• Latest
  • Trending
The Fishing Place Review

The Fishing Place Review: Moral Tension Beneath the Snow

Rumpelstiltskin Review

Rumpelstiltskin Review: Spinning Straw into… Something

Test Review

Test Review: When Moral Lines Blur On and Off the Pitch

The Black Forest Murders Review

The Black Forest Murders Review: Beyond Spectacle, Into the Grim Expanse

Hearts Around the Table: Josh’s Third Serving Review

Hearts Around the Table: Josh’s Third Serving Review: A Gentle Tale of Teachers and Teens

Amityville: Where the Echo Lives Review

Amityville: Where the Echo Lives Review – Charting Inner Turmoil in a Familiar Frame

Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Review

Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Review: A Song of Systems and Sorrows

Gannibal Season 2 Review

Gannibal Season 2 Review: Blood Legacy and Brutal Truths Unveiled

Stick Season 1 Review

Stick Season 1 Review: Owen Wilson Drives a Heartfelt, Flawed Dramedy

Henry Fonda For President Review

Henry Fonda For President Review: More Than a Man, A Mirror to America

825 Forest Road Review

825 Forest Road Review: Cognetti’s Ambitious, Uneven Haunting

Eric Larue Review

Eric Larue Review: No Easy Answers in This Unsparing Drama

The Heart Knows Review

The Heart Knows Review: Searching for Sincerity in a Tale of Two Worlds

  • Home
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Gazettely Review Guidelines
Sunday, June 1, 2025
GAZETTELY
  • Home
  • Movie and TV News
    Michael Cera Jackie Chan

    Michael Cera Says Jackie Chan Mistook Him for a Contest Winner

    Finn Bennett

    Finn Bennett Joins Targaryen Court in HBO’s Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

    Elio

    Pixar’s “Elio” Sets June 20 Liftoff With New Directors at the Controls

    The Return

    Malta Lines Up “The Return” and “Compulsion” for Mediterrane Film Festival

    Alan Alda Loretta Swit

    Alda Hails Swit’s Legacy After Emmy-Winning Star’s Death

    Doctor Odyssey

    Disney Faces Harassment Suit From Doctor Odyssey Crew

    paramount

    California Senate Probes Paramount’s $15 M Offer to Trump

    Valerie Mahaffey

    Emmy Winner Valerie Mahaffey Dies at 71, Publicist Confirms

    Terrifier-4

    Damien Leone Pledges Epic Backstory Reveal in Terrifier 4

  • Movie and TV Reviews
    Rumpelstiltskin Review

    Rumpelstiltskin Review: Spinning Straw into… Something

    Test Review

    Test Review: When Moral Lines Blur On and Off the Pitch

    The Black Forest Murders Review

    The Black Forest Murders Review: Beyond Spectacle, Into the Grim Expanse

    Hearts Around the Table: Josh’s Third Serving Review

    Hearts Around the Table: Josh’s Third Serving Review: A Gentle Tale of Teachers and Teens

    Amityville: Where the Echo Lives Review

    Amityville: Where the Echo Lives Review – Charting Inner Turmoil in a Familiar Frame

    Gannibal Season 2 Review

    Gannibal Season 2 Review: Blood Legacy and Brutal Truths Unveiled

    Stick Season 1 Review

    Stick Season 1 Review: Owen Wilson Drives a Heartfelt, Flawed Dramedy

    Henry Fonda For President Review

    Henry Fonda For President Review: More Than a Man, A Mirror to America

    825 Forest Road Review

    825 Forest Road Review: Cognetti’s Ambitious, Uneven Haunting

  • Game Reviews
    Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Review

    Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Review: A Song of Systems and Sorrows

    To a T Review

    To a T Review: Finding Perfection in an Imperfect Shape

    Spray Paint Simulator Review

    Spray Paint Simulator Review: Coating the Town, One Careful Layer at a Time

    F1 25 Review

    F1 25 Review: A Stunning Drive, If You Have the Right Rig

    Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo Review

    Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo Review: Whip-Smart Mechanics and Pixel Charm

    Elden Ring Nightreign Review

    Elden Ring Nightreign Review: Condensed Chaos for Tarnished Veterans

    Scar-Lead Salvation Review

    Scar-Lead Salvation Review: An Anime Perspective on a Rogue-like Path

    Fuga: Melodies of Steel 3 Review

    Fuga: Melodies of Steel 3 Review: The Taranis’s Final, Heartfelt Song

    Death end re;Quest Code Z Review

    Death end re;Quest Code Z Review: A Perilous Loop of Progress

  • The Bests
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Movie and TV News
    Michael Cera Jackie Chan

