Revenge
and violence, are only the facade of "Kalt wie Eis", literally cold as
ice" translated in English with "Strike Back" and with a bad title in
Italian. Because behind all this there is the loneliness. Not only the
one of Dave, the protagonist, not only the one of his generation, but
also the one of 80’s Berlin, the city where the story is set. It
closes the circle, a name that is the symbol on cinema’s
loneliness: Kowalski.
Carl Shenkel in his second feature film and before receiving important
awards in his short career takes us into a violent drama under the
shadow of the Wall, in which he take care of every detail. A great
photography, a good direction to serve a dark and perfect description
of the Berlin of the era.
In addition, there is the music a landmark of the Berliner culture that adds a narrative line on the tunes of punk and new wave.
An excellent package that hit too much the story. In this
Schenkel’s movie who also writes the screenplay nothing happens
for most of the time to accelerate suddenly in the last half hour.
Late, too late, and so we remains to watch this story that slumbers in a nice box.
Dave, imprisoned in a juvenile detention center, evades staging a
suicide. Hidden thanks to some friends and in darkness of the city, he
seeks revenge against those who betrayed him transformed from a right
arm to the guilty.
Helped by some friends (one of them manages a club) and by his
girlfriend Dave fight the Kowalski’s gang, a tough group of
criminals.
With the aforementioned excellent soundtrack, we see his adventures and
several very strong scenes, between violence and sex that some persons
for the second case think it was not just fiction.
Dark movie, slow, flaws aside remains a good cinema exercise and an equally good historical testimony.
The star is Dave Balko, active musician at the time in the Berlin punk
scene with the band Tempo. With some famous German actors like Otto
Sander, Dan Van Husen and Hans Zischler.
nation
of information of the time we realize how "Mondo Cane" was surprising
and innovative, and why it has so much influence on the world of cinema.
