you’d expect. Etienne tapes his ice-skating practice and tournaments, nightclubs, classes, parties, visits to his father’s grave, dangerous and evanescent cliffs that parallel his precarious manhood and sexuality. But it all adds something, the framing (say, the space left when Ludo (Lucas Bonnifait) abandons Etienne) the colors, the backdrops, look like the work of an amateur but enrich the tapestry.
Even when Etienne picks subjects that are grossly inappropriate, it fits his character, demonstrates his intense need to be included, to connect. The camera, neutral and persistent, enables him to grapple with hidden emotions because he is merely the transcriber. It transforms moral ambiguity into voyeurism. He can pretend it is someone else’s life he is witnessing.
Article comments
1 - -E
Sounds like a truly interesting project to watch. Thanks for sharing your review.
2 - Christopher Soden
Glad you liked it, E. It's good to hear from you. Yeah check it out. It's genuinely subtle and masterful.
3 - James
If the measure of a film is its ability to fool the viewer, then this film succeeded admirably. I knew nothing about the film before seeing it except that it was the story of a young man who had been given a video camera.
Until the end credits, I was completely absorbed by the characters and had no idea that the film was not a home movie. In several places I recall thinking how cleverly it was edited and how well done. In only a few moments did the façade crack a bit, like the fall Laurent takes and some of the “nude” shots. These were not strictly necessary in my opinion, but didn’t detract from the film either. Also, the excellent sound quality should have been a clue about the professional nature of the film; most home video has terrible sound, especially in wind.
However, the director and cast performed wonderfully and I honestly was surprised at the end credits when I realized it was not the home movie of a 17 year old. The characters are wonderful and the story is well told, timely and poignant. I was especially moved for Etienne when his best friend Ludo dismissed him with “I really don’t want to know.” How mindlessly cruel we can be to each other. Unfortunately, this scene is very true to life as I lost my childhood best friend in just this way. Twenty years later, he still won’t speak to me, simply because I didn’t date girls.
In my opinion, this film is a must see, especially for gay teens. It is now in my “top ten best GLBT themed films of all time” list.
4 - Christopher Soden
James I thoroughly enjoyed your remarks and observations.