August 21, 2013 THE VILLADOM TIMES I, II, III & IV • Page 19 ‘The Ice Storm’ delves into seemingly happy lives by Dennis Seuling “The Ice Storm” (The Criterion Collec- tion), set in 1973 in the upper-middle-class town of New Canaan, Connecticut, depicts adulterous parents and rudderless teenag- ers. Commuter Ben Hood (Kevin Kline) has everything: a beautiful house, a seemingly happy marriage, two kids, and an affair with next-door neighbor Janey Carver (Sigour- ney Weaver). The picture-book community is permeated with late 1960s notions of free love and sexual revolution. “Key parties,” a form of wife swapping in which couples randomly pair off by drawing car keys from a bowl, are one way the New Canaanites revel in their “hipness.” Children also lead aimless, disenchanted lives, mirroring those of their parents. Tobey Maguire and Chris- tina Ricci play the Hood kids, and Elijah Wood is the Carvers’ son. All are excellent in difficult, emotionally charged roles. As Richard Nixon’s “I am not a crook” speech blares from the TV, the Hood and Carver families try to get through a Thanks- giving break simmering with unspoken resentment, sexual tension, and cultural confusion. Director Ang Lee begins with a lighthearted tone that changes along the way as viewers see the shallowness and desperation of people who, on the surface, are happy and carefree. Bonuses on the restored Blu-ray include Christina Ricci, Joan Allen, and Kevin Kline portray the Hoods, a suburban 1970s family, in ‘The Ice Storm.’ audio commentary with Lee; a documen- tary featuring interviews with actors, deleted scenes, and visual essays with the film’s cinematographer; and a booklet con- taining a critical essay. “The Awful Dr. Orlof” (Kino Lorber), generally acknowledged to be the first horror film produced in Spain, was written and directed by Jess Franco. Franco would go on to make a few films in the United States but never achieved wide commercial success. This 1962 movie has the look of a Gothic Hammer production of around the same time, but Franco incorporates morbid eroticism and sexual frankness, ingredi- ents that would become his trademark in subsequent pictures. Set in 1912, the film concerns the efforts of Dr. Orlof (Howard Vernon) who, with the help of his blind minion, Morpho (Ricardo Valle), lures beautiful women -- prostitutes, nightclub singers, and single women -- into the oper- ating room of his stone castle as sources of raw materials for a series of experimen- tal face grafts for his disfigured daughter, Melissa (Diana Lorys). Because Orlof’s experiments have not yet succeeded, he continues his gruesome murders. A sec- ondary plot involves a detective (Conrado San Martin), who is investigating the rash of disappearances of local women. Slow by contemporary standards, the movie is enhanced by a palpably sinis- ter atmosphere. The acting is pedestrian throughout and the production values shaky since it was shot in black-and-white on a minuscule budget. Franco has a cult follow- ing, but his movies always inspire debate. Some call them the work of an unsung genius. Others regard them as the work of an untalented hack. Special features on the Blu-ray release include a critical audio commentary, a 16- minute interview with Franco, a making- of documentary, a photo gallery, and an eight-minute homage to Franco featuring interviews with the director’s friends and collaborators. Also available on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber are the Franco films “Nightmares Come at Night” and “A Virgin among the Living Dead.” All three contain dubbed English soundtracks. (continued on Crossword page)