Cast: Masatoshi Nagase, Lili Taylor, Fisher Stevens, Gisli Halldorsson
Director: Fridrik Thor Fridriksson
Producer: Jim Stark
Screenplay: Jim Stark and Fridrik Thor Fridriksson
Cinematography: Ari Kristinsson
Music: Hilmar Orn Hilmarsson
U.S. Distributor: Artistic License Films
In English, Japanese, and Icelandic with subtitles
Despite possessing a title that sounds like it belongs to a thriller, Cold Fever has the unique distinction of being the first Icelandic road picture. In many ways, this is a comic travelogue -- there's not much of a plot and only one character is on screen for more than about ten minutes. The film comes from Fridrik Thor Fridriksson, Iceland's premier director and the craftsman behind such affecting movies as Children of Nature and Movie Days. With this, his first (mostly) English- language release, Fridriksson is poised to make a name for himself outside his native country.
One thing that becomes apparent while watching Cold Fever is the universality of comedy. There's no cultural barrier to humor, at least not of the low-key variety that Fridriksson applies here. Cold Fever introduces us to the "strange country" of Iceland, taking us to the city of Reykjavik as well as several isolated, outlying settlements. In total, the country's population is around 280,000, meaning that there are more sheep than humans. Cold Fever was the first movie shot during an Icelandic winter, because, according to Fridriksson, "it's a stupid thing to do. You have only four or five hours of daylight each day and you lose a lot of days to weather... It makes continuity very difficult."
Cold Fever introduces us to Hirata (Masatoshi Nagase, from Jim Jarmusch's Mystery Train), a successful Japanese businessman who's on his way to Hawaii for a two-week warm weather vacation of nonstop golf. Hirata's plans change, however, when his grandfather reminds him that he should go to Iceland, where his parents died seven years ago, and perform a ceremony at the site of their deaths. According to Japanese custom, in order to find peace, the sprits of the drowned must be comforted and fed by the surviving family members. So, after a brief inner struggle, Hirata heads for Iceland and a bizarre trek from Reykjavik to the remote river where his parents met their end. Along the way, he meets a host of very strange people.
Hirata's first Iceland encounter is with a young woman who sells him an old, frozen car with a broken door handle and a radio that plays only one station. Next, he gives a ride to a "funeral collector" -- someone who collects cassette tapes and photographs of funerals. Then there's a gravedigger who relates a tale about a woman who had the year of her death engraved on a tombstone before she died, a wailing banshee who repairs Hirata's car when it breaks down, a pair of American hitchhikers (Lili Taylor and Fisher Stevens), and a gregarious old man (Gisli Halldorsson) who teaches Hirata how to drink Iceland's most potent alcoholic beverage.
Despite the quirky characters and humorous situations (the two Americans are especially funny), the cinematography is Cold Fever's real star. Producer Jim Stark called Iceland "a billion dollars of free production design," and he's not exaggerating. This is a beautiful film, with stunning widescreen shots of amber sunlight reflecting off ice-and-snowscapes, swirling snowstorms, ice-clogged rivers, steaming hot springs, and black, volcanic rock formations poking up through an otherwise-unbroken expanse of white. Fridriksson also employs a clever device to further highlight the Iceland sequences. The opening scenes, filmed in Japan, were photographed with the television aspect ratio of 1.33:1. Once the camera reaches Iceland, however, the screen opens up to 2.35:1.
Cold Fever reminds us that the most rewarding experiences in life are often unplanned and have little to do with leisure. The harder you work and struggle, the more valuable, satisfying, and pleasing the results are. As Hirata puts it in the film's closing moments, "Sometimes a journey can take you to a place that's not on any map." And, although Iceland is certainly on maps, Cold Fever offers just this kind of worthwhile, offbeat excursion.
© 1996 James Berardinelli