Recently, both in watching Julio Medem's (1998) "Lovers of the Arctic Circle" and Jacques Demy's (1964) "Umbrellas of Cherbourg," I asked myself if I would tolerate such contrivance and stylization in a Hollywood film. Perhaps the effort of reading subtitles while struggling with limited success to understand the Spanish and French keeps me from muttering "You've got to be kidding!" Not all European movies are as contrived as these two (or Melville's highly stylized "Le cercle rouge".). However, my tolerance for contrivance seems greater for subtitled movies. "Arty" is not an unfair label for "Lovers of the Arctic Circle." Every shot looks carefully planned and photographed by Kalo F. Berri. Many are striking, including the sun circling the Arctic horizon.

The adolescent lovers with palidromic names, Otto (Victor Hugo Oliveira) and Ana (Kristel Díaz), give off sparks when they are alone together. Other actors play Otto and Ana as children and as young adults—with less chemistry.

Otto and Ana believe that they were destined for each other, though mostly only one of them believes this at any particular moment between the time they are in adjacent boys' and girls' schools until they are adults in the Arctic circle. Their love-making seems natural, though in some (nonbiolobical) sense it is incestuous after Otto's father (Nancho Novo) marries Ana's mother (Maru Valdivielso) and the parents refer to the youngsters as "brother" and "sister."

The parents coming together seems contrived (and they don't give off sparks together) but that "coincidence" pales in comparison with the various connections to a Nazi paratrooper who was caught in a tree the day of the bombing of Guernica and relocated to Finland. (I won't get into the trivializing of Luftwaffe target practice in support of Franco as a romantic device...)

I'm not sure whether hanging from a tree in a parachute is intended as a metaphor for being in love. The six actors plays the roles of the two lovers repeatedly feel helpless at malicious fate and at their seemingly indifferent "soul mate" (as one or the other of them forgets that they were made for each other). Maybe all the near collisions with red busses, throwing the occupants of various cars forward is another metaphor for love. I guess that most of western literature consists of variations on the them "the course of love ne're runs smooth," but Medem orchestrates repetitions more than variations on more specific experiences and on the general theme of the difficulty of love, as the passion of Otto for Ana is out of synch with the passion of Ana for Otto. Except for the first wild days of sneaking into each other's rooms when their parents marry, there is a frustratingly evasive beloved and a frustrated would-be lover, though each experiences both conditions over the course of the movie. They circle in several senses...and get to the Arctic Circle (Lohja, Finland), though through most of the movie they are lovers in Madrid.

I was particularly impressed by singer Najwa Nimri as the adult Ana. She is not as beautiful as Juliette Binoche (who is?) but has a similar soulfulness in going about quixotic ventures. The very obtrusive musical score by Alberto Iglesias and the similarly obtrusive editing of Iván Aledo won Goya Awards (the "Spanish Oscars"), though Penelope Cruz (in "Girl of Your Dreams") beat Najwa Nimri for the best actress award.

The actors generally manage to rise above the heavy-handed foreshadowings, contrivances, and "arty" cutting. It is odd that so visual a movie relies so heavily on voice-over narration. Otto and Ana (the adult ones, I think) alternate in saying what they felt. I thought the stop-and-shift narration in "Run, Lola, Run" worked better, and "Barcelona" showed that I can respond more sympathetically to romances set in Spain. The images would have squeezed a fourth star from me in rating the movie if I had not been annoyed by the ending: it blocked off my susceptibility to romantic fantasy.


Recommended:
Yes