PROGRAMMER’S PICK! A runaway teenage orphan takes refuge in the studio where the The Snow Queen is being filmed and falls under the spell of the movie and its mysterious star Cristina (Marion Cotillard). Written and directed by Lucile Hadzihalilovic.
This is a seductive hinterland of dark and projected desires, and mostly, of viewing from the darkness. -Irish Times
Like all of Hadžihalilović’s mature films, The Ice Tower prioritises meticulously composed, mystically charged images over exposition, conjuring the painterliness of great silent cinema. -The Arts Desk
There’s menace in this movie’s beautiful illusions, and Hadzihalilovic, who reveres silent cinema, presents some of her most trancelike scenes entirely without dialogue. -New York Times
Dusted with magic — and more than a little malevolence — this is one of those films you want sink into on a cold winter’s night. -Empire Magazine
Hadžihalilović’s feature deftly entraps its protagonist in childhood and then suddenly forces her into adulthood. -Spectrum Culture
as fragile and delicate as a snowflake, as disorientating and mysterious as adolescence, and as dark as a winter’s night. -Little White Lies
Lucile Hadžihalilović (Earwig) blurs the line between reality and dreams with such abandon and flexibility that, in theory, such a line barely exists. -Movie Maker
It can start to feel quite tedious, unless you allow your brain to engage with the movie on an almost subconscious level. That’s where the incredible attention paid to crafts kick in at last. -Variety
Marion Cotillard’s impressive performance as a glacial screen diva is matched by newcomer Clara Pacini in Hadžihalilović’s coolly calibrated vision of The Snow Queen. -Sight & Sound
It’s usually the negative space behind the façade that looms over all of Lucille Hadžihalilović’s films, keeping all the mysteries intact and bewitching us to come back time and time again to see her dark and hypnotic artistry. -Floating World
NR, 117min, French w/ English subtitles
