Shivajee Chandrabhushan’s sophomore feature Frozen is a strong candidate for the most beautifully photographed film ever made. Every frame could be printed and hung, every angle is perfect, shimmering monochrome and deep shadows creating a vivid, startling portrait of a strange and jarring world. DP Shanker Raman, who also wrote the screenplay, deserves not only to win the Oscar, but a newly created Nobel Prize for Cinematography, and perhaps an honorary knighthood to boot. That’s how utterly stunning this film looks.
Sadly, nothing else in the film quite works. The story is chronically slow and quite hard to follow, detailing the hardships faced by a small family of peasants living in the harsh Himalayan foothills. Things seem to happen with no lead-in and no consequence, as though the scenes have been switched around. The characters are interesting but underdeveloped, and the narrative- basically, rags to even worse rags- predictable and depressing. The ending is an effective surprise, and as a window into an alien world the film is undoubtedly fascinating. But the reason to see Frozen, the only real reason, is it’s staggering, flawless visuals.
by Tom Huddleston | Source: 35mm print
27 Nov 2007 11:22 AM | Submit Comment
