The Ice Tower is an aesthetically outstanding film with both an engrossing and uneasy narrative that takes on, at times, a fairytale feel that at others crashes back to brutal reality and is highly recommended.
The Ice Tower is a superbly brooding mystic tale of a young girl falling into the clutches of a film star diva set in the dreamy, conjured world of the filming of a new adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s ‘The Snow Queen’. It won the Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution at the 2025 Berlin Film Festival for good reason, as at times it is visually stunning invoking feelings that it is made in a bell jar or shaken snow globe.
The film is set in the 1970s and the narrative centres on 15-year-old Jeanne (Clara Pacini) who is the oldest resident of a small orphanage in snow covered hills. Jeanne is also an enthusiastic reader of ‘The Snow Queen’ even reading it to a younger member of the orphanage when she can’t get to sleep.
Jeanne sneaks away from the orphanage through a dangerous route through the snow covered hills and falls over hitting her head on a protruding rock in the snow. With her head bleeding, she makes it into town after taking a ride from an unsavoury man who she runs away from. Having nowhere to go, she breaks into a building and finds a place to sleep. Upon waking she discovers the building is a film studio where a new version of ‘The Snow Queen’ is being filmed. Peering through the set she sees Cristina (Marion Cotillard) dressed as The Snow Queen acting in a scene from the film. Cristina also sees Jeanne. At night, Jeanne sneaks into Cristina’s plush dressing room and steals a large crystal from The Snow Queen’s costume.
The next day after Jeanne is mistaken for an extra in the film and she renames herself Bianca, after the skater she saw in the park, Cristina draws Jeanne/Bianca into her circle as others particularly Cristina’s “doctor” friend Max (August Diehl), warns Jeanne/Bianca.
The Ice Tower is not a retelling of ‘The Snow Queen’ but it does pick up its themes of isolation, loss of innocence, emotional detachment and female resilience. Director/co-writer (with the other co-writer, Geoff Cox) Lucile Hadžihalilović weaves an intriguing story where the vulnerable Jeanne seems to be at threat throughout in a world where dreams and real life merge into one then separate starkly. Hadžihalilović with cinematographer Jonathan Ricquebourg masterfully create, at times, an ethereal trancelike feel especially on the sets of the film within the film. Music supervisor, Elise Luguern’s, eerie soundtrack adds an extra level of suspense and eccentricity.
Clara Pacini (in her first feature film) is excellent, balancing the vulnerability of young Jeanne with her infatuation with Cristina. Marion Cotillard expertly portrays the complex damaged diva of Cristina.
The Ice Tower is an aesthetically outstanding film with both an engrossing and uneasy narrative that takes on, at times, a fairytale feel that at others crashes back to brutal reality and is highly recommended.
Reviewed by Rob McKinnon
Rating 5 out of 5
Distributor: Plainwater
