The Upcoming
  • Cinema & Tv
    • Movie reviews
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Show reviews
  • Music
    • Live music
  • Food & Drinks
    • News & Features
    • Restaurant & bar reviews
    • Interviews & Recipes
  • Theatre
  • Art
  • Travel & Lifestyle
  • Literature
  • Fashion & Beauty
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Competitions
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

CultureMovie reviews

The Ice and the Sky

The Ice and the Sky | Movie review
6 January 2016
Sean Gallen
Avatar
Sean Gallen
6 January 2016

Movie and show review

Sean Gallen

The Ice and the Sky

★★★★★

Release date

11th December 2015

Links

TwitterFacebookWebsite

Luc Jaquet returns to the Antarctic after his stunning documentary March of the Penguins collected an Oscar. This time his focus is on celebrated glaciologist Claude Lorius, who was one of the first Antarctic scientific explorers to suggest  the rise of CO2 emissions in the 20th century was having a disastrous impact on the polar ice caps.

Jacquet could have easily traced the life of Lorius through talking-head interviews and produced a static, academic portrait of a great scientist. Instead, we cut from archive footage of Lorius as a young, courageous scientist at the helm of a ship, as it ploughs through sheets of ice, to the present, where we see Lorius, now 82, dwarfed by the Antarctic landscape, silently retracing the past as he revisits his old research bases. We follow his career as he describes the tireless work with the American and the Russian teams, overcoming the myriad obstacles that the unyielding tundra presents and the shocking discoveries found buried deep in the ice. The bulk of the film depicts this seminal career using Lorius’ archive footage, which at times is digressive and slow. Thankfully, the biopic section is bookended by Jacquet’s swooping panoramic tracking shots and a sumptuous orchestral score, the combination of which elevates the Antarctic terrain to full poetic glory.

The Ice and the Sky is a stirring, humanist portrait of a scientist dedicated to understanding and protecting the uncharted Antarctic.  However, Jacquet dwells on the life of Lorius and thus the conclusion rushes a moralist message about individual and political action against climate change, which makes it seem a little heavy-handed. Documentary filmmakers who focus on climate change often struggle with how to address the audience: they are too timid to get on the soapbox and moralise, but that is the only option when faced with a challenge so great. Jacquet’s film ends with Lorius, alone in a white expanse, reaching out of the screen and grabbing the audience with his words: “All we have to do now is act. Now that you know too, what are you going to do about it?”

★★★★★

Sean Gallen

The Ice and the Sky is released in selected cinemas on 11th December 2015.  

Watch the trailer for The Ice and the Sky here:

Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party.

YouTube privacy policy

If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh.

Related Itemsreview

More in Movie reviews

Nope

★★★★★
Selina Sondermann
Read More

Eiffel

★★★★★
Diletta Lobuono
Read More

Fadia’s Tree

★★★★★
Marissa Khaos
Read More

Prey

★★★★★
Selina Sondermann
Read More

What Josiah Saw

★★★★★
Andrew Murray
Read More

Luck

★★★★★
Guy Lambert
Read More

Maisie

★★★★★
Andrew Murray
Read More

Bullet Train

★★★★★
Matthew McMillan
Read More

Thirteen Lives

★★★★★
Andrew Murray
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Movie and show review

Sean Gallen

The Ice and the Sky

★★★★★

Release date

11th December 2015

Links

TwitterFacebookWebsite

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Nope
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Ed Fringe 2022: Hungry
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Kasabian – The Alchemist’s Euphoria
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Eiffel
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Tips for creating a peaceful home
    Feature of the week
  • Kasabian – The Alchemist’s Euphoria
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Rita at Charing Cross Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Ed Fringe 2022: Hungry
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • “Even people who’ve been through adversity might say ‘Well, I wouldn’t change anything because I wouldn’t be who I am'”: Eva Noblezada and Flula Borg on Luck
    Cinema & Tv
  • “Film offers a way of looking at the past, the present and the future simultaneously. That’s its wonder”: Sarah Beddington on Fadia’s Tree
    Cinema & Tv
  • Kasabian – The Alchemist’s Euphoria
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Rita at Charing Cross Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • “Even people who’ve been through adversity might say ‘Well, I wouldn’t change anything because I wouldn’t be who I am'”: Eva Noblezada and Flula Borg on Luck
    Cinema & Tv
  • Nope
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Five Days at Memorial
    ★★★★★
    apple
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why
With the support from:
International driving license

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

Partisan | Movie review
Paranoid Girls | Movie review