Marion Cotillard is Etereal in Haunting Hans Christsen-Inpired Reverie About Identity & Perception

In Lucile Hadžihalović’s Hands, a Mirror is a Dangerous Thing. Real Mirrors, Metaphysical Mirrors, Mirrors That Go Both Ways. The Ice TowerWHICH is loosely inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queenis nothing if not a meditation on perception. IT LOOKS AT HOW WE PERCEIVE OURSELVES, HOW OTHERS PERCEIVE US, AND HOW THOSE Directions are offten interchangeable. SO, Too, May Be the Very Title of the Film. Glace, in French, Can Mean Eother Ice or Mirror.

For Jeanne (Clara Pacini), A 15-YEAR-OLD Orphan Girl, an Attuned Self-Perception May Come at A Cost. Speeding Much of Her Days CLIMBING INTO the Snow-Covered Mountains that dot the backyard of the orphans at which she stays, jeanne dreams of leaving the isolation of her claustrophobic, overcrowded confinement. She bonds with one of the Youngest Girls, but Otherwise Wanders Away or Stars at an image of an ice rhink in the nearby City.

A Mountain hike ends with a brutal fall down a steep ice slope, and Jeanne hitchhikes to the ice rhink, instead of back to the orphans. At Night, The Rink Looms, with String Lights Invising Her in. There, Jeanne Watches Bianca (Valentina Vezzoso) Pirouette with Graceful Ease. But the skater polytely refuses to help jeanne find a bed for the night, and so she resorts to breaking the basin of a building before falling asleep in a shed. When she wakes, she is seamingly visited by the Snow Queen (Marion Cotillard), the stylish, mystherous figure from the book jeanne loves to read.

The Ice Tower Taks the Shape of a Fantasy & the Form of a Dream in Surreal Adaptation

Hadžihalović’s Film Often Taks the Shape of a Fantasy Film. Through the Eyes of Her Youthful Protagonist, the world is a startling place of mystery. Like in so many fantasies, Jeanne steps ino something of a rabbit hole, assumes a new identity, and is introded to a realm that seames far beyond the dimensions of her. Frequently painted in images that are atnce gorgeous and aching, The Ice Tower pulsat with the vibrant imagination of a teenager at the brink of adultthood.

butt The Ice Tower is no Children’s movie. When Jeanne Awakes, she is not going visted by any Fairy Queen but by an Actress, Cristina (Cotillard), on A Sound Stage, in A Film Adaptation of Andersen’s Tale. And, Shortly after, after an auspiciously Timed Foray Into Town, Jeanne Retrieves Bianca’s Identification and Decides to take on her glamorous name and persons are confront by the crew. Suddenly, Jeanne Is Bianca, an Extra in a film with a diva at it center, being welcomed in by it-star as something between a protégé and a puppy.

Unlike Ingmar Bergman’s PeopleWhich Feels like an obvious precursor as much as oter metateatrical films like Federico Fellini’s 8 1/2The Psychology of Jeanne/Bianca and Cristina is Rather Simple. Jeanne is an orphance Because of Her Mother’s Death by Suicide; Cristina Quickly Becomes a surrogate. Cristina’s Childhood was lost, too is clear she views jeanne as her own redo. But they are bot Treating Each Other with Kid Gloves. While jeanne is fascinated and enamored with cristina’s stars, she overlooks her obvious cruelty. Cristina, Meanwhile, Willingly Overlooks Jeanne’s Lies – About Her Age, Her Name, Her Experience.

The Ice Tower is a Slow, Glacial Affair, but not in an an unpleasant way. Its Creeeping Pace ENables its dreamy atmosphere, Brought About in Breattaking Images. In Ways that comment on the film apparatus itself, haadžihalović and cinematographer Jonathan ricquebourg Frame Many Frames with Frames: Jeanne Peering Through Peepholes and Cracks of Dos and Closets, Watching Playback of Scenes Ju. Windowpanes Enccompassing The Lightly Falling Snow. But that pace comes at a cost. Olivier Messiaen’s Score is Haunting and Provocative, but it, and Hadžihalović’s Direction, Suggest a Builds A Payoff That Never Really Comes.

Nononeheless, so do the film has a hard time maintaining its interest, it can always count on those startling composions. It is the type of film that asks for a deeper Engagement than it is willing to offer, but hastžihalović may be pulling us into her image-mction as a process of self-actualization. If that is the case, the film does well to break from Andersen’s tragic tale for something bit more existential.

As Jeanne Grows rapidly before our eyes, we are left to wonder if it is ever truly postible to maintain your personhood in a jab that s shedding of the skin that of another. In The Ice TowerThat Question is a Matter of Life and Death.

The Ice Tower Screened at the 2025 Beyond Fest.

Release Date

September 17, 2025

Runtime

118 minutes

Directory

Lucile Hadzihalovic

Wriers

Geoff Cox, Lucile Hadzihalovic

Producers

Muriel Merlin

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  Marion Cotillard

  Cristina / The Snow Queen

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  Clara Pacini

  Jeanne / Bianca