| | |  | DANCE PERFORMANCES | Home » » My Life on Ice | | | | | | | Description: | | After receiving a videocamera for his 16th birthday, a competitive ice skater chronicles the world around him while struggling through adolescence and questioning his sexual identity. | | | Product Details: | | | Actors:
| Ariane Ascaride, Jimmy Tavares, Jonathan Zaccaï, Hélène Surgère, Lucas Bonnifait | | Director:
| Jacques Martineau | | Format:
| Color, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC | | Language:
| French | | Subtitle:
| English | | Number of Discs:
| 1 | | Studio:
| Fox Lorber | | Run Time:
| 102 minutes | | DVD Release Date:
| December 09, 2003 | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 17 reviews |
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| $14.83 | New | | | $14.84 | New | | | $14.85 | New | | | $15.02 | New | | | $15.49 | New | | | $16.71 | New | | | $16.95 This item is eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. | New | | | $17.82 This item is eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. | New | | | $24.68 | New | | | $24.95 | New | | | $24.97 | New | | | $29.95 | New | | | $32.59 | New | |
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| $2.75 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $2.82 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $2.88 | Used
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- Mint | | | $6.87 | Used
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1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
This Little Film Grows On YouDec 18, 2007
Etienne (Jimmy Tavares) at sixteen gets a digital camera and goes about filming everything and everyone he sees. As the film begins and the camera jumps around, I thought, "Not another lackluster" French coming-out story." The movie gets a lot better-- as we are to believe that Etienne gains more skill in the use of the camera, particularly when he discovers that it has a remote-- and is well worth watching.
Etienne, a figure skater, shoots his mother, his grandmother, his friend Ludovic, whom he has a secret crush on, and his geography teacher Laurent, whom he also lusts after, and who eventually hooks up with Etienne's mother. As the movie unfolds, we see where it is going. Etienne's longing, as he photographs firemen, construction workers and other anonymous men from a distance, is palpable.
There is some beautiful camera work here, a bit of humor-- Etienne has his mother blow out her birthday candles three times before he gets the footage he wants-- and an understated ending that is worth the wait.
1 of 2 found the following review helpful:
UnusualDec 02, 2007
Ma vraie vie a Rouen (My Life on Ice) is an interesting and unusual coming of age movie. All coming of age movies follow a certain pattern with specific elements to it. The cute boys, usually buddies or best friends; maybe one of the boy has a crush on the other; the combination of gay and straight in the boys or both gay; the torture, confusion, and struggle for the gay boy to accept and for others to accept him. The disillusion of family members once the boy comes out. Movies like "Beautiful Thing", "Get Real", and "Summer Storm" are some of the better type of this genre. All actors, generally, are straight, usually, extremely handsome, some fitting the age of the characters, other a lot older. Most disappear from the screen after making the one movie (I do not know whether that is by choice or whether they have been labeled).
My Life on Ice possess some of those attributes. Etienne, played by French Champion Ice Skater Jimmy Tavares (no doubles for him, he performs all the ice skating scenes), is an extremely cute high school kid. Etienne lives with his mother (there is no mention of a real father but a step-father who died). His paternal grandmother gives him a video camera which she wins with a scratching ticket. And the plot begins.
From the moment the movie starts, we are watching it through the eyes of a camera. He starts filming his mother every move, next his buddy, then himself ice skating, trips. All of the filming is very much innocent. What a young boy will do with a new toy. Things start to change when he films his buddy close up, making him nervous. He becomes obsessed with a school geography teacher (who becomes his mother's boyfriend later in the movie and possibly a step-father, but the movie doesn't go that far), filming his every move, almost stalking him. You start to figure out that things are not what they seem to.
Filming gets real serious when he starts filming himself naked and totally undresses himself in front of his ice skating friend in the locker room. The obsessed attraction with an older man, filming his every move, tells what this kid's inner feelings are. He is constantly avoiding requests from his best friend to go out and meet girls or have sex with them. The film comes to an end by Etienne telling his best friend that he is gay in a very indirectly way, "can you love a boy?." Ludovic (his buddy), played by Lucas Bonnifait, simply gets up and leaves not wanting to hear any more (apparently they are at a ocean summer vacation resort, which keeps re-appearing throughout the movie with Etienne's mother and her boyfriend, and his grandmother). The movie ends with what looks like an attempt to suicide by jumping off a cliff (which he has an obsession whenever he is in this area throughout the movie)while taping with his camera. A total stranger passes by and realizes what is going out. Conveniently he is gay, older, and has sex with Etienne (finally loosing his virginity as he promised to his buddy at the beginning of the movie). Another reviewer stated that it was a rather superficial ending. True, but the radiant smile of Etienne's face tells it all.
My Life on Ice story is a smart story. All other movies use traditional methods to tell the plot. This movie uses a video camera, and through this camera, the personality of a troubled gay kid surfaces. In the movie people will conclude that Etienne is a strong healthy competitive boy, with his ice skating and championship, everybody will think that there is nothing wrong. But ice skating is just a cover up. The movie does have a happy end. But like other movies of this type we would like how the protagonist fairs afterwards.
 it was okJul 08, 2007
if you want to see a comeing of age movie of someone with a movie camera
0 of 2 found the following review helpful:
 good acting, but borringApr 08, 2007
good acting, but it did get borring 20 min into the movie, i had to force myself to keep watching.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
A young, deep, rich closet!Jul 28, 2006
The English title does not refer to narcotics, by the way. This film involves a young ice skater who is obsessive about using his video camera. If this didn't have a plot and plot development, one would almost think it was non-fictional. The disjointed cuts and extraneous sights make the work complex, almost in the style of James Joyce's or Gertrude Stein's writings. However, I do imagine that most American viewers, even non-homophobic ones, will hate this work due to its unconventional (cheap?) style.
A Freudian could have a field day on this because there is so much scopophilia, exhibitionism, narcissism, and voyeurism. This work will make you think deeply about the power of who is behind the camera and the pleasure or annoyance of those who are in front of it. It'll make you think about how much boys, even grown ones, love their toys.
This is one of those rare movies that gets better as it ends, especially given that the cool male nudity and posing comes last. The ending was unexpected which reminded me of another French film "Romance."
In the United States, studies have shown that the media overly focuses upon New York and California. In France, that happens with Paris. However, this film is shot in Rouen, as the French title states. One gets to see the medieval, and possibly pre-Christian, architecture enhancing the scenes.
If you didn't know this was a "gay-themed" film, the viewer at first might not notice the masked homoeroticism. Bart Simpson and Milhouse Van Houten, straight-identified characters, have blocked each other from having girlfriends before. Some may call this "c*ckbl*ck*ng." However, the viewer begins to realize, "Wwaaiitt a minute! There sure is a lot of focus on men and male bodies. The only females around are his relatives. Here's a teenaged boy with absolutely no interest in girls." When I read "The Corporate Closet," I feared how straights could learn of the ways gays closet themselves. This film is a de-masking tool as well. By constantly asking about his male friend's love life and supporting it, the gay main character is able to avoid suspicion about his own sexuality and fit comfortably around heterosexuals. This is a vicarious love that those in the know could use against those in hiding.
An Anglophone coined the phrase "the love that dare not speak its name." But this must happen with Francophones too. No one ever says the G-word (in France, it would be the H-word.) Though his mother suggests that her son could benefit from a team sport like hockey, no one ever accuses figure skating of being a gender-atypical activity for a young male. Still, the tacit choices and eroticism in the film is exactly what numerous closeted boys experience.
Though dull at times, this was a thoughtful, chin-pinching film. I wish more American works could be this nuanced and detailed.
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