The eco-film genre has long existed on a cocktail of shocking facts and apocalyptic predictions, and filmmaker Luc Jacquet explicitly shies away from this. Instead, he allows himself to be guided by a man whose discoveries have forever, irrefutably shaped our relation to climate change.
Jacquet’s latest film, “Ice and the Sky” (“la Glace et le Ciel”) traces the life of Claude Lorius, an 80-year-old climatologist, whose work provided early proof of the link between global warming and greenhouse gases. And wrapped up in Lorius’ story, are a set of deeper, profound reflections on mankind’s place within the environment.
Claude Lorius. Marc Perry/Wild Touch/Eskwad. All rights reserved.“Ice and Sky” is pierced through with a constant memory-scape. Lorius reads chapters of his life to us, describes what each chapter meant to him, and for the world: his first trip to the Antarctic; his return; each piece of the puzzle unfolding. And at the beginning, we are as lost as Lorius, voyaging through extreme conditions and unsure of what we will discover.