    Michael Cera Says Jackie Chan Mistook Him for a Contest Winner

    Finn Bennett

    Finn Bennett Joins Targaryen Court in HBO’s Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

    Elio

    Pixar’s “Elio” Sets June 20 Liftoff With New Directors at the Controls

    The Return

    Malta Lines Up “The Return” and “Compulsion” for Mediterrane Film Festival

    Alan Alda Loretta Swit

    Alda Hails Swit’s Legacy After Emmy-Winning Star’s Death

    Doctor Odyssey

    Disney Faces Harassment Suit From Doctor Odyssey Crew

    paramount

    California Senate Probes Paramount’s $15 M Offer to Trump

    Valerie Mahaffey

    Emmy Winner Valerie Mahaffey Dies at 71, Publicist Confirms

    Terrifier-4

    Damien Leone Pledges Epic Backstory Reveal in Terrifier 4

  • Movie and TV Reviews
    Rumpelstiltskin Review

    Rumpelstiltskin Review: Spinning Straw into… Something

    Test Review

    Test Review: When Moral Lines Blur On and Off the Pitch

    The Black Forest Murders Review

    The Black Forest Murders Review: Beyond Spectacle, Into the Grim Expanse

    Hearts Around the Table: Josh’s Third Serving Review

    Hearts Around the Table: Josh’s Third Serving Review: A Gentle Tale of Teachers and Teens

    Amityville: Where the Echo Lives Review

    Amityville: Where the Echo Lives Review – Charting Inner Turmoil in a Familiar Frame

    Gannibal Season 2 Review

    Gannibal Season 2 Review: Blood Legacy and Brutal Truths Unveiled

    Stick Season 1 Review

    Stick Season 1 Review: Owen Wilson Drives a Heartfelt, Flawed Dramedy

    Henry Fonda For President Review

    Henry Fonda For President Review: More Than a Man, A Mirror to America

    825 Forest Road Review

    825 Forest Road Review: Cognetti’s Ambitious, Uneven Haunting

  • Game Reviews
    Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Review

    Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Review: A Song of Systems and Sorrows

    To a T Review

    To a T Review: Finding Perfection in an Imperfect Shape

    Spray Paint Simulator Review

    Spray Paint Simulator Review: Coating the Town, One Careful Layer at a Time

    F1 25 Review

    F1 25 Review: A Stunning Drive, If You Have the Right Rig

    Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo Review

    Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo Review: Whip-Smart Mechanics and Pixel Charm

    Elden Ring Nightreign Review

    Elden Ring Nightreign Review: Condensed Chaos for Tarnished Veterans

    Scar-Lead Salvation Review

    Scar-Lead Salvation Review: An Anime Perspective on a Rogue-like Path

    Fuga: Melodies of Steel 3 Review

    Fuga: Melodies of Steel 3 Review: The Taranis’s Final, Heartfelt Song

    Death end re;Quest Code Z Review

    Death end re;Quest Code Z Review: A Perilous Loop of Progress

  • The Bests
No Result
View All Result
GAZETTELY
No Result
View All Result
The Fishing Place Review

Jazzy Review: Childhood Captured in Time

The Wish Swap Review: Trading Dreams for Love

Home Entertainment Movies

The Fishing Place Review: Moral Tension Beneath the Snow

Scott Clark by Scott Clark
1 month ago
in Entertainment, Movies, Reviews
Reading Time: 7 mins read
A A
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on PinterestShare on WhatsAppShare on Telegram

In a remote Norwegian village blanketed by snow, The Fishing Place unfolds as a study in quiet coercion. Anna, newly released from Nazi detention, arrives under the watchful eye of Officer Hansen. He tasks her with tending to—and reporting on—a Lutheran pastor whose sympathies he suspects lie with the resistance. Through this premise, the film opens its spy‑drama tableau without fanfare, inviting us into its sealed world.

Rob Tregenza returns after nearly four decades behind the camera for his fifth feature. As writer, director and cinematographer, he constructs each sequence as if it were a self‑contained essay in motion. Although this marks a shift from his contemporary setting in Gavagai, his fixation on extended crane and tracking shots remains. Those deliberate movements guide our attention, charting character interactions against stark landscapes and ornate interiors alike.

