Chris Knipp
10-03-2025, 11:23 PM
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MARION COTILLARD IN THE ICE TOWER
LUCILE HADZIHALILOVIC: THE ICE TOWER (2025)
A haunting attraction in a frozen world
Hadzihalilovic is back and with a remarkable film that disproves my earlier remark that she is incapable of telling a story. Certainly this is more than anything a deep dive into haunting and beautiful atmosphere, but it's gpt a story to tell, which draws upon the 1844 Hans Christian Anderson tale of "The Snow Queen," a story of the struggle between good and evil. The newcomer Clara Pacini is the center of attention as an innocent foster child. Well, not so innocent: she runs away from her foster home and holds her own against a formidable Marion Cotillard as the snow, or ice, queen she seeks out. Cotillard plays the star, as Peter Debruge puts it in Variety, (https://variety.com/2025/film/reviews/the-ice-tower-review-marion-cotillard-la-tour-de-glace-1236309544/) " as an austere Marlene Dietrich-like diva." She's terrific at it, though Debruge finds the film "curiously mind-numbing." Let's instead say haunting, and be glad that the filmmaker has turned to something more human than boys groomed to bear children and dentures installed in a girls's mouth by remote control.
It all takes place in a dark, beautiful world of coldness and impacted snow to which Jeanne has escaped from her foster home high in the alps. It turns out to be a movie set, though the filmmaker likes to play with our sense of reality. Jeanne (Pacini), who calls herself something else, wanders onto the set where they're shooting "The Snow Queen" for a place to sleep, and then is invited to become one of the extras and thus meets the beautiful star, Cristina Van Der Berg, the Snow Queen (Cotillard), whom she longs to become close to and be possessed by. And she does eventually arrive very close, and almost get swallowed by, her chilly, glittering idol, and then must escape.
From a magazine article Jeanne learns that she and Cristina have much in common: that Cristina was once in a foster home herself, and escaped from it. She appears to have been under the protection in those early days of a male confident called Max (August Diehl), who still calls himself her friend and doctor - but his role surely is sinister, since his injections probably are maintaining her drug dependence. But Jeanne is awe-struck by the movie-making process. Debruge suggests it's a stand-in for the filmmaker when young, (while the person playing the director of The Snow Queen in the film is Hadzihalilovic's own husband, Gaspar Noé, so things do get rather personal.
This seemed more accessible and interesting than the director's previous work. Debruge as mentioned finds it partly mind-numbing but also hypnotic, and admits that eventually you're won over by "the incredible attention paid to crafts — the cinematography, sets, costumes and sound design," so that this film "becomes a sort of reverie in which we just might see ourselves reflected." He's right that Cotillard is incredibly cast against type as an ice queen; but this creates a strong tension. Newcomer Pacini is compelling. Altogether this seems Hadzihalilovic's best and most accessible film yet.
The ICe Tower/La Tour de glace 117 mins., premiered at the Berlinale Feb 16, 2025, also showing at Neuchatel, Istanbul, and Melbourne. Theatrical releases Sept. 17 in France and Oct. 3 in the US (IFC Center, NYC).
MARION COTILLARD IN THE ICE TOWER
LUCILE HADZIHALILOVIC: THE ICE TOWER (2025)
A haunting attraction in a frozen world
Hadzihalilovic is back and with a remarkable film that disproves my earlier remark that she is incapable of telling a story. Certainly this is more than anything a deep dive into haunting and beautiful atmosphere, but it's gpt a story to tell, which draws upon the 1844 Hans Christian Anderson tale of "The Snow Queen," a story of the struggle between good and evil. The newcomer Clara Pacini is the center of attention as an innocent foster child. Well, not so innocent: she runs away from her foster home and holds her own against a formidable Marion Cotillard as the snow, or ice, queen she seeks out. Cotillard plays the star, as Peter Debruge puts it in Variety, (https://variety.com/2025/film/reviews/the-ice-tower-review-marion-cotillard-la-tour-de-glace-1236309544/) " as an austere Marlene Dietrich-like diva." She's terrific at it, though Debruge finds the film "curiously mind-numbing." Let's instead say haunting, and be glad that the filmmaker has turned to something more human than boys groomed to bear children and dentures installed in a girls's mouth by remote control.
It all takes place in a dark, beautiful world of coldness and impacted snow to which Jeanne has escaped from her foster home high in the alps. It turns out to be a movie set, though the filmmaker likes to play with our sense of reality. Jeanne (Pacini), who calls herself something else, wanders onto the set where they're shooting "The Snow Queen" for a place to sleep, and then is invited to become one of the extras and thus meets the beautiful star, Cristina Van Der Berg, the Snow Queen (Cotillard), whom she longs to become close to and be possessed by. And she does eventually arrive very close, and almost get swallowed by, her chilly, glittering idol, and then must escape.
From a magazine article Jeanne learns that she and Cristina have much in common: that Cristina was once in a foster home herself, and escaped from it. She appears to have been under the protection in those early days of a male confident called Max (August Diehl), who still calls himself her friend and doctor - but his role surely is sinister, since his injections probably are maintaining her drug dependence. But Jeanne is awe-struck by the movie-making process. Debruge suggests it's a stand-in for the filmmaker when young, (while the person playing the director of The Snow Queen in the film is Hadzihalilovic's own husband, Gaspar Noé, so things do get rather personal.
This seemed more accessible and interesting than the director's previous work. Debruge as mentioned finds it partly mind-numbing but also hypnotic, and admits that eventually you're won over by "the incredible attention paid to crafts — the cinematography, sets, costumes and sound design," so that this film "becomes a sort of reverie in which we just might see ourselves reflected." He's right that Cotillard is incredibly cast against type as an ice queen; but this creates a strong tension. Newcomer Pacini is compelling. Altogether this seems Hadzihalilovic's best and most accessible film yet.
The ICe Tower/La Tour de glace 117 mins., premiered at the Berlinale Feb 16, 2025, also showing at Neuchatel, Istanbul, and Melbourne. Theatrical releases Sept. 17 in France and Oct. 3 in the US (IFC Center, NYC).