''The Cold Room'' is a 1984
cable
Cable may refer to:
Mechanical
* Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof
* Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...
television film by
James Dearden
James Dearden (born 14 September 1949) is an English film director and screenwriter, the son of Scottish actress Melissa Stribling and English film director Basil Dearden. He directed nine films between 1977 and 2018. His film '' Pascali's Isl ...
.
Based on an eponymous 1978 science fiction novel by
Jeffrey Caine
Jeffrey Caine (born 1944) is a British screenwriter. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2005 for ''The Constant Gardener''.
He was educated at the University of Sussex and the University of Leeds
, motto ...
, the film stars
George Segal
George Segal Jr. (February 13, 1934 – March 23, 2021) was an American actor. He became popular in the 1960s and 1970s for playing both dramatic and comedic roles. After first rising to prominence with roles in acclaimed films such as ''Ship o ...
,
Amanda Pays
Amanda Pays (born 6 June 1959) is an English actress. She is known for her roles as Theora Jones in the film and television series ''Max Headroom'' and as Christina "Tina" McGee in ''The Flash'' and reprised her role in the 2014 series of the ...
(in her film debut),
Anthony Higgins,
Renée Soutendijk, and
Warren Clarke
Warren Clarke (born Alan James Clarke; 26 April 1947 – 12 November 2014) was an English actor. He appeared in many films after a significant role as Dim in Stanley Kubrick's ''A Clockwork Orange''. His television appearances included ''Dalzi ...
. The original
film score
A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to ...
is by
Michael Nyman
Michael Laurence Nyman, Order of the British Empire, CBE (born 23 March 1944) is an English composer, pianist, libretto, librettist, musicologist, and filmmaker. He is known for numerous film soundtrack, scores (many written during his length ...
. It was a production of
MCEG/
Sterling Entertainment
United American Video (or in short: UAV) Corporation, and more commonly known as UAV Home Video or UAV Entertainment was an American entertainment company founded in 1984 as a small local company originally located in Charlotte, North Carolina. ...
and released on VHS by Charter Entertainment.
Plot
Carla Martin (Amanda Pays) is leaving an English
parochial Parochial is an adjective which may refer to:
* Parishes, in religion
** Parish churches, also called parochial churches
* Parochial schools, primary or secondary schools affiliated to a religious organisation
* Parochialism
Parochialism is the ...
boarding school
A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exten ...
for the summer to live with her estranged father at an inn in
East Berlin
East Berlin was the ''de facto'' capital city of East Germany from 1949 to 1990. Formally, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet sector of Berlin, established in 1945. The American, British, and French sectors were known as ...
. The headmistress (
Ursula Howells
Ursula Howells (17 September 1922 – 16 October 2005) was an English actress whose elegant presence kept her much in demand for roles in film and television.
Life and career
Howells was born in London, the daughter of composer Herbert Howells, ...
), a
nun
A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...
, gives her a 1936 guide to Berlin, telling Carla that she may find it useful, even though Berlin has surely changed as much as she has. Her best friend, Sophie (Lucy Hornack), gives her a bag of
marijuana
Cannabis, also known as marijuana among other names, is a psychoactive drug from the cannabis plant. Native to Central or South Asia, the cannabis plant has been used as a drug for both recreational and entheogenic purposes and in various tra ...
.
Hugh Martin (George Segal), her father, who lives on
Central Park West
Eighth Avenue is a major north–south avenue on the west side of Manhattan in New York City, carrying northbound traffic below 59th Street. It is one of the original avenues of the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 to run the length of Manhattan, ...
, greets her at the Berlin Airport, surprised at how grown she looks. Carla is a bit embarrassed that he has given her a
teddy bear
A teddy bear is a stuffed toy in the form of a bear. Developed apparently simultaneously by toymakers Morris Michtom in the U.S. and Richard Steiff under his aunt Margarete Steiff's company in Germany in the early 20th century, the teddy bear, ...
, as she is nearly seventeen years old. She addresses him on a first name basis, and a
camera pan reveals that he just bought the teddy bear at the airport. As they cross through the
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall (german: Berliner Mauer, ) was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and East Germany (GDR). Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the government ...
, Carla is terrified that she will be personally searched and caught with drugs.
Hugh has a thirty-year-old girlfriend named Lili (Renée Soutendijk), who recommends Frau Hoffman's (
Elizabeth Spriggs
Elizabeth or Elisabeth may refer to:
People
* Elizabeth (given name), a female given name (including people with that name)
* Elizabeth (biblical figure), mother of John the Baptist
Ships
* HMS ''Elizabeth'', several ships
* ''Elisabeth'' (sch ...
) inn because of the local character being significant to Hugh's historical research. Carla is convinced that there are
rats behind the wall and wants to leave. Hugh has Frau Hoffman humor her and show her that there is merely a broom closet next door, though that room is not deep enough to convince her. Hugh insists it's probably just part of the next room.
Carla sees flashes of another girl in the
wardrobe
A wardrobe or armoire or almirah is a standing closet used for storing clothes. The earliest wardrobe was a chest, and it was not until some degree of luxury was attained in regal palaces and the castles of powerful nobles that separate accomm ...
mirror
A mirror or looking glass is an object that Reflection (physics), reflects an image. Light that bounces off a mirror will show an image of whatever is in front of it, when focused through the lens of the eye or a camera. Mirrors reverse the ...
, starts tapping the wall behind it and gets taps back, and tearing away at the
wallpaper
Wallpaper is a material used in interior decoration to decorate the interior walls of domestic and public buildings. It is usually sold in rolls and is applied onto a wall using wallpaper paste. Wallpapers can come plain as "lining paper" (so t ...