Rather than framing action as spectacle, Tregenza treats each long take as a narrative device. Conversations carry the heft of unspoken threats; gliding camera strokes underscore who holds power and who bears its weight. The film’s fusion of historical drama with a self‑aware climax hints at a deeper inquiry into storytelling itself. In this manner, The Fishing Place asks us to consider the gaze that records—and the moral cost of watching.

The Camera as Co‑Author: Aesthetic & Cinematography

Tregenza stakes his narrative claim with unbroken takes that unfold like breathing passages. The six‑minute household introduction doesn’t linger for spectacle—it charts every subtle glance and unspoken motive among Anna, Klaus and Hansen.

Later, a seven‑minute escape shot tracks Anna’s moral reckoning in real time, turning suspense into a spatial puzzle. The final 22‑minute sequence pulls back the curtain, revealing the rigging and crew. Here, the camera isn’t a passive recorder but an active presence, shaping our understanding of what lies within—and beyond—the frame.

Shot in an ultra‑widescreen ratio more than twice as wide as it is tall, the film contrasts sculptural fjords with claustrophobic interiors. In outdoor scenes, mountains and sea occupy equal narrative weight, suggesting that landscape carries its own judgments. Indoors, elongated rooms become stages for converging loyalties—Anna moving from one corner to another, her path circumscribed by furniture and portraits. Each composition feels deliberate, as if Tregenza measures character relationships by the negative space he leaves around them.

A winter palette of bleached whites and muted browns sets a quiet baseline. Moments of menace arrive in abrupt tonal shifts—a fishing trip bathed in bilious green, then scorched orange-red for an instant of violence. Natural light filters through frosted windows, lending a chilly realism to domestic scenes. When lamps glow in the drawing room, they cast long shadows that echo the characters’ inner divides. Light here isn’t decorative; it marks the thin line between exposure and concealment.

Absent musical cues, creaks of forest pines and rolling waves serve as off‑screen narrators. Dialogue is spare; each line feels freighted with consequence. Because edits are rare, silence deepens tension: we wait for footsteps, for a door to close, for an unseen threat to materialize. The result is a pacing that demands patience, yet rewards close attention—each ambient rustle becomes part of the story’s secret language.

Narrative Structure & Pacing

From its opening frame, a single six‑minute dolly shot serves as both welcome mat and warning sign. We glide through Klaus’s dining room, past Anna’s silent scrutiny and Hansen’s clipped orders, all without a single cut. That sequence functions like a miniature overture—each character’s position and posture foreshadows alliances and betrayals, and we learn more from what remains off‑camera than from spoken lines.

The Fishing Place Review

Once the stage is set, the story unfolds through discrete village encounters. A pastoral house visit here, a hushed whisper about the resistance there, even a tech‑minded engineer dropping “heavy water” as casually as village gossip. A crossfade between Anna and Hansen frays their power dynamic—she drifts in with uncertainty, he coalesces into sharper menace. These stroll‑through scenes feel episodic, yet they lock together in a chain of ever‑tightening tension.

With just under half the runtime left, the film veers into meta territory. The camera peels back to reveal its own crane arm, operators and all, as if to say: “Remember, this is a construction.” It’s an abrupt pivot from clandestine drama to workshop diary. That leap out of narrative disguise reframes our earlier trust in the lens, asking us to rethink every tracked step we’ve followed.

Tregenza alternates measured calm with sudden jolts of suspense. Long, contemplative takes let atmosphere settle like snow; gestures and glances gain weight. Then a burst of violence or a tense exchange snaps us awake. By letting thriller conventions simmer rather than boil, the film demonstrates that stillness can be as electric as gunfire.

Anchors of Emotion: Character & Performance

Anna’s presence is quiet yet unwavering. Petersen uses minimal dialogue to full effect—each pause and downward glance revealing the weight of her predicament. In scenes where she serves Klaus’s family, her measured movements betray a simmering resolve. That tight control of posture and expression turns Anna into a living cipher: you sense her loyalty shifting even when her face remains still.

The Fishing Place Review

Hansen wears the uniform with buttoned‑up courtesy, his manners more chilling than any shout. Winther’s crisp enunciation gives his speeches an unsettling clarity—every sentence stretches out, a reminder that language itself can be weaponized. When he smiles, you feel the potential for sudden violence lurking beneath. It’s a performance of ice‑cold discipline, one that underscores how totalitarian power thrives on rigid formality.

