Lögberg-Heimskringla - 04.10.1991, Page 5

Lögberg-Heimskringla • Föstudagur 4. október1991 • 5
Here are excerpts from reviews
of this spectacular Icelandic movie:
‘Raven':
a powerful saga
by Jay Carr
Boston Globe Staff
“Shadow of the Raven” is an Ice-
landic blockbuster that, to its credit,
has enough pictorial strength to
anchor itself in its bloody llth cen-
tury world and carry it past any
slide into parody - an almost ever-
present danger. At its best, it recalls
the span and sweep of Kurosawa’s
most inspired borrowings from
Eisenstein and John Ford. Even
when this Viking Western isn’t at
its best, it’s never less involving than
“Hagar the Horrible,” for whom one
of the characters, a fat thug of a
bishop, is a dead ringer. Surpris-
ingly, the film laced with characters
bearing names like Grim and Sigrid
the Shrew actually begins with a
raven doing an important job —
guiding fogbound mariners to shore.
It also offers a history lesson, re-
minding us that harsh as Iceland’s
medieval world was, women could
inherit and rule over land.
Here, the families of good and
bad matriarchs square off. Trausti,
suspected of going soft since he re-
turned from Norway like Hamlet
from Wittenberg, eventually faces
the tricky son of Sigrid the Shrew
and the murderous bishop, but not
before the body count soars might-
ily. The bloodshed begins when
Trausti’s family and a neighboring
clan start warring over a dead whale.
Trausti, more influenced by his
Christian mother than by his pagan
father, at first shuns fighting, but
the rest of Iceland isn’t ready for
turn-the-other-cheek Christianityas
Shadow ot the
mmm
Tinna Gunnlaugsdóttir and
Wríttcn and directed by Hrafn
Runs October
Reinr Biynolfeson,
>n.
Cinema 3 in Winnipeg.
QWpof tlie ■R
aven
A Nordic Tale of love, passion and treachery...
he is. After he patches things up
with the whale-carcas rustlers, unit-
ing their houses by marrying the
initially furious daughter of the pa-
triarch his lieutenant killed, he
litterally finds his whole world go-
ing up in flames as the greedy bish-
op’s family initiates a land grab of
its own, torching the hall.
Eventually, Trausti sees the
violent light, slipping back into
the old pagan ways, becoming a
vengence-driven Viking Rambo
despite the fact that he imported
an Italian artist named Leonardo
to paint a portrait of his mother on
an altarpiece. But if the action is
right out of a samurai Western, the
mostly barren, scooped-out land-
scapes emerge as uniquely Icelan-
dic - when they don’t seem down-
Education Reform ’91
Help shape the future
of education in Manitoba
The Panel on Education Legislation Reform
will hold
Public Hearings
Winnipeg - Hearing 2
Promenade Ball Room,
Norwood Hotel, 112 Marion St.
Monday, November4,1991
Winnipeg - Hearing 3
Birchwood Inn,
2520 Portage Ave.
Wednesday, November 20,1991
starting at 9:00 a.m.
You are invited to express your views on changes to education
legislation in Manitoba. If you would like a copy of the issues
paper or if you wish to make a presentation, please contact:
Alex Krawec
Panel on Education Legislation Reform
221-1200 Portage Avenue
Winnipeg, Manitoba
R3G 0T5
Telephone 945-6172
or call toll free 1-800-282-8069
Manitoba
Education
and Training

Minnist
í ERFÐASKRÁM YÐAR
and Odin still ruled the heavens.
Not since The Navigatorhave we
been given a glimpse into such a
desperate period.
And what faces! Director Hrafn
Gunnlaugsen has faces marked by
the pox, scarred by fire, brutal and
brutalized by the savage and ruth-
less era through which their owners
lived.
There is a viciousness in the peo-
ple and the times. Compassion is a
weakness and cruelty is a virtue in
this classically tragic tale of Trausti
and Isolde, whose love is as doomed
as their lives.
right otherworldly. It’s this tension
between the down-and-dirty fight-
ing and the arresting starkness of
the arena that gives “Shadow of the
Raven” its power. Icelandic direc-
tor Hrafn Gunnlaugsson was after
some of the psychovisual authority
Kurosawa borrowed from Mount
Fuji and Ford took from Monument
Valley, and in this rockslide of a
saga he gets it.
‘Shadow of
the Ravenr a
compelling film
by Marc Horton
The Edmonton Journal Staff Wrlter
Shadow of the Raven is layered
with Nordic myth, dark ages Chris-
tianity, betrayal and deception, pas-
sion, tenderness and fire.
Its power is evident from the
opening scene which draws you into
a time of Icelandic sagas, when the
roots of Christianity were shallow
The ‘Trístanr
Legend According
to lceland
by Judy Stone
San Franclsco Chronlcle Staff Critlc
Forget Wagner’s “Tristan and
Isolde.” A marvelously swash-buck-
ling Icelandic version of that great
lovers’ legend is packed with larger-
than-life passions, fire, ice, blood
and guts, “In the Shadow of the
Raven” was a surprise hit at the
1990 San Francisco International
Film Festival.
In Sweden, they pay their ulti-
mate compliment to the director by
calling him “the Icelandic
Bergman,” but Hrafn Gunn-
laugsson, who wrote and directed
this mighty medieval adventure, was
also inspired by Sergio Leone, John
Ford, Akira Kurosawa and Andrei
Tarkowsky. Judgingfrom the result,
he owes them no apologies.
Not only is the unfamiliar Ice-
landic landscape spellbinding, so
is Isolde, the unwed mother every-
one calls a witch. Played by Tinna
Gunnlaugsdóttir, she is a blond
spitfire, vowing to avenge her
father’s murder while coolly taunt-
ing and tantalizing two men who
are unable to understand what’s
really in her heart. She has been
pledged to marry Hjörleifur, the
son of the vixenish Sigrid the
Shrew and a grotesquely murder-
ous bishop, but she is intrigued
by the peaceful Trausti (the
Tristan) even though she initially
holds him responsible for her
father’s death.
“EVERY FRAME IS A FEASTFOR THE EYES” - SEATTLE P.I.
“THE SPAN AND SWEEP OF KUROSAWA” - BOSTON GLOBE
Skad ow
11 of tllí
iL\aveii
JL^aven
A Nordic Tale of love, passion and treachery...
2 Shows Nighdy 7:30 & 9:30 p.m.
Friday, October 4th
to Thursday, October 11
585 Ellice Avenue, Winnipeg
Shcrbrook at Ellice, ph. 783-1097