, she opens the wall to find a disused
cold room
The term refrigeration refers to the process of removing heat from an enclosed space or substance for the purpose of lowering the temperature.International Dictionary of Refrigeration, http://dictionary.iifiir.org/search.phpASHRAE Terminology, ht ...
, for the hotel was once a butcher's shop and home, and a
Jew
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...
ish
dissident
A dissident is a person who actively challenges an established Political system, political or Organized religion, religious system, doctrine, belief, policy, or institution. In a religious context, the word has been used since the 18th century, and ...
named Erich (Anthony Higgins) hiding inside. She begins sneaking him food from the hotel kitchen, along with utensils and her father's
razor
A razor is a bladed tool primarily used in the removal of body hair through the act of shaving. Kinds of razors include straight razors, safety razors, disposable razors, and electric razors.
While the razor has been in existence since before t ...
, to help him. Carla is experiencing two realities, one in the 1980s when she is Carla Martin and another in 1936, when she is Christa Bruckner. Christa is the daughter of butcher Wilhelm Bruckner (Warren Clarke), a member of the
Nazi Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...
who calls her a "little
slut
''Slut (archaic: slattern)'' is an English-language term for a person, usually a woman or girl, who is considered to have loose sexual morals or who is sexually promiscuous. It is usually used as an insult, sexual slur or offensive term of d ...
" and rapes her in the night. Christa also has lines of cuts in both of her
palm
Palm most commonly refers to:
* Palm of the hand, the central region of the front of the hand
* Palm plants, of family Arecaceae
**List of Arecaceae genera
* Several other plants known as "palm"
Palm or Palms may also refer to:
Music
* Palm (ba ...
s. Carla is ashamed by the rape and scrubs herself thoroughly in the bathtub.
Hugh is concerned that Carla may be going
insane
Insanity, madness, lunacy, and craziness are behaviors performed by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns. Insanity can be manifest as violations of societal norms, including a person or persons becoming a danger to themselves or to ...
like her mother did and finally makes good on his insistence at having her seen by a doctor (
George Pravda
George Pravda (19 June 19161 May 1985) was a Czechoslovak theatre, film and television actor.
Early life
He began his career in Czechoslovakia, where he was credited as Jiří Pravda, and then emigrated to the United Kingdom in 1956.
Career
H ...
). When the doctor comes, she has stripped the sheets on her bed for their dirtiness and is not wearing anything under the bed covers, so her father steps out for the examination. The doctor cannot find anything wrong, and when she tells him that her father raped her the night before and asks him to examine her, he sees only inflammation from the scrub brush and identifies her as ''
virgo intacta''—she was not raped.
Christa and Erich begin
lovemaking
Sexual intercourse (or coitus or copulation) is a sexual activity typically involving the insertion and thrusting of the penis into the vagina for sexual pleasure or reproduction.Sexual intercourse most commonly means penile–vaginal penetra ...
, as Christa fears she is pregnant
by her father and psychologically needs to have the possibility that any baby born is Erich's. She carves their names into a cross centered on the letter
I on the wall of the cold room. Soon after, Hugh finds her huddled in a nightgown inside the wardrobe, which is filled with rotten food. Hugh and Lili get her dressed and take her out of the hotel. As they are getting into the car, Herr Bruckner drags her back into the butcher shop and insists he needs her for deliveries. In reality, this is to give Frau Hoffman time to reveal Erich to the
Gestapo
The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe.
The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...
. When they return, Moltke (Clifford Rose), who had previously interrogated her about a visit to a Jewish man referred to her by Erich (something Carla was not able to accomplish in her own experience), is waiting in her bedroom. Erich shot one of Moltke's men, and Moltke killed him.
Hugh and Lili carry Carla back to the room with Frau Hoffman's assistance. When Carla regains consciousness, she begins accusing Frau Hoffman of having killed Erich. Not being able to tell Hugh from Herr Bruckner, she stabs him in the chest near the shoulder with a knife she has hidden. Coming to her senses, she and Lili ride with him in the ambulance.
Hugh now with his arm in a sling, the police are called to open the wall behind the wardrobe, which Carla had never actually opened. The planks Herr Bruckner had sealed it up with are removed, and Carla investigates it, filled with rats as she initially suspected, discovering the place where Christa and Erich's names are carved into the wall. Frau Hoffman is unable to hide her shame. Hugh takes Carla back to the airport to live with her aunt, with whom she lived prior to boarding school.
Soundtrack album
The original music for the film was performed by the Wembley Studio Chamber Orchestra and recorded at The Music Centre, CTS Studios, London.
Track listing
#Main Theme
#The Nightmare Begins
#The Closet
#Sorcerer
#Sounds of the Night
#Her Man Awaits
#Ghosts of the Past
#The Damned
#Thoughtful
#Spectral Moments
#Macabre Piano
#A Cold Spot
#Red Drum
#Chase
#The Nightmare Ends
#Main Theme – Reprise
Personnel
*Music composed, arranged, and produced by
Michael Nyman
Michael Laurence Nyman, Order of the British Empire, CBE (born 23 March 1944) is an English composer, pianist, libretto, librettist, musicologist, and filmmaker. He is known for numerous film soundtrack, scores (many written during his length ...
*Performed by the Wembley Studio Chamber Orchestra
*Recorded at The Music Centre, CTS Studios, London
*Recording Engineer: Pete Wandless
*Assistant: Keith Bourdice
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cold Room, The
1980s science fiction films
1984 films
1984 television films
1995 soundtrack albums
1980s mystery films
British mystery films
British science fiction films
Films about Nazi Germany
Films based on British novels
Films directed by James Dearden
Films set in 1936
Films set in Berlin
Films set in East Germany
1980s psychological horror films
Television soundtracks
Films about time travel
Films scored by Michael Nyman
Incest in film
Films about rape
1980s English-language films
1980s British films