Lust brings a subdued warmth to the pastor’s crisis of faith. His clipped replies and tight jaw convey a man wrestling with doubt, yet those same concise turns of phrase hint at compassion. In his visits to villagers—comforting a dying actress or listening to reluctant confessions—he becomes a barometer of communal anxiety. The contrast between his calm voice and the landscape’s foreboding hush sharpens every moment he steps into frame.

Klaus and Margit embody the film’s domestic tension: his industrial ambitions clash with her moral unease, especially when heavy‑water talk breaks the surface like a hidden current. Resistance operatives appear in furtive glances and coded exchanges, their fleeting cameos reminding us how easily trust unravels. A young engineer’s offhand mention of “heavy water” lingers as prophecy, linking personal dramas to the broader shadow of technological fallout. Together, these performances weave a network of loyalties and betrayals that hold the story’s moral stakes in constant motion.

Patterns of Conflict and Reflection

Tregenza frames Anna’s coerced duty and the quiet defiance of villagers as moral chess. Anna’s forced allegiance to Officer Hansen and her covert sympathy for Pastor Adam create a landscape of “contradictory vows.” Rather than clear heroes and villains, we see lives squeezed between survival and conscience—an approach that recalls recent portrayals of gray‑zone loyalties in prestige television espionage dramas.

The Fishing Place Review

The camera itself feels like an occupying force. Characters enter frame almost on parade, their movements measured by an unseen authority. Off‑screen threats loom larger than any visible gun. This tactic echoes the creeping dread of series such as Mindhunter, where what you don’t see breeds deeper anxiety. Here, surveillance becomes a thematic muscle, flexed in every unbroken take.

Telemark’s fjords and ancient pines register more than scenery—they judge. Wide shots lodge characters against vast, silent terrain, suggesting that history presses in from all sides. When the camera tilts upward to crown the trees, their stoic presence feels complicit in witnessed atrocities. It’s a reminder that setting can function as a silent chorus, observing betrayal as keenly as any living character.

A seemingly casual line about “heavy water” tiptoes into nuclear‑age portent. This subplot ties personal dramas to epochal shifts, much as Homeland once threaded domestic scenes through global terror fears. The tension between pastoral quiet and industrial ambition underlines how scientific breakthroughs can yield both liberation and destruction.

The final reveal of the crane and crew ruptures narrative confidence. In that 22‑minute self‑exposure, Tregenza borrows from Brechtian theater to reframe every prior moment as constructed artifice. It’s a bold reminder that stories shape our view of history—and that questioning the storyteller’s gaze can be as vital as the tale itself.

Mapping Telemark’s Pulse

Telemark’s wartime resonance underlies every shot. This is the land where heavy‑water plants once stood—and where Vidkun Quisling hailed from—so the film’s choice of setting feels loaded rather than decorative. Rural roads and isolated homesteads withstand the weight of strategic occupation, reminding us that history often unfolds in quiet corners far from grand battlefields.

The Fishing Place Review

Winter’s grip turns landscape into a character of its own. Snow drapes trees and rooftops in monochrome silence; boats slip through tendrils of sea fog as if guided by memories. That biting cold becomes a constant reminder of danger, each exhaled breath marking both vulnerability and resolve.

Indoors, Tregenza contrasts spaces to mirror shifting loyalties. In Klaus’s art‑filled salon, polished surfaces and family portraits stage civility under strain. The village church’s bare pews and candlelight speak of faith tested by politics. Cramped living quarters, where whispers hover just beyond earshot, underscore how private lives fracture under surveillance.

Sound design stitches setting to story. Wind‑rustled pines tap out uneasy rhythms while distant church bells register time slipping under occupation. The creak of floorboards signals every step toward moral choice—sometimes louder than any gunshot. Here, atmosphere isn’t background; it edits the narrative, shaping our sense of what lies at stake.

Epilogue: Craft and Consequence

Tregenza’s formal daring serves the film’s ethical core: every unbroken take and purposeful camera glide turns technique into moral inquiry. Surveillance isn’t just a narrative tool—it becomes a question of complicity, inviting us to consider how the act of watching shapes our sense of right and wrong.

