{"id":4179,"date":"2025-10-10T12:26:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T12:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/globuscruise.com\/?p=4179"},"modified":"2025-10-14T11:23:50","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T11:23:50","slug":"movies-the-ice-tower-review-the-snow-queen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/globuscruise.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/10\/movies-the-ice-tower-review-the-snow-queen\/","title":{"rendered":"MOVIES: The Ice Tower – Review: The Snow Queen"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Ice Tower<\/i> is a bold, daring and ambitious film by Lucile Had\u017eihalilovi\u0107 that pushes the boundaries of film to new horizons in a homage to Powell & Pressburger\u2019s The Red Shoes<\/i> and Black Narcissus<\/i> that taps into idolisation of celebrity and obsession with the status that comes from it. The mirrors of 15 year old Jeanne and celebrity Snow Queen Cristina, played by Marion Cotillard in an adaption of the Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale; are similar from the off \u2013 Cristina takes Clara Pacini\u2019s Jeanne, now going as Bianca, under her wing \u2013 and the two\u2019s emotions flair in a study of character and control; and the myth of the Snow Queen \u2013 those closest to her are demanded a sacrifice.<\/p>\n

The drama is cold and unwelcoming and appropriately insane \u2013 Had\u017eihalilovi\u0107 has a unique touch that few directors can rival. Pacini is instantly established as a rising star \u2013 the next Cotillard feels like a lazy comparison given they\u2019re both in the same film; but the compulsive repetition with the ice queen that Bianca seeks out in looking to find her own; new mother \u2013 is fascinating \u2013 visual skills with a camera and practical sets really adding a degree of ice and cool winter air that make the whole film feel all the more unwelcoming. Is the film set in the \u201870s or just in a space that echoes that time period \u2013 it\u2019s a fact that\u2019s never made fully clear and the film operates outside of time and space; feeling appropriately genre-less. The mythic of Andersen\u2019s The Snow Queen<\/i> is given a dash of Christian Petzold-esque realism, leering and incestuous in equal measure: is the relationship between Cristina and Bianca one of mother\/daughter obsession or that of sexual desire? Had\u017eihalilovi\u0107 unlocks a rabbit hole of Freudian tendencies.<\/p>\n

Both Cristina\/The Snow Queen and Jeanne\/Bianca have different roles and their back and forth revolves around a mentorship that quickly escalates ala Black Narcissus as Jeanne starts upstaging extras on set and coming into her own as the next heir; the next Snow Queen. It\u2019s Cristina who makes the first move: they can be together or leave tomorrow and not look back \u2013 and from their power dynamic changes forever; inescapable lust and doom overriding The Ice Tower<\/i> as it hurtles towards its earth-shattering conclusion. Cristina holds all the power \u2013 one second inviting Jeanne to drinks and the next leaving several hours early and leaving her in the cold. But Jeanne in turn worries Cristina that she\u2019s looking at her eventual replacement \u2013 the Snow Queen demands a sacrifice from those closest to her; after all.<\/p>\n

Dreamlike and tense with a trance-inducing unforgiving experience that\u2019s best watched on a cold winters\u2019 night, Had\u017eihalilovi\u0107 pulls you under her spell and keeps you hooked, gazing on the Ice Tower and the kingdom of the Snow Queen as though it\u2019s imposible to escape from. Hypnotic and cold, calculated with understated performances \u2013 don\u2019t expect scenery-chewing here; everything Cristiana and Jeanne do is designed to match the other\u2019s energy \u2013 and the battle of wills between mentor and apprentice feels textually engrossing \u2013 Cotillard and Pacini both the victim of many a close up, and there are echoes of David Lynch and Powell & Pressburger at every turn; direct callbacks to The Red Shoes<\/i> and the surrealism at the heart of Mulholland Drive<\/i> is matched. Trailers bill this as Frozen<\/i> meets Lynch\u2019s magnum opus and they\u2019re not far wrong. A fever dream that feels utterly unique in a way that few other experiences have created. <\/p>\n

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The Ice Tower is a bold, daring and ambitious film by Lucile Had\u017eihalilovi\u0107 that pushes the boundaries of film to new horizons in a homage to Powell & Pressburger\u2019s The Red Shoes and Black Narcissus that taps into idolisation of celebrity and obsession with the status that comes from it. The mirrors of 15 year […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4181,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/globuscruise.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4179"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/globuscruise.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/globuscruise.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/globuscruise.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/globuscruise.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4179"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/globuscruise.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4182,"href":"http:\/\/globuscruise.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4179\/revisions\/4182"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/globuscruise.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/globuscruise.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/globuscruise.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/globuscruise.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}