The Ice Rink

Just a second of your attention, please. Silence, please, I would like to give a message to all members of the crew. Your director wants you to stop kissing him on the cheek when you arrive. Do you hear, no more kissing the director when you arrive. No more kissing, do you hear?

The interpreter translates progressively into Lithuanian.

The players listen attentively, arms crossed, nod their heads.

The assistant (continuing)

No one, do you hear me, no one on the set is to kiss the director when they arrive in the morning.

The director (with a smile)

Apart from the actresses, of course...

The assistant (mechanically, into the microphone)

Apart from the actresses, of course.

Suddenly the manager of the rink enters the ice rink at the wheel of the surfacing machine.

He does two laps around the rink, triumphant, waving his hand.

Everyone looks at him.

He comes and stops his truck near the editing table.

A trailer is hitched to the surfacing machine, the editing table is loaded on top, and the cargo is escorted over the ice by the whole crew, who skate beside the convoy during the crossing.

30. INT. PROVISIONAL PRODUCTION AND DIRECTION OFFICES - DAY

In the production and direction offices there is a permanent animation, endless coming and going of assistants and crew members, one with part of the set, another with an ironing board.

The producer is on the telephone with an assistant to the director of the Venice festival.

In one corner of the room, immobile, a jockey waits seated in a chair. He has a black cap, a green and white blouse, boots and a crop, and waits there very patiently, slapping himself on the boots from time to time with his crop to give himself composure.

The producer, on the telephone, can not hear a thing because of the unbearable racket in the ice rink, where a tracking shot is being set up.

The producer (to the director)

I think they’re passing me the director of the Venice Festival.

She makes large gestures to the director, switches on the amplifier on the telephone.

On the screen of the videophone, a marine interlude, with a message in Italian: please wait, we are looking for your correspondant.

The image fades, squares off, and disappears; the head of an Italian secretary appears on the screen.

The secretary (on screen)

Pronto. Pronto. Mi capisce?

The producer (pushing a button to reply)

Si, si. La sento.

The secretary(on screen)

Purtroppo non posso passarle il dottore Corbara, il dottore è malato. Le passo il suo braccio destro, Gianluca Battista.

Marine interlude.

Then appears on the screen the little, eel-like head, wearing glasses, of an man who looks around, uncomfortable, as if he were on TV.

The director’s assistant (looking off camera)

Sono qui in linea? (Facing the camera) Pronto. (Pause.) Pronto.

The director watches the screen, then looks up at the ceiling.

The producer (pushing the button)

Mr. Battisti, I am very glad to be able to talk to you. (Almost shouting to cover the sound of the electric drills and jackhammers in the rink) May I speak French? So, you received our dossier, I imagine, concerning the movie we are producing for Films of Silence... Which is why I’m taking the liberty of calling you... (Screaming) Can you hear me? We would be very happy if our picture... whose working title is Dolores, you hear? (Screaming) Dolores ... could be screened in the official competition this year at the Venice Festival.

The assistant to the director, whose little attentive head we see on the tiny telephone screen, repeats the title two or three times with a dreamy air, Dolores, Dolores.

That's right, Dolores, it's a story about ice hockey, says the producer, encouraged. When the two teams are tied at the end of a hockey match, she explains, an overtime period called "sudden death" starts, which ends when a goal is scored. And that's precisely the situation in the film. The situation during "sudden death" is all the more critical and harrowing, full of perils and uncertainties, explains the producer consulting her notes and files, because no one knows exactly when it will end. And as in addition all of the action takes place on the very special terrain of the ice rink, she adds, this eminently slippery terrain where every loss of balance and every fall is to be feared, the metaphor is easily perceived... for the present situation in Germany, not to mention in Europe.

The assistant to the director

Naturalmente, signora, naturalmente...

Not to mention, adds the producer, that all of the actors who play the hockey players come from Lithuania, and so from the East, which is no accident, of course. Admittedly, the Lithuanians are the best hockey players in the world, and the least expensive, and it's true that I do have family in Lithuania...

The assistant to the director (interrupting her)

Si, va bene, signora. Sarei curioso di vedere questa cosa, Dolores...

Then, swiftly, precisely, professionally, he comes to the practical questions, to the registration form that has to be filled out and sent back to Rome within two weeks, to the copy of the film that must be subtitled in Italian. He explains to the producer that the director of the festival is ill, that he is a very old man, eighty-four, who can get around only with difficulty, and that it is highly unlikely that he will be able to make it to Paris next week as they had agreed to see the film.