The Fishing Place Review

That tension extends beyond 1940s Norway. When Anna’s mission echoes through modern corridors of power, the film asks whether today’s data‑harvesting and algorithmic oversight mirror the same coercive impulses. The nod to “heavy water” feels less like period detail and more like a warning: technological progress can slip from promise into peril.

This work will resonate with cinephiles drawn to meditative pacing and investigations of form. Those who trace character arcs through camera movement will find each scene’s construction as compelling as the plot it carries. And while the abrupt self‑reflexive finale may unsettle viewers expecting a conventional thriller, it underscores that every story reveals as much about its maker as its subject.

More than a wartime drama, The Fishing Place stakes a claim in the lineage of filmmakers who probe history by scrutinizing their own craft—from Chris Marker’s essay films to Béla Tarr’s single‑take epics. It may not fill multiplexes, but it cements Rob Tregenza’s role as a filmmaker who frames the past to illuminate present concerns.

Full Credits

Director: Rob Tregenza

Writers: Rob Tregenza, Kirk Kjeldsen

Producers: Specific producer information is not listed in the available sources.

Cast: Ellen Dorrit Petersen (Anna), Andreas Lust (Priest), Frode Winther (Hansen), Eindride Eidsvold

The Review

The Fishing Place

8 Score

The Fishing Place transforms patient, gliding camerawork into a study of moral tension, where each unbroken take deepens our investment in Anna’s impossible mission. Its deliberate pace and startling self‑reflexive turn may challenge genre expectations, but they reward viewers willing to engage with cinema’s power to question authority and complicity.

PROS

  • Cinematography drives the story forward
  • Performances convey quiet moral conflict
  • Extended takes heighten immersion
  • Atmosphere builds sustained tension
  • Meta finale reframes earlier scenes

CONS

  • Deliberate pacing may feel slow
  • Middle section relies on episodic structure
  • Self‑reflexive shift can be disorienting
  • Supporting roles receive limited depth

Review Breakdown

  • Overall 0
Tags: DramaEindride EidsvoldFeaturedLena Barth-AarstadPeder HerlofsenRob TregenzaThe Fishing PlaceThe Fishing Place (2024)
Previous Post

Jazzy Review: Childhood Captured in Time

Next Post

The Wish Swap Review: Trading Dreams for Love

Try AI Movie Recommender

Gazettely AI Movie Recommender

This Week's Top Reads

  • The Librarians: The Next Chapter

    The Librarians: The Next Chapter Season 1 Review – Bridging Eras with Spellbinding Charm

    26 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Mountainhead Review: Deepfakes and Deep Trouble

    1 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Boglands Review: Shadows and Whispers in the Irish Mist

    1 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Death Valley Review: A Witty Welsh Wander into Cosy Crime

    1 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • The Better Sister Season 1 Review: Not Quite a Killer Thriller

    8 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Nine Puzzles Season 1 Review: Puzzle Pieces, Pain, and Police Procedurals

    1 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • I Only Rest in the Storm Review: When Documentary Meets Fiction

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

Must Read Articles

Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Review
Reviews Games

Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Review: A Song of Systems and Sorrows

15 hours ago
Stick Season 1 Review
TV Shows

Stick Season 1 Review: Owen Wilson Drives a Heartfelt, Flawed Dramedy

16 hours ago
Destination X Review
Entertainment

Destination X Review: A Game of Veiled Realities

2 days ago
Earnhardt Review
Entertainment

Earnhardt Review: The Anatomy of a NASCAR Titan

2 days ago
The Ritual Review
Entertainment

The Ritual Review: An Unsettled Echo in a Somber Chamber

3 days ago
Loading poll ...
Coming Soon
Who is the best director in the horror thriller genre?

Gazettely is your go-to destination for all things gaming, movies, and TV. With fresh reviews, trending articles, and editor picks, we help you stay informed and entertained.

© 2021-2024 All Rights Reserved for Gazettely

What’s Inside

  • Movie & TV Reviews
  • Game Reviews
  • Featured Articles
  • Latest News
  • Editorial Picks

Quick Links

  • Home
  • About US
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise with Us
  • Review Guidelines

Follow Us

Facebook X-twitter Youtube Instagram
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Movies
  • Entertainment News
  • Movie and TV Reviews
  • TV Shows
  • Game News
  • Game Reviews
  • Contact Us

© 2024 All Rights Reserved for Gazettely

Go to mobile version