The Ice Tower (15) Film Review
Dir: Lucile Hadzihalilovic, France/Germany/Italy, 2025, 117 mins, in French with subtitles and English
Cast: Marion Cotillard, Clara Pacini
Review by Carol Allen
Taking on the stolen identity of one of the skaters at the nearby ice rink- another of her Ice world obsessions – Jeanne takes off into the snowy wastes of the mountains – impressively and scarily filmed.
Ending up in a nearby town, she finds shelter in what at first seems to be a deserted warehouse but turns out to be a film studio, where a movie starring diva film star Christina is being filmed. Jeanne, innocent though she is, contrives to find her way onto the set where she is recruited as an extra and where she is able to get close to the actress, who is the personification of her fantasies.
Cotillard as the Snow Queen is scarily, indeed icily, beautiful, cold, unapproachable. In her dressing room with the young girl who becomes her protégé, she is scary in a different, more predatory way. There are other characters in the story – the film’s director Dino (Gaspar Noé), Max (August Diehl), an old friend of Christina who is probably her drug pusher and Chloé (Lilas-Rose Gilberti Poisot),the young actress playing opposite Christina, who has hysterics after being attacked by a crow on the set and whom Jeanne replaces at the insistence of Christiana. But the narrative is dominated throughout by the intense, dark and manipulative relationship growing between the diva and her acolyte.
Director Lucile Hadzihalilovic has created a film of stunning and indeed chilling beauty, while both Cotillard and newcomer Pacini give first class performances. Admirers of Hadzihalilovic’s previous work have found much to praise in this film. It is however, like the diva herself, a somewhat icy and remote piece of cinema, which fascinates and even shocks but is not something which will appeal emotionally to everyone.