The producer explains that in any event they haven't completely finished editing the film yet and that she can well wait until next month to show the film to the director of the festival. She adds, before saying good-bye, that she is at his disposal as to the time and the place of the screening.

The producer hangs up.

The producer (to the director)

It's in the bag.

31. INT. ICE RINK - DAY

In the ice rink, the grips are setting up a tracking shot.

To fix the tracks on the ice they use electric drills, attack the layer of ice, bore holes into the rink.

The electricians give them a hand.

Technicians drill into the ice over the whole length of the rink, either on their knees with electric drills, or standing with jackhammers.

The assistant has installed temporary red and white plastic barriers the whole length of the tracking shot to mark off the work site.

The Lithuanian players practice hockey half-heartedly on the other side of the barriers.

The actor and the actress come to have a look, ( the actor is wearing a black bathrobe and the actress is wearing white one, she wears a headband to protect her makeup.)

They walk slowly down the stands of the rink in bathrobes.

They carry drinks in one hand, chatting gaily.

On the edge of the ice, they hesitate.

The actor takes off a thong, risks one bare foot on the ice.

The actor

Brr, it’s cold. (He takes a few steps.) (To the actress) Come on.

The actress

It’s not too cold?

The actor

No, no, it’s fine. Come on.

The actress takes off her thongs and puts a foot on the ice.

The actress

Oh, it’s freezing.

She hurries over to join the actor on the ice, pretends to give him a friendly punch in the chest, hugs his shoulder.

They keep on going across the ice, barefoot, their drinks in hand.

Soon they crouch down beside a grip who, wearing a noiseproof helmet, kneels on the ground and bores into the ice with an electric drill.

The actor casually picks up a piece of ice from the surface.

The main actor

May I?

The grip (lifting his helmet)

Please, please.

The main actor

Thanks.

The main actor drops the ice in the actress’s glass.

The actress returns the favor, taking another piece of ice, much too big, that she tries to fit into the actor’s glass.

Unable to, she laughs.

The actor and the actress smile at one another, clink glasses.

32. INT. PROVISIONAL PRODUCTION AND DIRECTION OFFICES - DAY

The assistant rushes in, overwhelmed, several scripts in her hand, walkie-talkie to her ear.

The assistant (to the director)

We're ready...

She sees the jockey, stops an instant in front of him.

The assistant

What are you doing here?

The jockey

I'm here for the jockey casting.

The assistant

Hockey, hockey. Not jockey. The hockey casting.

She gives him a sign to scram, invites him to leave the premises a.s.a.p.

She sighs, raises her eyes to the ceiling.

She leaves with the director.

33. INT. ICE RINK - DAY

In the ice rink the tracking shot has been installed.

The grips have raised the dolly onto the tracks, roll it slowly over the whole length of the rink.

The lamps are turned on and off.

The cinematographer makes the last adjustments, moves a barn door, adds a flag.

The director arrives in the rink and gets onto the dolly to check the frame, lets himself be pushed from one end of the tracking shot to the other by the grips while looking through the camera.

He adjusts the height of the seat, stops in the middle of the rink.

The director

Let's go for a take.

The assistant (putting on a helmet)

On with your pads. On with your pads.

Everyone in place please!

The members of the crew start to put on their protection, pull on helmets, crouch down behind their shields.

The director takes a long slow panoramic look from left to right with the camera, sweeps over all of the terrain to the empty net...

The director (to the assistant)

Where's Sylvester?

34. INT. SURFACING MACHINE GARAGE - DAY

In the garage where the surfacing machine is parked, amid the buckets and mops, the actor and actress kiss in the corner of the room, opening their bathrobes and uniting their naked bodies under the terrycloth material.

35. INT. ICE RINK - DAY

On the rink, everybody is ready to shoot.

The hockey players are in position, theirs sticks in hand, they lean forward in the center of the ice.

The little referee waits, holding the puck.

Around the camera, the crew waits.

36. INT. PROVISIONAL PRODUCTION AND DIRECTION OFFICES -DAY

An assistant runs in the corridors of the rink, opening different doors, looking for the main actor. (in his walkie-talkie the assistant is heard: lead actor called for, lead actor called for ).

The assistant comes flying into the production offices, asks the secretaries if they haven’t seen the lead actor.

The secretaries haven’t seen him, shake their heads.

37. EXT. SURFACING MACHINE GARAGE - DAY

The assistant comes running up to the door of the garage.

He tries to open it, but can’t.

38. INT. GARAGE - SURFACING MACHINE -DAY

In the dark garage, the white and black bathrobes have been thrown negligently next to the empty glasses on the hood of the surfacing machine.

39. EXT. GARAGE - SURFACING MACHINE-DAY