Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s The Ice Tower (which just screened at Fantastic Fest and will open theatrically October 2nd) is a dense coming of age tale that is impressive visually as it is narratively with its multi-layered approach. The film is the story of 15 year-old orphan Jeanne (Clara Pacini) who’s been obsessed with Hans Christian Andersen’s fairytale The Snow Queen since she was a young girl – seeing the antagonist as both a symbol of feminine independence and adulthood. One snowy night she runs away from the orphanage in an attempt to see a friend and while looking for shelter in the wee hours happens to break into the set of a theatrical production of The Snow Queen.
Here she catches the eye of the film’s troubled female star Cristina (Marion Cotillard). Nearing the twilight of her all too young career, and seeing something of herself in the young girl, the star takes the somewhat naive young woman under her wing. The film uses the character of the Snow Queen and its star’s life to dig into the duality of adulthood. While Jeanne falls in love with the character Cristina portrays, it’s through the actor and her struggle to craft this portrayal that enables the young girl to witness the complexness of life as an adult woman and it’s the many roles required. As the filming reaches completion Cristina’s sadness begins to seep through her character as the actor reaches a breaking point.
The first thing that really grabs you about this dark fairytale is the lush production design, captured immaculately by Jonathan Ricquebourg’s haunting eye. Keeping with the fairytale inspiration of the story, there’s a darkness to the real world of the Ice Tower. Yet while in the realm of Snow Queen we are allowed to bask in the light and its visual splendor or the surroundings. There’s a constant battle onscreen between the darkness and the light and what it represents to our protagonist, along with a third layer of reality vs fantasy using the layer of Cinema a yet another reality. There’s a moment where Jeanne is enraptured in the world of the Snow Queen attempts to walk into the distance, only to walk face to face with a background painting. The film uses this layered approach to illustrate how Jeanne even though she still has this ability to dream like a child, adulthood is knocking at the door and all around her.
The character design for this particular iteration of the Show Queen is gorgeously striking and pulls the audience in along with Jeanne. Brought to life by a commanding performance by Marion Cotillard. She manages to portray the character’s emotional inner turmoil without coming off as vulnerable or weak. There’s a pure calculated nature to everything she does onscreen and it’s a departure from the sort of portrayal we’re accustomed to in these sort of troubled woman archetypes. This is amplified by Clara Pacini’s Jeanne who tiptoes through the film like a wounded fawn, keeping the audience in lock step with her POV. We see this world of wonder come to life around her and it’s palpable, but we also experience her fear as well, since she begins to understand the dangers around her.
Part fantasy, part coming of age, The Ice Tower is a chilling and wondrous tale of one young woman’s ascent into adulthood. What we are witnessing is the foundational experiences that will forge Jeanne, and by the film’s end, I am almost scared of what she will become. Not just because she’s learned so much in such a little time, but because of her teacher’s point of view and the limits to which she is pushed. The Ice Tower is a profound and exquisitely stylistic take on the fairytale, with its multilayered deconstruction of what it means to become a woman. With its captivating and brooding Ice Queen the film forces you to see her through the eyes of our wide-eyed protagonist, experiencing this both with wonder and ultimately the grim reality.
