Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s The Ice Tower is a meditative journey of two lost souls bonding over their own obsessions during the filming of The Snow Queen, where Marion Cotillard plays the titular Queen and Clara Pacini plays the innocent runaway enthralled by the actress portraying the character from her favorite bedtime story.

 

Taking place in the frozen tundra of France, young Jeane (Clara Pacini) abandons her foster home for the possibility of a better tomorrow. Rightfully suspicious of the world around her, she manages to hide herself away from the cold on the set of a film adaptation for The Snow Queen. From there, a worker on set shows pity to her and sets her up as an extra, who becomes extremely familiar and close to the lead actress - just as Christina (the lead) equally becomes attached to her. 

 

Pacini is phenomenal as the young, glossy eyed girl with a dream that she’s not entirely sure what it is yet beyond living within the confines of her childhood fairy tale. Cotillard is really alluring in her role as difficult and obviously troubled actress, Cristina with numerous of her roles (similar to Pacini) invoking distant stares and faded looks that reveal so much yet so little about their inner soul. 

 

On a personal level, I’ve never heard of nor read The Snow Queen so as far as connective tissue between the material I can not confirm. As a person unfamiliar with the source “fairy tale”, the film is a daunting experience that takes its time to really allow the audience to take in both sides of the situation. Cinematographer Jonathan Ricquebourg delivers a gorgeously shot feature, full of grim and grit yet also within its own fantastical containment. When Jeanne envelops herself in the set and becomes one with the fantastical world of The Snow Queen.   

 

Jeanne and Cristina’s relationship is immediately toxic, and their mutual obsession makes for an uncomfortable outcome for all involved. It’s easy to see how this film could be viewed in two entirely different manners: entranced by the spell that the performances, score and set have to offer or experience a dull narrative that hits peaks along the way, but ultimately fails to captivate enough beyond its visual allure. It’s truly up to the eye of the beholder if The Ice Tower will be a worthy take on a twisted fairy tale detached from the works of Grimm.