The Ice Storm

Ben Hood (Kevin Kline) tries to partake in the new sexual freedoms by having an affair with his neighbor Janey Carver (Sigourney Weaver). But Ben is ill suited to adultery and reveals his conventionality even as he tries to rebel against it. After a quickie with Janey, Ben bores her with his woeful tales from the office and the golf course. And Janey has to remind him that she's already got one husband and isn't looking for another.

As with the adults, the children of New Canaan are also exploring new ground.Eager for human contact and uncertain about the fact that she's no longer a little girl, Wendy Hood (Christina Ricci) begins playing new games with the Carver boys (Elijah Wood and Adam Hann-Byrd). But her adolescent curiosity makes the adults and especially the boys' mother uncomfortable. Janey responds with what she deems is a hip, liberal reference to one's body being a temple and a Samoan ritual in which children are sent out into the wilds to deal with their adolescence. Lee finds gentle irony in the fact that the adults are as lost as the children. Both generations are struggling with new identities, a breakdown in the accepted social order, and an urge to rebel against convention. The strength of Lee's film, as with his earlier works, is his ability to have compassion for all his characters and to depict their frailties with tender humor. He endow his film with wit, charm and subtlety. He has such a light, elegant touch that you may be surprised by the depth of emotion in the final scenes.

Lee's characters always face an ever changing world, it's the only thing they can count on. In The Ice Storm , Lee gives us a vivid portrait of people hungry for human contact yet unable to express their emotions. At one point, Ben advises his daughter to refrain from emotional entanglements because "it's simply not worth the mess." But after the chilly extremes of the ice storm, even Ben begins to thaw out and Lee's elegant film ends on a hopeful note about the messy human condition.

Here's what Ang Lee had to say about his film.

BETH ACCOMANDO : Your films are very different in some ways but do you see a common thread running through all of them?
ANG LEE : So far they are family dramas but in my mind the theme is really about changing. So I always choose changing society to be the backdrop for family drama, to see how people adjust their relationships. In one way they want to cuddle together and they don't want to be left alone, on the other hand, they want personal freedom. So it's a constant battle.

BA : And all your films deal with differences between generations, and between characters that don't express their emotions well.
AL : People often ask me why dysfunctional families? And I say, who wants to see functional families on screen. You pay eight bucks you wanna see problems. I'm not saying that all families have problems but that's what were interested in, it's drama that were making, conflict, problems.

BA : For film, choosing people who are not communicative would seem very difficult because you have to do more work to convey what's going on.
AL : That's quite true. Were not doing stage work, we are not doing talking heads. To me the biggest difference between movies and stage is that in film it is more about observing peoples behavior in certain circumstances instead of characters on stage telling you how they feel. But on film, what you see is what it is. I think its more fun for filmmakers to observe characters with cameras and let the audience discover what's in there. Let the audience do the work. To me it's a more powerful way, more effective way and more interesting way to present your story.

BA : The production design was great at capturing the era.
AL : I told the art department to create a look that's an obstacle to humanity, so they have to fight through it, fight against it. So it was really a tacky look I was shooting for, something unnatural, something 70s. In the photography, I was shooting for the high art of that time -- photorealism. It has an intense observation, objective attitude, very defocused effect. And they used a lot of transparent and reflective materials such as glass or mirrors that give you that intense but very defocused look. I just felt it's very proper for the material. But at the end, nature takes over and shows its power. So photo-realism is the look I establish for the first half and the later half is more like impressionism.

BA : Tell me about the music Mychael Danna created for the film.
AL : It uses Native American wood flute, something that's ancient American. We wanted something to evoke a haunting voice of mother nature, something that lived there a long time ago. We hired a Native American flutist but he only does improvisation, he won't read sheet music. So I would describe the scene and he would do improvisations. And then I would take the phrases I liked most and then the composer would somehow put it together as the theme music. The Asian element you heard is the Indonesian gamelan, which is an instrument, the composer always wanted to use in the movie. I think the music saved the movie because for three months it didn't have a structure and I think the music really helped the structure of the movie and gave it guidance about how to watch the movie at a emotional level.

BA : How do you view the editing process? Is it a creative period when you can remake the film?
AL : Yes absolutely. When I go out to shoot I'm thinking of coverage instead of telling the story. I will shoot different angles and even different tones in the takes. So I know I will have enough material so I can work on the editing table. To me, the real cooking is on the editing tables and shooting is like buying groceries. The better material you get the better chance you have of making a good movie.

BA : Can I ask whose idea it was for Christina Ricci's character to put on the Nixon mask for her sexual encounter with Mikey?
AL : It was in script. It was such a disturbing scene at first that I felt like chickening out from it. But once they talk me into it, then there was no stop to it. I had this idea to put make up on the mask and make it more scary.

BA : What did the actual ice storm represent for you?
AL : It's a crystal world. Everything shatters and has weight. It's transparent and reflective. In some ways I felt I was doing a disaster movie, which is period and trendy for 1973, except the disaster hits home. So in many ways I start to build all the creaky, fragile, reflective, transparent materials such as ice cubes and mirrors and glasses, so from there it is building to the actual ice storm.

BA : You have described your other films as social satires, do you see this film as one also?
AL : Yeah. It's a total social satire. It doesn't look so much like satire because I have to deal with a child's death at the end, its tragedy. In the earlier cuts the movie is much funnier. But I really have to take it down because it really wouldn't work when it twists into tragedy at the end. I sort of walk a tightrope between Greek drama and satire.

BA : One of the scenes that moved me the most was when Ben picks up his daughter and carries her in the cold.
AL : It was the first scene we shot. We did an opening ceremony, that's my tradition, it's a Chinese way to put things on the altar and everybody holds incense and I lead them to pray for direction and for whoever is up there blessing us. So right after that, we shot the scene. I think it's a moving scene, its a confused father and daughter, and he holds her up. They are supposed to be rebellious to each other, to the society but what they really need is hugging each other.

BA : Do you have a favorite scene?
AL : Yes, quite a few. The two scenes you mention I like very much. Ben scooping up his daughter. Both father and daughter looking for answers but they don't have an answer, they don't have a clue, but they hold together on a snowy day. I still love the Nixon mask scene. I thought it was disturbing and hilarious on many levels. My two favorite shots are when Ben plays golf almost naked in a glass house when we can see through the house and through him and we can also see the reflection of the forest and the clouds. To me that's one of my favorite shots. The other shot is when Mikey walks on the frozen diving board. That pretty much sums up the essence of the movie-- it's slippery on the edge, it's bouncy, it's icy.