ICE HOUSE
US, 1989, 81 minutes, Colour.
Melissa Gilbert, Bo Brinkman.
Directed by Bo Brinkman, Eagle Pennell.
Ice House was written by Bo Brinkman, based on his play Ice House and Heatwaves. Brinkman also co-stars as Pake.
The film is a small-budget three-hander, mainly set in a dreary Los Angeles apartment. The focus is on Kaye, a young girl who came to Los Angeles with Pake in the hope that he would be a country and western star - and the dream did not come true. She is about to marry a Greek-American? who professes to love her but is using her to become an American citizen. The film is strongly verbal, even when flashbacks are presented they have Pake's voice-over commentary.
The film is well acted in its way - with performances probably more geared to stage. The film presents Melissa Gilbert in a role that is a long way from Little House on the Prairie.
The film is directed by Eagle Pennell, the director of the cult film, The Last Night at the Alamo. Particularly American, of specialist interest only.
1. Local Los Angeles- Texas drama? A three-hander? Based on a play? The use of the play's dialogue and interactions, melodrama? Opened out with flashbacks? The California roads?
2. Small budget, photography in the apartment, in the desert, in Texas? Musical score and songs? Editing and pace for the dramatic and verbal interactions?
3. The title, the factory back in Texas, memories of the past? Better or worse than the present?
4. The focus on Pake (and playwright-actor Bo Brinkman's interpretation of him)? Driving, returning to Los Angeles, the baseball bat and his brutality with the Greek? The confrontation with Kaye? His pleading for her to leave? The past relationship, friends, sexual? The verbal abuse, her resistance? His tantrums? The Greeks' arrival and their overpowering him, tying him up? His telling the story about Kaye's father, ineffectual, suicide? Kaye's mother, the whore, the interactions with Pake when he was young? The father finding out and the impact? His protecting Kaye, loving her? The ambitions to be a star, not knowing about rock and roll and Los Angeles? Depression, violence, the police? Persuading Kaye to untie him? Kaye and the gun and threatening to kill him and his fear? His getting the gun, threatening the Greek? Their intercourse while he was tied up and their flaunting it? His sadness? Trying to persuade Kaye about the Greek? In the car going back to Texas, the purging of the angers between them? A possible future or not?
5. The opening, the two children, the factories, the Icehouse? The lyrical tone? The ironies of the reality? Pake and Kaye's memories, growing up together? Pake in the household, with the father and brought home? The mother driving him away, the seduction and the affair? The death of the father? His protection of Kaye?
6. Kaye, leaning on the balcony, a whore in Los Angeles? The confrontation by Pake and audience sympathy? Her abuse, fear? Her story, her disillusionment with Pake, not loving him, marrying the Greek? Threatening him with the gun and pulling the trigger with no bullets? Vindictive? Her memories? Her relationship to her mother and father? Tying Pake up, provoking the Greek, the intercourse? Untying Pake, the gun? Doubts about the Greek, loving him, wanting to marry him? The truth about citizenship? The reaction to the story about her parents? The decision to go back with him?
7. The Greek, in love with Kaye, using her? Being bashed by Pake? Tying Pake up? His obtuseness, the sex, listening to the story? Wanting to get away? Unmasked? The two leaving him?
8. The sketch of the mother and father, their relationship, betrayals, weakness and strength, the mother abusing the father on the lawn outside the house? The influence on Kaye and Pake? The background of life in Texas, the factories, work, the bars?
9. Verbal interaction and abuse? Purging of angers? Hope for a future?
