THE ICE TOWER - THE CAMBRIDGE FILM FESTIVAL
Maron Cottillard ast the Queen
‘Well I’m a big fan of ‘Frozen’, explained one burly young man on the way out of The Ice Tower, “And this was Frozen with a dark side”. He looked an unlikely member of the teen army that propels the Disney production to multi-million -pound merch and music driven global success, but he knocked it right on the head.
The award-winning two hour long laconic French version tested the later night screening cinema goers. So soporific was it, people fell quietly asleep only to wake to find we were only a few frames on in the story. Dialogue in this film could easily slot into a few sheets of script, so solemnly silently it progressed.
Jeanne, a tender and vulnerable Clara Pacini walks out of her foster home (this fact conveyed by a split second post card) into the snowy mountains in search of the mythical Queen. She hitches a lift to the Snow Queen studio, sleeps rough in the basement and emerges to pose as an extra. The filming has hit a gloomy, tense and worrying phase. Its star, the ageing actress Cristina (Marion Cotillard), has fallen out with her director and crew and regularly stalks out of the studio to her dressing room where her boyfriend/doctor administers drugs to pep her up, Bianca, as Jeanne has become, spies on Cristina, a woman just as mysterious as the Ice Queen she plays. And as dangerous.
The only sliver of hope lies back in Jeanne’s home where the little girl she comforts, awaits her return, with a promised gift – a stolen crystal. But even that moment is firmly muted with only the bauble left and no reunion. Bosnian born Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s version of the ancient story still retains symbolic beads and ornaments to represent Bianca’s pact with her idol, and although the Southern Tyrol of the set is massive and impressive, it has little of the ‘struggle aided by love’ at the heart of original.
The studio is silent, the crew and cast miserable. The set mingles fake with the grandeur of the natural world outside. But there is too much emphasis, for me, on the mask-like beauty of the Ice Queen and endless shots of her promenade towards the camera. Macabre drama is there, with the threat of a raven – blood and terrifying flapping. Dream is mixed wordlessly with reality.
Loaded with prizes this film thrives on the performance of its leading ladies, but allows them, especially Bianca/Jeanne no space to speak. That she conveys her anguish- and the Queen her malice with so few words is a wonder in itself But there is little celebration – or future – for the tormented evil Queen and only a hope that her young admirer-turned-adversary will come through. Chilled by the mise-en-scène and the misery and sadness in the friendless froideur of the characters, there is no hope Frozen-style optimism has a chance. A dark take indeed.
The Cambridge Film Festival continues at the Arts Picturehouse Regent Street Cambridge through Wednesday 5th November
