Smilla's Sense of Snow (1997 film)
Smilla's Sense of Snow (1997 film), AKA Smilla's Feeling for Snow (1997)
Summary
"Snow covers everything... except the truth." Introverted scientist Smilla Jaspersen finds herself entangled in a sinister conspiracy after her intuitive "sense of snow" reveals that her young neighbor's fall from a rooftop was no accident; her investigation leads her to an excavation of a strange meteorite on an isolated polar island.
Details
- Release Date: 1997
- Country/Language: Denmark/Germany/Sweden, English and Inuktitut
- Genres/Technical: Thriller, Suspense, Mystery, Science Fiction
- Runtime: 2 hr 1 min
- Starring: Julia Ormond, Ona Fletcher, Agga Olsen
- Director: Bille August
- Writer: Peter Høeg (novel), Ann Biderman (screenplay)
- Producer/Production Co: Bavaria Film, Constantin Film Produktion, Det Danske Filminstitut
- View Trailer: (link)
Ratings
MPAA Ratings
- Rated: R (mild Violence, Profanity, and Sexual Content)
Tentacle Ratings
A rough measure of how "Lovecraftian" the work is:
- S____ (One Tentacle: Debateably Lovecraftian; has almost no direct connection to Lovecraft's work)
Some reviewers have compared this film to Call of Cthulhu (fiction) and have described it as "Lovecraftian", but in reality the only similarity it bears to Lovecraft's famous story is an investigator piecing together the clues to a mystery from various documents (something that wouldn't be remarkable in any non-Lovecraftian mystery); "The Colour Out of Space (fiction)" (with it corrupting meteorite) might arguably be a closer fit, but even that comparison would require some stretching. A greater share of the film's ancestry might be found in the work of Michael Crichton and Alfred Hitchcock, and of X Files (1993 series) in tone, content and general theme, with any "Lovecraftian" comparison perhaps hinging on the clues revealed by research, the reclusive and eccentric investigators, the worm-infested meteorite, and the icy setting (which I suppose might suggest At the Mountains of Madness (fiction) to some viewers).
Note: This rating is not intended as a measure of quality, merely of how closely related to Lovecraftian "Weird" fiction the work is.
Reviews
Review Links:
- Y.Whateley: "I don't think this was a bad film, but my reaction seems to have been the opposite of that of most of the reviewers I've seen: the film did not feel very "Lovecraftian" to me, I found the main characters rather likable, I found the snow imagery to be mildly beautiful but not remarkable, I didn't find any of the film boring, and the plot and ending didn't seem any more implausible to me than the plot of the average Hitchcock film, with any sci-fi elements appearing off-screen for the most part except for the occasional x-ray; stripped of the x-rays, the film is basically a standard Hitchcock 'find the macguffin' plot: the characters could as easily be looking for a suitcase of radium or a leaky test-tube containing a biological weapon; simply exchange the mining company's goons for Ruritanian spies...."
Synopsis
Spoiler Section (Highlight to Read)
Police say otherwise, but scientist Smilla Jaspersen thinks her young neighbor was chased by an adult before he fell to his death. An Inuit who spent her childhood in Greenland, Smilla learns that the boy's father died while working for Dr. Andreas Tork in Greenland. After sharing her murder theory with an increasingly mysterious friend called The Mechanic, she heads back to Greenland in the hope of finding a link between the deaths.
Notes
Comments, Trivia, Dedication
Associated Mythos Elements
- fiction: Peter Høeg's novel Smilla's Feeling of Snow
- tome: various documents, tape recordings, videos, etc. which are like "puzzle pieces" that, when assembled, solve the mystery
- race: Dracunculus Borealis, "Arctic Guinea Worm Parasites"
- artefact: perpetually warm meteorite (the film's "MacGuffin")
